Women in management
Nishan Wimalachandra Corporate Consultant, Trainer
and Lecturer
Nishan Wimalachandra
|
Words such as “manpower management”, “history”, “mankind”, “hero”,
“you are the man”, have been used everywhere around the globe and those
who are against men do not seem to find any common ground to make things
as equal as “womanpower management, “herstory, “shero”, “you are the
woman”?.
As the common problem of liberation of women seems to dominate most
of women’s magazines, various taboos in our society seem to be relaxed
to a greater extent; but women in management have been looked as a
disaster by many.
Most people identify women in management equivalent to the end of the
earth. This is well proven by the fact that most women themselves prefer
a male gynaecologist and obstetrician to deliver their baby as against a
female performing the same task.
This dialogue is not some old fairy tale, but an issue which is
popping up in various parts of the world.
Truly, are women in management that bad? To answer this question in a
balanced perspective, a thorough understanding of women must be made.
But first of all the root cause of the problem must be identified too.
Woman was made after the man, woman was made for man, and man for God;
are just examples of general perceptions on women triggered by many
ancient writings.
A historical perspective will confirm that all communities and
religious groups have suppressed women to a greater extent.
And after all, all the blame of equal opportunity syndrome could be
tracked to most Scriptures where women are not allowed to take part in
religious leadership positions.
Most women make decisions based on intuitional spurs, as against men.
Men require complex data to arrive at a decision as to whether to do it
or not, and when their answer is made, men can back - track how the
answer was obtained from the data analyzed.
But a woman’s way of doing the same is quite different as women will
give fabulous answers out of nowhere, no data to begin with, no
histograms, and no regression models, while eating a bar of chocolate
they will do the trick.
So if both answers are compared, mostly what women have come up with
is quite the accurate as against men’s.
Now this may sound like some voodoo magic, but the fact is that
women’s intuitional capacity is extremely high. And this is proof how
women feel their husbands are cheating on them without any evidence and
finally proven that they were right from the beginning.
If a question is asked to name great women in the world, men could
only come up with a few names such as Mother Teresa, and Marie Curie,
but the truth goes longer than that. All world leaders and successful
men have always had women as their advisors on many endeavors and even
have stood by men when things have gone wrong.
Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Dilma
Rousseff, Indra Nooyi, Sheryl Sandberg, Melinda Gates, Sonia Ghandi,
Michelle Obama, Christine Lagarde, Oprah Winfrey, Cher Wang and the list
goes on for the most powerful women in the world according to the Forbes
list of most powerful women in the world 2011.
It may not be a coincidence why the Obama administration as well as
the Bush administration had selected women as the secretaries of state,
it’s no accident, what matters is the intuition of women over data and
maps which are invented by men goes far beyond.
And if anyone thinks that Bill Gates achieved everything on his own
without the help of Melinda Gates they got to be kidding. Today
International Monetary Fund has appointed Christine Lagarde to head its
direction.
When these facts are considered, it is evident that Sri Lankans are
missing the point. If Sri Lankan legislature is comprised a balance in
men and women, at least things could get better than this.
Truly women are a great companion in managing an organization and
could be well placed for a higher position too regardless of whatever is
expected from them.
They are as competitive as men are, regardless of their soft skin and
kind words, their spirit can never be broken. Truly a woman is an
amazing creature who could see a different perspective as against a man;
and women driving an organization may well do it as a maternal figure
that helps, instructs and develops more people than men actually do.
The reason why a man would develop something or someone is for the
pure reason to use it later, while women do it to admire a creation of
her own, even though whoever she creates leaves the organization, she
will still have ownership to the development or the achievement of that
person, while men would always say that, the person in connection merely
was a person who worked for them.
There are contrasting differences on women in management as we can
see now. Their ability in attracting right people for any organization
must be commendable, but unfortunately women always don’t attract the
right people for their lives, probably not in their first attempt, but
in organizations recruitment of people is a gift women have than men.
Women are only ineffective when they are clouded by emotions, but
apart from them they are a great partner in success for many
corporations.
Most career women have weak personalities as their husbands, while
most ordinary men who are in leadership are constantly guided, directed
by housewives who are as powerful as those who are career women, after
all most men know that, how well mothers handle domestic affairs than
their fathers.
The best reward for a woman is a kind word or a complement such as
“you are truly amazing”, or “such a wonderful boss”, as against boozing
with the male counterparts to win their favour. It’s easy to win the
loyalty of women, and the things you must do to win them are simple.
Women in management favour highly organized people whose desks are
clean, whose filing are updated and who are sympathetic. while men
favour others mainly on whether the job is done or not.
For women in management it really matters how the job was done as
well as whether the job was done or not, while men in management care
only on the latter. The syndrome which women have in correcting,
nurturing and improving is a gift and this must be well used as well as
their directional ability to steer any organization in the world.
Unfortunately women don’t get well paid as men in the same position
as well as equal opportunity may never be achieved regardless of the
organizations who are striving to establish such dreams.
If women want to establish themselves as required by such
organizations, they must be willing to be included in the lists such as
the number of casualities in the war or be enlisted in the forefront of
battles, unfortunately more men usually die during a war either in the
name of the Queen or the nation, whatever the label we use, women must
be absorbed into direct battles too as they consider themselves equal
with men.
Can women excel in management, the answer is absolutely yes, but
women in management and the attitude towards liberation must be clearly
understood.
The general idea of men suppressing women is laughable as there are
no organizations who sympathize with men in their perils.
Men don’t suppress women, it is the way world is made, and as long as
organized religions are not willing to lift the taboos placed on women,
the battle for liberation will be a continued process rather than an
achievable dream.
Finally, women are great in management or in any profession they
choose and they deserve equal opportunities and equal pay on par with
men in management as long as they are willing to take all vocations men
take on.
Is this an achievable vision? Not as long as Religion continues to
suppress them because they are smarter than men in so many various ways.
After all most religions are headed by men and this is the root cause
to be changed to steer into a better future, and therefore any quick
fixes in accepting women into management by all individuals for that
matter seems an elusive dream which must be only limited to dialogues.
(The author could be reached via [email protected]) |