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Women in Management Review
Women in international management: an international perspective on womens ways of leadership

Mary van der Boon
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Women in international
management: an
international
perspective on
women's ways of
leadership
Mary van der Boon
The author
Mary van der Boon is Managing Director at Global TMC
International Management Training and Consulting,
The Netherlands.
Keywords
Women, Gender, Management styles,
International business, Leadership
Abstract
A pervasive myth is that European women are not
capable of assuming managerial positions in Asia,
because of the ongoing exclusion of women from these
positions in Asian countries. In reality, European women
are often more effective than men as managers in Asia
because they frequently utilise intuitive and empathetic
skills that are highly valued in that region. Research
shows that women handle emotions and relationships
differently than men. Women's empathy and insight is
receiving boardroom attention as companies realize that
in an ever-globalising world these skills are indispensable.
Multinationals are incorporating elements of interpersonal
and intercultural expertise into their workforce, but may
be overlooking a key resource. Female managers have
reported the biggest barriers coming from within the
corporation, rather than from situations actually
encountered during foreign assignments. This case study
compares management styles and career strategies
utilised by women internationally, and analyses the
lessons to be learned from their relative failure or
achievements.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0964-9425.htm
Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . pp. 132-146
# MCB UP Limited . ISSN 0964-9425
DOI 10.1108/09649420310471091
Introduction
Two current issues are having considerable
impact on women's careers internationally:
the glass ceiling and glass borders. The term
``glass ceiling'' is used to describe all the
frustrations of working women at every level
who can see where they want to get to but
who find themselves blocked by an invisible
barrier (Mavin, 2000).
The attitudes of society generally, group or
individual prejudice, restrictive male-based
working practices, lack of the support
available to men through their old boy
network these and many more factors
conspire to build and strengthen the barriers
around and above women (Flanders, 1994).
Previous studies have shown that women's
admission into the ranks of European senior
management and academic life has been
much slower than in North America (see
Table I).
One of the reasons cited in Europe and
elsewhere for not promoting women to senior
board positions is their lack of international
experience, the ``glass borders'' issue. While
women account for only 14 per cent of
expatriate executives posted from the USA
(Catalyst, 2001) up from only 3 per cent a
few years ago (Adler, 1994) they account for
less than 5 per cent of those sent abroad from
European companies (extrapolated estimate,
Wirth, 2001).
One of the reasons frequently cited for not
selecting women for key international
positions in Southeast Asia is that these
women executives will be unacceptable to the
local workforce. This is sharply at variance
with the fact that women hold key
management and political positions
throughout most of Southeast Asia,
particularly in the Philippines, Malaysia,
Thailand and Singapore. Women in the
region are frequently perceived as being more
loyal and dependable, and are therefore in
considerable demand in senior corporate
positions in these countries.
Received: July 2002
Revised: September 2002
Accepted: October 2002
This paper was presented at the European
Southeast Asia Society (EUROSEAS) conference
in London, England, September 2001 as part of
the Management and Entrepreneurship in
Southeast Asia panel.
132
Women in international management

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
Table I Women in international management

USA
(per cent)
UK
(per cent)
EU
(per cent)
Japan
(per cent)
41
4
52
29
3
50
18
2
48
6
1
26
Per cent women (mid management)

Per cent women (top management)
Per cent women university students
Source: Rosener (1995)
This paper aims to illustrate the

inconsistencies in international management
policy that excludes women from the key
positions through which they would gain the
necessary experience to break through the
glass ceiling (the glass borders phenomenon),
and examines in particular the fallacy that
European women executives would be
unacceptable leaders in Southeast Asian
business, where many women already hold
key positions in the corporate and public
spheres. Women's styles of leadership play a
key role in these issues, and are discussed
here.
The glass ceiling

The International Labour Organization
(ILO) offers the following description of
obstacles to women's career development:
Cultural biases, gender stereotypes and attitudes
against women coupled with their not being
viewed as primary income-earners are major
obstacles for women's advancement.
Consequently, when a woman chooses not to
accept a high-level post, it is often assumed that
all women would choose the same. In addition,
higher performance standards are often expected
of women. Furthermore, the absence of clear job
descriptions for higher echelon jobs and the lack
of formal systems for recruitment, in some
instances, also tend to create obstacles.
Moreover, the existence of informal male
networks, sometimes referred to as `òld boys'
networks'', also tends to exclude women from
top jobs (ILO, 1997).
A complementary Australian survey

concluded the following:
In general, women's accomplishments are
attributed to luck and external factors, including
affirmative action, whereas men's are attributed
to skill and ability. The latter have higher worth
in the labour market. In addition, theories of
statistical discrimination hold that employers
expect lower productivity returns for
professional women than for equally-qualified
men due to probability estimates of turnover,
work commitment, and skills that encompass the
population at large. This thinking can lead to job
assignments for women that limit their skill and

knowledge gains (van der Boon, 2001a).
Cees van der Waaij RA, Chairman of the

Board of Unilever Netherlands, concluded in
his research on behalf of the Amassador's
Network to promote women in business in
The Netherlands that:
Men are promoted on the basis of potential, and
women on the basis of performance.
Davidson and Burke (1994) offer

