ABSTRACT
Women managers are scarce. Research on women managers in the West has found that women face barriers in their progression up the corporate ladder. Empirical work on women managers in Singapore has pointed to the gender stereotyping of the managerial function (Lee and Tan, 1993a,b; Lee, 2005), the lack of a supportive legal framework (Lan and Lee, 1997), the lack of support networks from family and employers (Chew and Liao, 1999; Lee and Tan, 1993b) and women’s own inability to penetrate the ‘glass ceiling’ (Yuen, 1992). From a theoretical perspective, these challenges faced by women managers can be understood from a gender-organisationsystem perspective (Fagenson, 1990). In this more encompassing perspective, women’s limited progression up the corporate ladder is viewed as a function of their gender, the organisational context and the larger societal and institutional framework that they live in. We will examine what we know about women managers in Singapore using this perspective. In doing so we seek to provide an understanding of the issues surrounding women managers and how the different facets of this perspective can come together to better help women achieve equality at the workplace.
