Microsoft Word doctoral thesis final[1]. doc

3.3.2.3     Overcoming personal/psychological barriers  
 
Personal barriers are those which are intrinsic to the woman herself. They are 
psychological or attitudinal factors which inhibit the woman’s efforts to advance herself. 
 Suggested strategies include: 
•  training women to improve their self-image 
•  making women aware of promotion possibilities for which their competence 
levels qualify 
•  training women to resolve role conflict internally and to define life goals 
according to their own value system 

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•  training women to have high aspirations and motivating them to have confidence 
in their ability to succeed  
•  encouraging aspiring women leaders to have realistic career development plans; 
drive to achieve;  
•   developing an understanding of politics and a willingness to be an activist and to 
provide new ethical and moral leadership. 
 
3.3.2.4     Overcoming socio-economic and cultural barriers 
 
Socio-economic and cultural barriers are those traditionally held beliefs and norms about 
the role of a woman in society how it should be including the economic status of the 
woman in society. The degree to which traditional beliefs about woman’s role in society 
are held differs across cultures. 
 
Suggested strategies include: 
• 
providing  assertiveness training for women 
• 
providing  maternity and paternity leave 
• 
eradicating  all expressions of stereotypes or attitudes which create a hostile 
environment for the advancement of women 
• 
holding gender-sensitisation and gender consciousness-raising campaigns. 
 
3.3.2.5   Overcoming structural/systemic barriers  
 
Structural/systemic barriers refers to those obstacles inherent in the organisation which 
are related to policy and practice, institutional culture, working arrangements, networks, 
role models and mentors and so on. 
Suggested strategies include: 
• 
creating awareness among women of the barriers to productivity, the 
implications of certain choices and of the diverse paths to productivity  
• 
exposing and eliminating all barriers to research productivity which are beyond 
the control or choice of women 

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• 
acquainting women with the resources and networks necessary for publishing 
success 
• 
focusing on a special area of research  to attract collaboration from peers and 
ensure visibility and recognition of one’s work 
• 
formulating and adhering to clear formal policies for evaluation and promotion 
in which the criteria are explicitly stated 
• 
developing un-biased recruitment, selection and employment procedures 
• 
redefining qualifications to take into account non-traditionally acquired skills 
• 
placing more weight on  criteria which do not unfairly disadvantage women such 
as teaching and university service 
• 
expanding career opportunities for women by developing new career paths 
within the organisation that include lateral moves and different career tracks 
• 
providing equal access to information about funding sources for research and 
publication  
• 
establishing efficient and effective research centres which offer guidance and 
support to novice researchers, especially women 
• 
encouraging women to become members of professional development and 
information sharing networks 
• 
establishing mentoring programs where senior staff mentor junior ones 
• 
making opportunities available for women to improve their credentials, to attend 
conferences, present papers, publish, organise and participate in symposia  
• 
removing age restrictions. 
 
Before concluding this chapter on barriers, a critical perspective presented by Meyerson 
and Ely (2003) might be worth considering. In their attempt to provide an answer to the 
question of why there are so few women in leadership positions, Meyerson and Ely  
deconstruct the commonly cited strategies to overcoming the problem of women’s 
advancement to senior management/leadership positions, namely, changing the woman 
herself, removing structural barriers  and bringing about greater diversity and critical 
mass) . Instead they advocate a two-pronged approach which combines an expansion of 
the eradication of structural barriers that have excluded women and men “who have been 

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traditionally under-represented  in leadership and organisational roles” and “a shift in 
emphasis from simply adding  different perspectives to the traditional mix to using 
different perspectives to transform the traditional mix itself”(Meyerson & Ely  2003:136). 
Their belief is that a diversity of perspectives, including but not limited to those provided 
by women, become a potentially valuable resource that the organisation can use to re-
think and re-configure its primary tasks, including, leadership.