ABSTRACT
The proportion of women managers in Hong Kong has been slowly but steadily increasing. The pay of women managers is very close to, although still below, that of their male counterparts. At the macro level, a ruthlessly competitive capitalistic economic system, a fairly educated population and anti sex discrimination laws seem to have contributed to the development of women's careers. However, Hong Kong is still a society with a fair amount of gender stereotyping. Roles in the private (home) and public (work) spheres are still gendered. Women, whether or not they are engaged in full-time paid employment, are expected to take care of the household. Married women managers who have children thus face a great deal of work—family conflict and stress. At the organizational level, there are very few workplaces in Hong Kong that practise women-and family-friendly policies. Women face barriers to the development of their careers such as discriminatory attitudes about the suitability of women as managers, pressure from tokenism because they are in the minority at senior level, old-boy networks that make it difficult for women to socialize at work, and elements of sexual harassment.