explanations as to why the glass ceiling has
remained impenetrable and kept most women
from senior levels of organisations. These
include men and women's differences relying
on women lacking the appropriate attitudes,
behaviours, skills, education, etc. for
managerial and professional jobs and the bias,
discrimination and stereotyping of women as
managers. Another explanation emphasises
structural and systematic discrimination, as
revealed in organisational policies and
practices, which affect the treatment of
women and which limit their advancement.
These policies and practices include women's
lack of opportunity and power in
organisations, the existing sex ratio of groups,
tokenism, the lack of mentors and sponsors
and the denial of access to challenging
assignments. The lack of appropriate
organisational approaches to career
development and advancement for women
can be added to this explanation (Davidson
and Burke, 1994).
Over the past few decades, working women
appear to have made great strides in moving
beyond these stereotypes. However, although
women's work titles in more recent years may
have become enhanced, there is little doubt
men continue to dominate the workplace.
Unlike most women, many men are raised
within the competitive environment of sports,
and such conditioning gives them a decisive
edge in maintaining control within business
organizations.
Research undertaken in the USA has
concluded that some male managers will:
133

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon

.
give a woman a management job title, but

limit the amount of power she can
exercise;
give a female a managerial position, but
assign her responsibilities that underutilise her skills;
promote a highly outspoken and/or
overconfident woman whom they know
will fail;
expand a woman's job responsibilities
while not paying her as much as a man
would be paid for the same promotion;
tease or flirt with a female manager in
front of her subordinates to undermine
her authority;
assign a female fewer employees to
manage so her salary and status are not
quite on the same level as those of her
male managerial peers;
promote a woman into a higher-level
managerial position without providing
her with the experience and training
necessary to ensure an effective
performance; and
assign a female manager a larger
department consisting mostly of lowerlevel administrative or clerical employees,
which will undercut the female's stature
in the managerial hierarchy (Purvis,
2001).
Glass borders
Worldwide, women hold a very low
percentage of all international management
positions. This circumstance not only hinders
the business success of multinational firms
abroad but it also limits opportunities for
women to succeed at home. After all, a
multinational company would naturally prefer
that its most senior staff have abundant
overseas experience. Excluded from that
experience, women are excluded from
promotions and power (Wilen and Wilen,
2000).
The 50 senior women managers
interviewed by Linehan et al. (2001) believed
that corporate barriers still exist, and appear
to be strong in many European countries.
These managers, living in the UK, Ireland,
Belgium, and Germany, cited in particular
both recruitment and selection barriers and
the formal policies and informal processes of
organisations as factors which often prevent
many women from reaching senior
managerial positions. These women managers

also suggested that many jobs are still seen as
``men's'' or ``women's'' jobs and this
influences the initial intake of a particular
gender to organisations. The interviewees felt
that they are still judged on the male model of
career development with respect to selection
and promotion, and regarding the
appropriateness of their ``fit'' in organisations.
Significantly, all the interviewees believed
that, where senior management assumes that
married women do not want international
careers, it is unlikely that these organisations
will invest in the development of their women
managers and provide assignments with
power and opportunity. The study suggested
that because men hold most upper level
management positions, they do most hiring,
including sending individuals on overseas
assignments, and they may not be willing to
offer career advancement opportunities to
women subordinates.
The interviewees also believed that two
overt examples of being discriminated against
because of gender were salary scales and
educational qualifications. The participants
noted that they generally were on lower
salaries than their male counterparts even
though they were as experienced and as
skilled as their male counterparts (Linehan
et al., 2001).
This research paper and other recent
studies suggest that in Europe the
development of women in international
management deserves special attention
despite the current HR policy initiatives in the
USA directing attention away from equal
opportunity policy towards diversity
management (Wilson et al., 1996). It further
supports the argument that a growing interest
in the management of diversity in the very
different cultural context of Europe runs the
risk of devaluing the claim of special attention
for women's management development
(Woodall, 1996).
The research also highlights the multiple
reasons for the under-representation of
women in international management and
stresses the importance of fully understanding
the problem in advance of offering solutions.
The suggestion is that women will remain a
small minority in international management
until organisations fundamentally re-examine
and reassess their human resource
management policies and practices.
Organisations generally have not succeeded in
134

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
Women's ways of leadership
introducing training and development

strategies that effectively meet the needs of
women (Linehan et al., 2001).
Adler and Izraeli (1994) attribute the
shortage of women managers overseas to
three main factors:
(1) The assumption that women simply do
not want to be international managers
because of work/family conflicts.
(2) The outright refusal of some companies
to send women abroad, owing to fears
about their competence or their physical
safety.
(3) The belief that many foreigners are
prejudiced against women expatriate
managers.
Adler's survey of more than 1,000 graduating
MBAs reveals that female and male MBAs
are equally interested in pursuing
international careers. Another survey of
women expatriates concluded that more than
half of these international managers felt that
being female was more of an advantage
overseas than a disadvantage. Clearly, the
western corporate world is neither satisfying
women's expectations nor assessing their
overseas situations accurately. Companies
need to develop a new corporate attitude
toward sending women managers on
international assignments (Wilen and Wilen,
2000).
Adler and Dafna Izraeli report in their 1994
review of 21 countries on four continents that,
due to changing societal patterns, there have
been significant increases in women in
management in the world. The patterns they
cite include favourable economic conditions,
supportive government policies, changes in
family roles, and emerging support systems.
Despite these advances, these researchers also
found that in most countries men continue to
control the economic and political power and
to dominate in professional management
roles. Furthermore, they found that in all of
the counties they studied women faced
obstacles, which included:
.
stereotypical perception of women's
abilities and qualifications;
.
traditional attitudes toward women's
family roles;
.
women's minimal access to the social
networks from which companies recruit
managers and executives; and
.
broadly-based discrimination
against women.
As more women enter politics and senior

