ABSTRACT
There is a substantial literature that focuses on similarities and differences between women and men in management. Across the board, findings generally show that women are under-represented in top management positions, even though women and men are more similar than they are different in their career patterns and in their management styles and behaviors. Coyle (1989) cites figures for 1988 that show that women occupy about 15 percent of all management or management-related positions (Hammond 1988). This represents a 5 percent increase over the 1970s. However, it is not clear whether there has been any real improvement in women's access to middle and upper management opportunities. There are indications that with the expansion of the service sector, we have had a considerable growth in junior management jobs because more and more women, as
new managers, have moved into management at this level (Powell 1988). Research by the late Linda Keller Brown, a social scientist who was
a pioneer in the study of women in management, revealed that in the generation since 1960 the proportion of women managers doubled, reaching 30 percent (Adler and Izraeli 1988; Brown 1988). This statistic is misleading, however, when the number of women in the work force is considered, coupled with the facts that less than one-third hold management positions and that this progress has been achieved over a thirty-year period. Obviously, Brown's assessment does not reflect real advancement. Instead, the increase of women managers has failed to keep pace with the rapid influx of women into the labor force (Maital 1989). For example, at the state and local level, the numbers of women employed from 1973 to 1980 increased by 320,000 (Moore and Mazey 1986). The number of women nationally in public administration almost doubled from 1.2 million in 1970 to 2.1 million in 1980. These figures represent a proportional increase from 34 percent of the public work force to 41 percent (Bremer and Howe 1988; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census 1980).
