Diversity: Women in the Boardroom

"In 1950 about one in three women participated in the labor force. By 1998, nearly three of every five women of working age were in the labor force" (Heatherfield, n.d., para. 4). In 2008, the U.S. Department of labor estimates that women will make up 48% of the workforce (Heatherfield, n.d., para. 6). As the number of women in the workforce rises so do the numbers of women who hold higher titles such as Chairman, CEO, Vice Chairman, President, Chief Operating Officer, Senior Vice President, and Executive Vice President. This number has increased from 7.3% in 2000 to 9.9% in 2002 (Diversity statistics, 2006).

For the most part, culture is the shared of basic expectations learned by a group as it find possible alternatives or ways to solve its problems. On the contrary, diversity as stated in the textbook, is the different values and cultures among members, and is more than simply an understanding of black versus white. For instance, culture could by identify through artifacts which include visible signs on the wall, how people display emotions, and the ways people address one another. Although, diversity are differences among people that could impact a work environment due to a social identity. For example, there is an increasing number of women and people of color in the workforce.

Women make up half of the United states population according to the US census bureau, however women have been historically underrepresented in the business environment (7. US census). If women could overcome the challenges that seem to affect them in business they could become an integral part of the future workforce as it grows in many women based industries. What challenges could be holding women back from their full potential in the business world? The first part of my research question to be addressed that would allow an adequate understanding of the subject would be to find the challenges that specifically women as a gender group may face in business, I believe this will help to understand what effects they have on the challenges that African American Women(AAW) face. Although women owned business have been steadily increasing rapidly in growth in the US economy there are certain challenges that specifically African American women have been found to have to face that may hinder them from reaching the same potential afforded their male counterparts. In a journal writing written by the international labor organization(ILO) they focused on these challenges that women business owners face and some of these specific questions were addressed. (8 I.L.O)

Our company has done great job in managing diversity so far. We rank in the 11th of the Diversity Incorporated Top 50, and rank the 8th of the Diversity Incorporated Top 10 companies, which has women in the executive committee. In our company, 29% employees in our company are minorities, we are concerned about diversity in work place, and we appreciate our employees’ opinions. We endeavor to provide equal pay and

Helen Norton, “the Director of Legal and Public Policy for the National Partnership for Women and Families,” says, “Less than 5% of senior managers in Fortune 1000 companies are women and minorities, according to the fact-finding report issued by the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission in 1995” (Leporini). It was stated that “women comprise 46% of the total workforce, and minorities comprise 21%” (Leporini). The commission pushed the “corporate affirmative action as a tool” (Leporini). This helped, “fully utilize a diverse labor force and maintain a competitive presence in the global economy”

“Marked: Women in the Workplace” by Deborah Tannen exclaims the continuous struggles women face throughout their social life and professional careers. Tannen catches herself at a work conference with an array of eight men and four women. Without realizing, she subconsciously began judging and analyzing the appearances of the women. This presents the conflict women face consistently, everyday and by everyone; themselves included. Tannen claims that the term “marked” refers to “the way language alters the base meaning of a word by adding something”. Women are marked because everything they do is critiqued, if a women enters a workplace dressed in tight and revealing clothing she will be marked as a women who wants to look attractive. However, if she enters the work environment dressed very casual with loose clothing, she will look like she is not trying enough. Additionally, women are marked by their association with men. If a women is married, she is a “Mrs.” while “Miss” symbolizes she is not. In a hypothetical, professional workplace such as a doctor’s office, there is a male nurse and a female doctor. In many cases people who visit the office will assume the contrary; the man is the doctor and the women is the nurse. This results because females are marked as supportive roles while males are given the lead role, whether it be true or not. Essentially, women aren’t marked whether or not they do something; they are marked for simply being a women.

