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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.
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