GENDER, RACE AND STRESS AMONGST WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT

Abstract

For decades a patriarchal system precluded women from having a legal or political identity, and
the legislation and attitudes supporting a patriarchal society provided the model for slavery. By
the middle of the 20th century the emphasis had shifted from the oppression of women to
establishing social and economic equality in the work and family sphere, and the women’s
movement that sprung up during the 1960s began to argue that women were oppressed by
patriarchal structures. Theories to explain how gender and racial inequalities in management
have their roots in ideologies based on gender and racial differences, and feminist theoretical
concepts of patriarchy challenge these inequalities. They do this by challenging concepts of
gender, race, the family and the unequal division of labour underpinned by a theory of
patriarchy 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 and
racial inequalities essential for the subordination of women. Another factor that impedes female
managers’ access to top-level jobs is women’s own career strategies and ambivalent attitude
towards a “masculine type” career orientation characterised by competition over power. This
ambivalent attitude can be attributed to the tensions felt by female managers endeavouring to
maintain a balance between professional and family responsibility.