Furthermore, the power of context is the things in the environment can change people’s behaviors. This will let them know what kinds of actions are properly doing at what time. Lofferda proposes that some higher level people in the society always do not have good behaviors and take advantages of gays, she states that “the Supreme Court upheld a Cincinnati ordinance that denied gays and lesbians legal protection from discrimination in housing, employment, and other public accommodations” (249). This quote shows that even in higher government, the gays cannot get the same treatment like the housing and employees as the other residents. The surroundings around them are really terrible. They cannot get really benefits and advantages from the society or the government.

Among "America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises" by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. (1999 — 2006)

Martin J. Kilduff. Kilduff and fellow researchers performed a test of these ideas which included managers from fourteen countries. The results of these tests revealed that the only background diversity variable to affect team performance was age. Ironically, accord to test results, the greater the age diversity among team members, the better the team performed. The test also discovered that only groups with age diversity demonstrated diverse thinking. From this study, researchers also observed that successful teams move in the direction of greater agreement among members while unsuccessful teams moved in the opposite direction. To some extent, teams that narrowed their range of possible strategies at the beginning tended to suffer a downward spiral time went on and as disagreements among team members increased. Teams that kept alive competing interpretations of ideas at the beginning were able to better move toward a consensus in the end (Kilduff, 2000).

In recent years there has been a drastic increase in the number of women entering and participating in the labor force (Hepburn & Simon, 2006). Since early history and the ancient civilization of man, women have played a secondary role, in which women were and still are viewed as less adequate than a man. A women’s traditional role in society is that of raising children, fulfilling duties around the house, and being the primary nurturer of the family. Many women in today’s society want and desire careers and a place in this Country. They want to stand on their own two feet, to become self sustaining individuals and to possess the feeling of independence and freedom. Issues that have and still plagued women in the workplace are many. Women

Best Foods Company is a multinational worldwide food company whose vision is “To be the Best International Food Company in the World.” (p.713) Best Foods set out to make some serious strides in diversifying their organization. However, there were three key diversity challenges facing them. First is that the company has very few women who have been on the career path that leads them to executive level position. This unfortunately was due to past practices. Best Foods top 150 senior managers were mostly made up of older males predominately white. At the time that Best Foods sought to change there was only one women and she was a general manager. With the lack of skill level and job experience one of the first

Managing diversity and equality effectively in the workplace is the core responsibility of any organization in the contemporary business world. Shen, Chanda, D’Netto and Monga (2009) conducted a survey whose results revealed the massive diversity within the British society in terms of ethnicity, nationality and religion. As a result, the Equality Act of 2010 was formulated and became law whose provisions focus on legal protection against discrimination based on gender re-assignment, marriage, civil partnership, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, pregnancy and maternity, sex and beliefs (Monks, 2007). Therefore, managing diversity in the workplace is critical towards the achievement of equality and discrimination free working environment. Bhatia (2008) observed that the ability to understand, accept, value, acknowledge and celebrate differences among people with respect to race, sexual orientation, religion, age, ethnicity and mental ability within an organization is crucial in eliminating discrimination. Discrimination refers to the tendency of denying equal treatment to people believed to be members of the same social group (Ozbilgin, 2009). In other words, discrimination in the work place is related to denial of equal treatment in terms of promotion, compensation, career development, training and empowerment. Therefore, managing diversity in the work place is crucial towards the achievement of a discrimination free working environment and the

In a world that has grown increasingly smaller due to mass media, world travel, and readily available information, the workplace has grown increasingly diverse in both gender and cultural aspects. Individuals no longer live and work within the confines of their geographic locations. At almost any position with any company the individual employee is a part of a larger world economy that harvests assets from the ends of the earth. Because of this, companies seek to capitalize on diversity to become more creative and flexible in their business models.

Diversity can be defined as the differences among the people working in the same workplace. Those differences can be related to gender, race, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, culture or personalities.

Course: HRMG 5000 Managing Human Resources Term: Summer, 2011 Paper #1: Women in Business Student: Daphne Westerlaken – van Westen Contact information: daphne.van.westen@fluor.com University: Webster University Leiden Instructor: Arthur De La Loza