management, and the world shifts to a truly
global economy, new kinds of leadership are
required. Women's focus on relationships,
comfort with direct communication and
diversity, refusal to compartmentalise skills,
talents and lives, innate scepticism of
hierarchy and, most importantly, desire to
lead from the middle (not from the top) are all
key attributes required by tomorrow's leaders.
Today's lean organisations require high
morale, and increasing consumer choice
means a real understanding of customers'
needs is essential.
The talents, experiences, attitudes and skills
that women bring with them are precisely
those needed in the evolving post-industrial
economy, according to feminist author
Sally Helgesen. Helgesen feels that this
confluence of abilities and required leadership
capacities is creating unprecedented
opportunities for women to play a vital role in
leading transformational change in
organisations and communities. Women are
better at seeing the human side, quicker to cut
through competitive distinctions of hierarchy
and ranking, and impatient with cumbersome
protocols (Helgesen, 1990).
Among the top five women on the Fortune
2000 list of the 50 most powerful women in
business, four have husbands who do not work,
according to the magazine (Fortune, 2000).
Recent research, in fact, refutes the widely
held view that women are more democratic,
while men are more autocratic at work.
Women managers are more results-oriented
at work, while their male counterparts engage
in more business analysis and strategic
planning, according to a study that compared
the management styles of 900 female and 900
male managers by Management Research
Group, an HR consulting and assessment
firm in Portland, Maine (Kabacoff, 1999).
In a subsequent study undertaken by
Hagberg Consulting Group (1998) in
California of 425 high-level executives, female
managers were rated higher than their male
counterparts in 41 of 47 skills measured,
including leadership and problem solving
(Brokaw, 1999) (see Figure 1).
Similar analysis of 360-Degree feedback
given to an even larger group 58,000
managers found that women scored higher
than men in 20 of 23 management areas,
135

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
Figure 1 Measuring management differences
according to Personnel Decisions

International Corp., an HR and management
consulting firm in Minneapolis.
In another survey of 293 marketing
executives (144 men, 149 women) by a
marketing consulting and research firm in the
USA (Copernicus, 1998), 73 per cent of
respondents perceive men as making
decisions without input from others, while
only 20 per cent said the same of women.
Female executives, on the other hand, were
perceived to be more effective in building
consensus when making decisions (84 per
cent of women, 60 per cent of men) and more
thoughtful in their decision-making processes
(90 per cent of women versus 71 per cent of
men), carefully examining many options
before acting.
Even those attributes, however, could derail
women's chances for the top spots.
Leadership often is defined as being able to
wield influence, be persuasive and craft a
strategic view. The problem is that women
may not be pursuing jobs or experiences
where they can get access to managing and
contributing to the big picture that top
leadership demands (Wells, 2001).
In another independent survey conducted
by Management Today magazine, more than
70 per cent of the 1,000 people surveyed said
women use time more effectively than men,
and almost 45 per cent of men see female
managers as considerate (defining women as
`òpen minded team players''). In comparison,
45 per cent of women believed men's top
defining characteristic to be insensitivity

(Management Today, 2000) and other
studies identify less desirable male
management traits such as being a know-itall, losing sight of the truth, short-term
thinking (not focusing on long-term gains,
solutions and strategies), egocentric and
aggressive behaviour and the last, and most
damning of all, `àll style and no substance''.
In a flattened organization, when you must
get things done through people over whom
you have no formal authority, you need a
different kind of management style, and
women have it (Patterson, 1998).
Women and management in

Southeast Asia
Political and corporate leadership in Asia is
not just a male preserve (as is often the case in
Europe): several south and Southeast Asian
nations have woman leaders, and throughout
Southeast Asia women hold key corporate
rank and are significantly represented in the
workforce (see Table II).
A UN survey ranking women in
management and administrative positions
worldwide puts women in Thailand,
Singapore and the Philippines significantly
ahead of those in The Netherlands, France
and Germany (see Table III). Elsewhere in
Asia significant progress is being seen: 13 per
cent of Japanese companies have women
directors, compared to only 3 per cent of
136

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
Table II Women's work in selected Southeast Asian nations, 1994-1996

