GENDER, RACE AND STRESS AMONGST WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT

Authors

  • Gourie Suraj-Narayan School of Social Work and Community Development, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15270/46-2-176

Abstract

For decades a patriarchal system precluded women from having a legal or political identity, andthe legislation and attitudes supporting a patriarchal society provided the model for slavery. Bythe middle of the 20th century the emphasis had shifted from the oppression of women toestablishing social and economic equality in the work and family sphere, and the women’smovement that sprung up during the 1960s began to argue that women were oppressed bypatriarchal structures. Theories to explain how gender and racial inequalities in managementhave their roots in ideologies based on gender and racial differences, and feminist theoreticalconcepts of patriarchy challenge these inequalities. They do this by challenging concepts ofgender, race, the family and the unequal division of labour underpinned by a theory ofpatriarchy that has come to reveal how it operates to subordinate women and privilege men,often at women’s expense. Thus patriarchy operates to achieve and maintain the gender andracial inequalities essential for the subordination of women. Another factor that impedes femalemanagers’ access to top-level jobs is women’s own career strategies and ambivalent attitudetowards a “masculine type” career orientation characterised by competition over power. Thisambivalent attitude can be attributed to the tensions felt by female managers endeavouring tomaintain a balance between professional and family responsibility.

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Published

2014-06-17

How to Cite

Suraj-Narayan, G. (2014). GENDER, RACE AND STRESS AMONGST WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 46(2). https://doi.org/10.15270/46-2-176

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