1196. Developing New Role Relationships for Men and Women in Business

Paper

Abstract

It has taken over a decade of legislation from the Federal Government followed by thousands of E.E.O.C. discrimination suits and expensive settlements and relentless agitation by pro-women’s movement leaders to bring about the recent increase in the number of women in the management ranks of corporations. Like it or not, management faces a myriad of social and legal pressures to promote women. Over and above these pressures, some companies are starting to realize women are one of the largest untapped resources left today. For most women the challenge of management is still very new and exciting. They are eager and diligent workers because they sense they are the pioneers of their generation.
Most men, when faced with this fresh burst of enthusiasm and ambition are taken aback, shocked, resentful, and sometimes even fearful. How do they deal with this interloper who has suddenly been given the key to the executive washroom? Unfortunately, not very well. Many times it is strained, awkward, and embarrassing.
On the other hand, how should the female act as the first woman executive the company has ever had? She is definitely not a secretary anymore but she is not ‘one of the boys’ either. Suddenly her friends and female peers are beneath her and there is no other female at her level or above to look to as a role model. What difficulties does she encounter in her lonely struggle to be a super-manager or is it a super-woman?
Both problems can result in emotionally charged conflicts if the situation is not anticipated by the company. Males and females need consciousness raising training sessions to learn new role relationships and open new lines of communication with each other. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problems confronting both parties which lead to the breakdown of communication and how these problems can be dealt with effectively in training sessions.