Nation
Adult economic activity
Share of labour force
Distribution of industry
Own account workers
Percentage of employees
Administration and management
Average wages relative to men
Unemployment
Maternity leave
Brunei
India
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
48
34
8.9
19
23
11
n/a
n/a
n/a
41
31
14.8
n/a
n/a
2
n/a
n/a
12 weeks
53
40
12.5
27
32
7
n/a
5.1
12 weeks
47
37
22.7
22
34
19
57
n/a
60 days
48
37
13.6
31
36
33
76
8.2
14 weeks
51
39
34
17
41
15
58
3.1
8 weeks
74
46
12.2
32
39
22
78
1.8
90 days
Notes: n/a = not applicable; all in percentages except where noted

Source: Compiled from ILO (1994, 1996a, b, 1997)
Table III Women administrative and managerial workers
Country/region
Per cent women among

administrative or
managerial workers,
1985-1997
Asia
China
Hong Kong SAR
Macoa SAR
Indonesia
Japan
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
12
18
15
17
9
16
35
36
21
Europe
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
The Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
UK
20
25
10
19
12
58
17
54
12
17
31
66
50
12
59
29
33
North America
Canada
USA
43
44
Source: Prepared by the Statistics Division of the

United Nations Secretariat from Women's Indicators and
Statistics Database (Wistat) based on ILO LABORSTA
database (as of August 1998)
Dutch and British companies that have

women on their boards (Bolger, 1997).
In Thailand many women are in the top
echelons of business, although there are
several unique circumstances in Thailand
compared with other Southeast Asian
nations. In direct contrast to a number of its
Southeast Asian counterparts, Thailand has
produced a system in which some women
have been able to receive the same
employment levels, promotion prospects and
share of economic wealth as their male
colleagues (Hutchings, 2000) (see Table IV).
In interviews conducted for this paper with
top women managers in Thailand, all
participants felt that seniority was much more
of an issue than gender in career path
development.
Further, patience, persistence, and
compromise were given as the characteristics
that had most helped these influential Asian
women. Women have reached top positions
in Asia without affirmative action
programmes (which are often considered
discriminatory, as is the case in Thailand),
and while gender may not have as much
impact, class is important: women of higher
classes in Asia are well-educated and face
better prospects for careers as senior
managers and organisation owners
Finally, women in countries where
childcare and household help are inexpensive
and easy to arrange did not view balancing
work and family as an obstacle.
Open ambition, as expressed by western
women, made the Thai interviewees
uncomfortable, they reported. Toshiba
Thailand Vice President Kobkarn
Wattanvrangkul, a Wellesley graduate, related
how surprised she was by her American
acquaintances' relentless self-promotion and
137

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
Table IV Percentage of workers in private sector by size of establishment, level of position and gender in Thailand, 1998
Size of establishment
Total
100-299 persons
300-499 persons
500-999 persons
1,000 persons and
over
Total
Women
Men
Level of position
Department manager
Women
Men
Director
Women
Men
Supervisor
Women
Men
Officer
Women
Men
44.4
44.1
43.2
44.4
55.6
55.9
56.8
55.6
22.8
23.8
24.3
18.4
77.2
76.2
75.7
81.6
33.3
33.1
33.2
32.8
66.7
66.9
66.8
67.2
39.0
38.1
37.9
37.6
61.0
61.9
62.1
62.4
54.4
53.9
52.2
56.2
45.6
46.1
47.8
43.8
46.8
53.2
23.5
76.5
34.7
65.3
44.2
55.8
56.7
43.3
Source: NSO and Office of the Civil Service Commission of Thailand; Pay Survey (1998)
by the way some American women would tell

themselves daily that `òne day, I will be
President of the United States''. The desire to
be a national leader, or even to have personal
ambition for herself, had never occurred to
Ms Kobkarn. Khon Kaen University's
Associate Dean of Science, Sunantha
Hengrasmee, agreed with this assessment.
``Thai women are satisfied to be in the top
ten, they don't need to be at the very top'',
said Dr Hengrasmee. Women also make their
way through the glass ceiling without a fight
by being the ``last one standing'' after their
male colleagues are finished with intrigue and
conflict. Lobbying and networking are
reportedly methods frequently used by senior
Thai women to rise in their organisations.
One characteristic shared by all
interviewees was their privileged position in
society: Merrill Lynch Vice President Piyama
Sarasin is the daughter of the former Thai
ambassador to the USA, and herself an
American university graduate. In another
recent study, the majority of respondents
argued that gender is not a significant factor
in determining employees' or future
employees' work opportunities.
This is consistent with studies of
employment and culture of Thailand, which
suggest that, in contrast to other Southeast
Asian countries, it is class, and not gender
that determines the opportunities and
prospects of individuals (Hutchings, 2000).
While all interviewees agreed that women in
Asia also want power, they were also
unanimous that they would not face
confrontation in order to claim it. All
mentioned seniority as the most serious
obstacle to their careers. For this reason the
women (particularly the two younger women
interviewed) did not see much merit in
professional women's associations, since their
contributions were not considered valid due
to their relative youth. They all reported

encountering more difficulties in business
related to age rather than gender.
Women and management in northern

