Gender stereotyping and bullying in Australia: Experiences and strategies of female managers A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for admission for the Degree of Master of Business (Business & Law) Natalie McKenna Master of Business Administration (Exec), RMIT University Graduate School of Business and Law College of Business RMIT University 2 August 2017 Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. I acknowledge the support I have received for my research through the provision of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Natalie McKenna 3 August, 2017 Authority of Access This Thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. Natalie McKenna 3 August, 2017 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to all who inspired and assisted me throughout this project.
Special thanks to Professor Supriya Singh who guided me through this project and helped me develop as a qualitative researcher. Thanks to Dr John Douglas Thomson for your support and guidance. Dr Paul Gibson, you have been a generous mentor throughout my candidature and have taught me a lot about leadership. Thank you Dawn McKenna for inspiring my original topic and allowing me to talk to you endlessly about it.
Derek Smits, thank you for your support, encouragement, policing my grammar and championing the cause as a senior executive. To all my participants who shared their personal stories with me, thank you and I hope you continue to see success in your careers. Abstract There are many factors that contribute to the complexity of barriers that women face in their career advancement. Some female professionals face gender stereotyping and bullying in the workplace.
Stereotypes influence the unequal sharing between women and men of working time, income and family responsibilities. They also constitute barriers to women’s career advancement and appointment to decision-‐making positions. The focus of this study is on two of these factors: gender stereotyping and bullying. Gender stereotypes are the beliefs and attitudes that are presumed to distinguish between women and men (Rollero, Glick & Tartaglia, 2014), while bullying can be referred to as the repeated acts of an individual or group with the intention to harm an individual holding an inferior position of power (Goldsmid & Howie 2014).
While these two separate issues can occur independent of one another and in combination, gender based stereotyping and bullying both form critical barriers to female professionals. This study explores the experiences of gender stereotyping and bullying of thirteen senior managers in Australia (eight women and five men). It fills a gap in the literature by connecting women’s experiences to strategies to overcome the barriers and move ahead. The strategies women in this study used to attempt to address gender stereotyping and bullying were education, networking, mentoring and behaviours such as adopting masculine leadership and communication styles and using impression management tactics such as physical presentation and dress.
Keywords: Gender stereotypes, bullying, impression management, communication, gender.2 Scope of this study . Literature review: Gender stereotyping and bullying. Experiences and strategies .1 What are gender stereotypes and how are they influential? .2 How do gender stereotypes become barriers to career advancement? .3 What specific gender stereotypes form barriers to career advancement for women? .1 Women are not capable .2 Women do not understand key aspects of being managerial .3 Women’s communication is weak .4 Motherhood means lack of commitment .5 Women do not want to be CEOs .3 Career advancement strategies: Networking, finding a mentor and impression management .1 Networking and mentoring .3 Behaving like a man .1 My rationale for this study .3 Evolution of the research question .5 Interviews and data collection .1 How the NVivo themes changed . Experience of gender stereotyping and bullying .1 Reactions to gender stereotyping and bullying .2 Experiencing bullying and sexual harassment .3 Experiencing gender stereotypes .1 Women are perceived as not being capable .2 Women are perceived as not understanding key aspects of being managerial .3 Women’s communication is perceived as being weak .4 Motherhood is perceived as meaning a lack of commitment .5 Women are perceived as not wanting to be CEOs .
Strategies to overcome gender stereotyping and bullying .1 Networking and mentoring strategies .2 Impression management strategies .1 Impression management through education .2 Impression management through verbal and non-‐verbal communication .3 Impression management through physical presentation and dress .3 Behaving like a man strategies .1 Adopt a masculine leadership style .2 Communicate like men .1 Gender stereotyping experiences .3 Strategies implemented by women to overcome gender stereotyping and bullying .2 Contribution to the existing research .3 Implications for further research . 101 Appendix A: Interview guide . 127 Appendix B: Ethics Approval . Introduction Female professionals in this study have faced gender stereotyping and bullying in the workplace.
These have been prominent issues for each of the women in this study. Gender inequality in society and stereotypes of the innate qualities of men and women translate to gender inequality in the labour market. Stereotypes continue to influence behaviour, may shape women and men’s choices of studies and jobs, and can lead to a gender-‐segregated labour market. Furthermore, while bullying (Rollero, Glick & Tartaglia, 2014) and gender stereotyping (Goldsmid & Howie, 2014) are two separate issues, they can be compounded for women in the workplace.
Men are typically associated with critical thinking, self-‐confidence, being dominant, persistent, energetic and active. Women are stereotypically viewed as the opposite: that is, dependent, co-‐operative, obedient and weak (Blau et al. The gender stereotyping of women entering the workforce defines their identity in relation to family, while when men enter a workplace they are stripped of any familial or domestic identity (Wajcman 1998). Thus, gender roles which are performed in private life are often mirrored in the workplace where authority “is organized around family symbolism and power relations” (Wajcman, 1998 p.
Stereotypes influence the unequal sharing between women and men of working time, income and family responsibilities. They also constitute barriers to women’s career advancement and appointment to decision-‐making positions (European Commission, 2009). Over the past twenty years scholars, lawmakers and educators have given attention to bullying and aggressive behaviour in the workplace. Research in this area has focussed on 1 the key features of bullying behaviour that distinguish it from peer aggression and harassment.
Women experience multiple challenges when advancing up the career ladder. The women participants in this study have dealt with gender stereotyping and in some cases bullying throughout their career journey. Females are not reaching senior management positions in the same numbers as men. Despite the continuing low numbers of women in senior management and CEO positions, a handful of successful and powerful women, such as Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg and Vice President of Yahoo, Marissa Meyer, have been outspoken and sometimes controversial advocates in raising the profile of women in the workforce.
These women are given media attention because they are considered unusual. In Australia we have several advocates of gender equality, including Catherine Fox, author of 7 Myths about Women and Work, published in 2012, who is concerned with the notions that women do not want to work, and that women should act like men in the workplace. Fox asserts that, if talent can come from any part of the population, then those who succeed should represent a broad spectrum of backgrounds, ages, gender, and ethnicity, and asks whether motherhood can really be the only reason that the ASX200 have just 2.5% women chairs, 3% CEOs, 13.