Europe
Results of a major study conducted on
women in European business by the Wall
Street Journal Europe and Arthur Andersen in
March, 2001 concluded that job satisfaction
is by far the most important characteristic in a
job according to European women executives,
though being promoted and paid fairly are
also top priorities. While the vast majority of
women executives say that they enjoy their
job, slightly less than half completely agree
that their job offers additional training or
treats them fairly in terms of advancement.
Women do not have strongly positive
opinions of female representation in
management positions within their
companies. On the other hand, relatively few
women feel that women are treated unequally
no matter how high they reach in the
company or that women are less readily
forgiven their mistakes than men. Italian,
British and Swedish women are the most
likely to have positive attitudes toward the
position and status of women at their current
company.
Senior level women executives are
consistently more satisfied with their current
job and more positive about the current status
and position of women at their current
company. Not surprisingly, women executives
who have experienced some form of gender
discrimination are less likely to be satisfied
with their current job and are less positive
about the current status of women in their
company. They tend to feel that women have
less chance of advancing through the
138
Mary van der Boon

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
management ranks and are more likely to feel

that there is a ceiling on how high a woman
can go (Wall Street Journal Europe, 2001) see
Figure 2.
Research for this paper centred on the
situation for women managers in The
Netherlands, although other neighbouring
countries reveal similar statistics: less than 9
per cent of 220,000 top managers in Germany
today are women, according to database
research by economic publisher Hoppenstedt
(Business Week, 2000).
Conditions for working mothers in
Germany and The Netherlands are behind
those of peers in France or Spain. Basic
infrastructure for working mothers, such as
full-time day care, is very limited in either
country. Caregivers, au pairs and child nurses
are costly or even beyond the means of lowerincome workers.
Dr Eduard J. Bomhoff, Minister of Public
Health for The Netherlands and former
director of the Nijenrode Forum for
Economic Research (NYFER), confirmed
this view in an evaluation he made of the Kok

administration to a large gathering of
international executives. Dr Bomhoff cited
the Government's failure to encourage
parents in The Netherlands to enter the
workforce. Under present economic
conditions, it is impossible for both parents in
low-income families to work if they have more
than one child. Childcare costs remain
prohibitively expensive, requiring one of them
to drop out of the labour force in order to stay
home.
In 1970, women held 1 per cent of all board
of management positions in The Netherlands.
In 1999, this was 3 per cent. Of course, this
represents a three-fold increase, but women
are likely finding little solace in the statistical
improvement. Participation of women in the
workforce is a low 51 per cent, with only a
third of these women in full-time employment
(SER, 2000). The majority of women in the
workforce are in lower-prestige, lower-paid,
often part-time employment, when compared
with their male counterparts.
Figure 2 Gender discrimination negatively impacts job satisfaction for European women executives
139

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
In international ranking of women

academics, other parts of Europe lag behind,
but none so badly as The Netherlands: the
UK's traditional universities had 14 per cent
women faculty, with newer universities having
women in 20 per cent of their academic
positions (Forster, 2001). Women holding
academic teaching positions in Switzerland
are 13 per cent of the total (as compared to 57
per cent in the Philippines) (Wirth, 2001).
The Netherlands ranked as one of the lowest
in the world, with fewer than 5 per cent of all
academic positions held by women.
Former State Secretary for Social Affairs
and Employment, Annelies Verstand, called
for the percentage of women holding higher
positions in government and corporate
organisations be doubled from the present ten
to 20 per cent by the year 2004. Many would
argue that attaining this goal is unlikely at
best, and the goal itself falls far short of the
equality mark while also doing nothing to
address the fact that the wage gap between
men and women in The Netherlands is one of
the largest in Europe, with women receiving
almost 25 per cent less than men on average.
The conclusions of this paper were
mirrored elsewhere: earlier this year in the
European Business Review, academic
researchers determined that the exclusion of
women managers from business and social
networks in Europe compounds their
isolation, which in turn prevents them from
building up useful networking relationships
which might be advantageous to their
international careers. Men, being the
dominant group, want to maintain their
dominance by excluding women from
informal interactions.
The research also suggested that exclusively
male networks may be responsible for
developing and nurturing negative attitudes
and prejudices (stereotypes) towards women
managers, and that if corporate women had
more access to networking groups then
perhaps they could reach senior management
positions and in turn partake in international
management (Linehan et al., 2001).
Methodology
Four top women academic and corporate
leaders were interviewed in Thailand for the
purposes of this study, and four in Northern
Europe. The relatively small sampling
prevents statistical analysis of results, but the

consistency in response is deemed sufficient
on which to base the conclusions of this
paper.
The scope of questions included:
.
how being a woman had impacted their
careers and their way of managing;
.
perceptions of others, particularly male
managers, to the woman manager (both
national and international);
.
recommendations offered to women
starting out in business or political life;
.
differences observed in the way
European, North American and Asian
women lead;
.
personal view on the glass ceiling;
.
the validity of women's networks;
.
work: life balance issues; and
.
assessment of present situation for
women in management internationally,
and for the future.
Conclusions
Women in management in northern
Europe
In northern Europe, most affirmative action,
positive discrimination and management
trainee programmes have been based on
American models and experience. Women are
coached to stand up for themselves, dress like
their male counterparts, put in the long hours
necessary to get to the top and not discuss
their families or personal lives on the job.
Current research suggests this assertive,
masculine-based approach, given the cultural
context of European societies, may be doing
more harm than good.
In North America many experts are moving
towards advocating a more authentic style of
female leadership. Research has concluded
that after years of having to adopt a masculine
identity and hide their emotions and natural
behaviour in the workplace, women were the
new role models (Management Today, 2000).
In a Wharton Business School study of solo
women working in all-male teams, researcher
Frank Greene found out that women who
enter these groups in a quasi ``helpless'' mode
end up getting more help from the men at
first, and are then able to move into positions
of more authority than women who come on
strong and are labelled ``bitchy'' (van der
Boon, 2001b).
140

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Mary van der Boon
Dr Judy B. Rosener has documented how

men and women think and act differently at
work and how leadership styles that deviate
from the traditional male model have been
troublesome for many women. Based on her
research, Rosener concludes that gender does
matter. Most large, older firms retain a
culture that explicitly or implicitly holds that
there is one best model based on male values.
But as more women join the professional
services workforce, she writes, there has been
a move to look at women's styles of leadership
not as better or worse but as added value.
Rosener found that women tend to share
power and information, be collaborative, and
often lead in an interactive manner. Most
important, she writes, is that women tend to
be comfortable with ambiguity.
The working environment also is filled with
what Rosener calls ``sexual static.'' There are
numerous sources of this noise, Rosener
believes, including role confusion,
communication differences, and the problems
associated with changing from an exclusive to
an inclusive type of organization.
As a result, Rosener maintains men feel a
sense of discomfort and confusion as they
find themselves working with women in new
roles without any new models for themselves.
And men's one way of escaping ``sexual
static'' is to subconsciously keep the glass
ceiling in place:
Because the glass ceiling for those below it
(mostly women) is the floor for those above it
(mostly men), removing the glass ceiling creates
a fear of falling for men (Rosener, 1995).
Therefore, she believes it is important that

firms raise awareness about the source of
``sexual static'' and develop policies to
minimize it. This is necessary because
Rosener maintains that women (and men)
leave or under perform when they do not feel
valued (Rosener, 1995; Kurek, 2001).
Behavioural scientist Shannon L. Goodson
argues that women did not create the glass
ceiling but they help maintain it. Goodson
found that even women who understand how
important visibility management is in the
modern workplace often hesitate to translate
their knowledge into effective selfpresentational behaviours:
Women can be competent, assertive role models
without becoming pinstriped male clones. But
no one's going to do it for them, not even other
women who have made it to the top. If career
women want to earn what they're worth, they
have to learn to help themselves and each other
shine more brightly in today's competitive

work settings.
The conclusion? In spite of excellent

management and leadership skills, women
contribute to their own inability to break
through the glass ceiling in subtle ways
stemming from personality attributes, social
conditioning and learned management styles
(van der Boon, 2001c).
BBC human resources chief and lecturer
Gareth Jones has similar results from his own
research. According to Jones, when a minority
(such as women in management) makes up
less than 20 per cent of a group, they will be
subjected to stereotyping. One of the ways
women try to minimise being stereotyped,
says Jones, is by ``making themselves
disappear''. They become invisible by wearing
clothes that disguise their bodies and trying to
blend in by talking tough. The result,
however, is that by not emphasising their real
differences, women are reducing their
chances of being viewed as (potential) leaders.
(Goffee and Jones, 2001).
It is possible that women in Europe in quest
of management positions may be better off
seeking to replicate the Southeast Asia female
executive experience, based on retaining an
authentic and culturally appropriate feminine
leadership style rather than the increasingly
outdated North American approach of male
emulation. Unlike North America, which has
a younger, pioneer-style cultural history, most
cultures in Europe have been in place and
intact for hundreds, even thousands, of years,
more closely aligned to Asian cultural history
development. For this reason, male:female
relationships are more firmly entrenched in a
traditional pattern in Europe than in North
America, and these relationships dictate
rather rigidly the roles expected of women
(and men) both inside and outside the home.
The expectation, for instance, that European
women executives will prefer to follow their
partners rather than lead, as breadwinners or
as ``first among equals'' in the career stakes, is
one of the major reasons these women are not
offered international assignments. While a
factor, this occurs less frequently in North
America but is also a common assumption for
senior Southeast Asian women executives.
Experience in Europe has shown that a
more aggressive style on the part of executive
women only results in obstinacy and
resistance from their male counterparts. The
aversion of male managers in many European
141

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
countries to oft-termed American-style

political correctness, and positive
discrimination (which, as in Asia, is often
illegal), means women will have to find
alternate paths through the glass ceiling.
Adopting a more consensus-oriented and less
threatening approach may have quicker
results than imitating male leadership styles
and ``battering down the gate''. This
unwillingness to pursue a policy of tokenism
is one reason programs to promote women to
top ranks of Germany's and Holland's largest
companies are still few and far between.
Dutch retail giant Ahold CEO Cees van der
Hoeven's controversial statement last year
that ``there's not a woman in this country I
would want on my board'' reveals a disturbing
division at even the highest management
ranks on how to incorporate more women in
management (Wall Street Journal Europe,
2001). In an interesting footnote, the
subsequent uproar following this statement
resulted in an American woman,
Cynthia Schneider, quickly being appointed
to the Ahold Advisory Board.
Women in management in
Southeast Asia
As illustrated by the results of this study and
other contemporary research, most Asian
women do not appear to be aware of the
stereotypes held in western societies about the
barriers and limits to Asian women in
business. They do not themselves perceive
these limitations to their careers.
On the contrary, they have a surprisingly
negative view of the opportunities and career
ambitions of western women: while all Thai
interviewees felt Thai women were expected
by their husbands and families to work, and to
remain in the workforce after having children,
they did not feel the same was true of North
American and European women. Several had
encountered women in North America they
described as ``going to college in order to find
a husband'' and who had no serious intention
of pursuing a lifelong career. Several also
commented that European men did not like
their wives to work.
Patience, sincerity, honesty, consensus,
persistence, flexibility and a willingness to
learn were all mentioned as necessary
attributes required to climb the corporate
ladder in Thailand. In addition, a woman was
expected to be humble, respectful, attentive,
understanding and discreet. A motherly
approach to subordinates was recommended

by the two older women managers.
It was not considered a conflict of values or
hypocrisy to publicly agree with their male
colleagues, even if they privately disagreed
with what was being discussed. This was
viewed instead as action necessary to maintain
harmony in the office environment.
Furthermore, they felt this nonconfrontational approach resulted in their
being more easily promoted within the
organisation.
All of those interviewed readily admitted
that affordable household help, childcare,
extended families and a society that
encouraged women to work was integral to
their career success. They contrasted their
own situation to that of women in Europe
and North America and considered the
absence of these factors to be a large
obstacle to western women in business,
particularly in Europe.
Glass borders
The conclusions of this paper and other
current research are that, in the Asian
business environment, the best man for the
job is very likely a woman. Women working
internationally find they are treated as a
foreign expert first, and a woman second.
More often youth and relative lack of
experience are viewed by these women
executives as greater drawbacks than
gender. In Singapore, women managers are
perceived as being empathetic and loyal,
and are much in demand for these qualities.
And since conflict resolution comes easier
to women than to men, negotiations with
women on either or both sides of the
boardroom table are frequently conducted
in a spirit of congeniality and fair play.
Many female expats, especially those
outside western culture, report that local
males `àt first didn't know how to react to
me''. The successful ones say that, over
time, they seemed to become `à member of
a third gender'' or an ``honorary male''
(Grove and Hallowell, 1997).
Credibility can still be an issue for women
operating in the international arena. For men,
credibility is often derived from their gender
and their status in the company. For women,
credibility is more often derived from their
individual skills. Women report that they
often have to work extra hard to establish
credibility because of their gender.
142

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
The glass ceiling

Female executives and CEOs diverge in their
assessment of barriers to women's
advancement to corporate leadership.
Women are much more likely to point to
elements in the corporate culture than are
chief executives.
Female executive respondents cite the
following top three factors holding women
back:
(1) male stereotyping and preconceptions of
women (52 per cent);
(2) exclusion from informal networks of
communications (49 per cent); and
(3) lack of significant general management/
line experience (47 per cent).
CEOs see two primary reasons preventing
women from advancing to top management:
(1) lack of general management/line
experience (82 per cent); and
(2) women have not been in the pipeline long
enough (64 per cent).
Besides these two factors, no more than onethird of chief executives single out any other
factor that might account for women's lack of
advancement. Table V shows the strategies
top women executives in the USA rated as
either critical or important for career
advancement.
View to the future
The breakdown of traditional career
structures provides an important opportunity
to revisit the concept of career in terms of
gender. Organisational changes over the past
decade have certainly shaped the career
conditions of many employees; middle
managers have lost their jobs and survivors

face both a change in their job roles and in
career opportunities (Linehan et al., 2001).
Cooper and Davidson (1984) argue that
women are more likely to advance in the new
leaner and flatter organisations, but there has
been little research to date regarding how
women fare in different organisational
structures.
Further, the breakdown of traditional
barriers that define corporate life (those
between work and home; public and private;
men and women; and employer and
employee) will have considerable impact on
women's careers. The advent of the computer
means for the first time men and women are
using the same tool in their work, providing a
common language, and levelling the playing
field. This integration brings the issue of
balance to the forefront. The traditional view
of one partner as breadwinner, the other as
home caregiver, has blurred and blended,
bringing about real change. The trend toward
customisation in every aspect of our lives
means people will continue to find ways to
make their choices suit their lifestyles, and not
vice versa. The way we work and our view of
retirement will see great change, also resulting
in increased opportunities for women.
Learning will be fully integrated into one's
work and life, not compartmentalised as it has
been in the past. Achieving balance will be an
issue for both sexes.
Five new truths to profoundly take control of your
own life and achieve balance (Shaevitz, 2000)
(1) Embrace the concept of free will what
you think, feel and want are at least as
Table V US women's strategies

Strategy
Exceed performance expectations
Develop style men are comfortable with
Seek difficult or high-visibility assignments
Have an influential mentor
Network with influential colleagues
Gain line management experience
Move from one functional area to another
Initiate discussions regarding career aspirations
Be able to relocate
Upgrade educational credentials
Change companies
Develop leadership outside office
Gain international experience
Source: Catalyst (1996)
143
Critical (per cent)
Important (per cent)
77
61
50
37
28
25
23
15
14
12
12
11
5
22
35
44
44
56
29
34
47
22
33
24
41
19

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
important as what other people think, feel

and want.
Take personal responsibility for your own
life what is important is what you do
with what you have been given, not what
you have not been given.
Be honestly and fully your own self
appreciate who you are, know what you
want, allow positive thoughts to guide
your actions and be attuned to your own
feelings.
Be the happiest, healthiest person you are
capable of being this means redefining
health as being an on-going process of
self-discovery, in which you exercise
positive choices, integrate your physical,
mental, social and spiritual wellbeing,
and live life to its fullest so that you can
have a positive influence on the world.
You are more than your physical body,
and certainly much, much more than the
pounds you weigh you want to pay
enough attention to your physical body
and appearance so that you can forget
about yourself. Weight is part of one's
life. It is not one's life.
Some authors have detailed general strategies

to encourage greater equality for women in
organisations. The strategies suggested by
these authors include:
.
providing all young women managers
with female mentors in order to provide
support and guidance within a system
that is still dominated by men;
.
re-evaluating promotion procedures to
give greater weight to non-research
activities and adopting a more
women-friendly concept of what
constitutes `à career'';
.
introducing more flexible working hours
and encouraging job sharing and
part-time work;
.
punishing overt or covert sexist behaviour
by men more severely;
.
giving greater recognition to women's
family and domestic responsibilities.
.
recognising that insensitivity to family
issues and workplace inflexibility are still
major impediments to women in
business; and
.
changing organisational cultures to reflect
the needs of women managers (Forster,
2001).
Best-selling author Esther Wachs Book
defines ``new paradigm leaders'' as those who
combine many of the managerial talents

traditionally attributed to men with many of
the stereotypically ``weaker'' female skills. In
detailed interviews with 14 of the top women
managers in the USA, Book concluded that
new paradigm leaders achieve for three main
reasons:
(1) self-assurance compels new paradigm
leaders to stay motivated and take risks;
(2) an obsession with customer service helps
them anticipate market changes; and
(3) new paradigm leaders use ``feminine''
traits to their advantage.
Book suggests the ten following tips to
becoming a ``new paradigm leader'':
(1) Be confident and take risks.
(2) Anticipate changes in the marketplace.
(3) Use traditional feminine qualities like
empathy, collaboration, and
cooperation.
(4) Sell your own vision.
(5) Reinvent the rules.
(6) Stay focused on achieving your goals.
(7) Maximize high touch in an area of high
tech.
(8) Turn challenge into opportunity.
(9) Obsess about customer preferences.
(10) Fight back with courage under fire
(Book, 2000).
Harriet Rubin's advice in her best-selling
book for women leaders: The Princessa:
Machiavelli for Women (Rubin, 1997):
Obeying the rules is simply obeying THEIR
rules. Women can never be powerful as long as
they attempt to be in charge in the same way
men take charge. Women have avoided conflict
for too long. They must wage war in their
personal and professional lives to get what they
want.
Her advice to women everywhere?

Ask for everything. Women think their needs
will be perceived, that they are obvious. You'll
never know what you can get if you don't bother
to ask.
Authentic styles of leadership for both men

and women are clearly requirements for a
new era in management worldwide. What
remains to be seen for European women is if
the more proactive, and provocative, North
American approach can be reconciled with
that of their more conciliatory, and
nonetheless successful, Asian sisters to
provide a true blueprint for the success that
has eluded them thus far.
144

Volume 18 . Number 3 . 2003 . 132-146
Mary van der Boon
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145
Mary van der Boon

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146
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Women in Management Review

Women in international management: an international perspective on womens ways of leadership

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About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com

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Women in international management

Women in Management Review

Mary van der Boon

Table I Women in international management

Per cent women (mid management)

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Source: Rosener (1995)

This paper aims to illustrate the

The glass ceiling

A complementary Australian survey

assignments for women that limit their skill and

Cees van der Waaij RA, Chairman of the

Davidson and Burke (1994) offer

Women in international management

Women in Management Review

Mary van der Boon

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give a woman a management job title, but

managerial positions. These women managers

Women in international management

Women in Management Review

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Mary van der Boon

Women's ways of leadership

introducing training and development

As more women enter politics and senior

Women in international management

Women in Management Review

Mary van der Boon

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Figure 1 Measuring management differences

according to Personnel Decisions

defining characteristic to be insensitivity

Women and management in

Women in international management

Women in Management Review

Mary van der Boon

Table II Women's work in selected Southeast Asian nations, 1994-1996

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Notes: n/a = not applicable; all in percentages except where noted

Per cent women among

Source: Prepared by the Statistics Division of the

Dutch and British companies that have

Women in international management

Women in Management Review

Mary van der Boon

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by the way some American women would tell

to their relative youth. They all reported

Women and management in northern

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Women in international management

Mary van der Boon

Women in Management Review

management ranks and are more likely to feel