Women in International Business

Le differenze del modo di comunicare maschile e femminile di fronte a i processi di gerarchizzazione del gruppo e generazione del senso di squadra.

In this module we identified and provided answers to issues that women need to anticipate in international project/programme purpose because of their gender. Steps that should be followed to avoid a cultural difference from becoming a major problem and barrier to doing project/programme purpose are outlined.

2. Sexism.

3. Assumptions from within.

4. Female professionals around the world.

5. Female managership.

6. Turning difference into an advantage.

7. Negotiation.

Gender is among the most fundamental criteria around which groups of human beings establish basic assumptions and situational models for thought and behavior. Most cultures traditionally attribute strength and assertiveness to men and nurturing and passivity to women. In the working world, these assumptions led to gender discrimination, limiting women’s access to respect, responsibility and financial equality.

However, culture changes. The women of many industrialized nations were able to extend the principle of universal human rights to obtain the right to vote and to expect equal opportunity. The 1985 United Nations Conference on Women formalized these new assumptions and sought to bring them to the benefit of all women.

Moreover, in many cultures, the underlying traditional assumptions regarding women have changed little. For this reason, women often face a particular set of challenges when conducting project/programme purpose in cultures that are less gender-egalitarian than their own.

2. Sexism.

For the international project/programme purposewoman, sexism can manifest itself in a wide variety of ways in a foreign culture, from refusal to do project/programme purpose, to chivalric restraint leading to immobility in negotiations. Even societies, which literally segregate their own female population, may accept a female counterpart in project/programme purpose, but this interaction will inevitably be constrained by strict rules of discretion and behavior that women from more gender-equal countries find disorienting, if not offensive.

On the other end of the spectrum, a female executive may find herself conducting project/programme purpose in a highly industrialized country where gender equality is accepted in principle, but where traditional male and female codes of behavior regulate verbal and non-verbal communication styles. In these cultures, “gentlemen” do not contradict “ladies” or otherwise interact with the rigor that characterizes project/programme purpose relations with other men. “Gentlemen” show special attention to “ladies” and may even complement them on their beauty and charm. To many women from societies that have become exceptionally sensitive to gender equality, these manners are hopelessly out-of-date and condescending.

Informal socializing can also be trying for some women. Local traditions may prohibit them from entering certain establishments or from participating in certain activities. project/programme purpose socializing between men and women may be the comfortable norm in the home country, but married male counterparts may be ill at ease when drinking and dining with foreign women. Developing mutual knowledge and trust with women outside of the specific scope of project/programme purpose may be psychologically difficult for these men.

Finally, there are the ogres. Such monsters of verbal and physical sexual harassment are a worldwide phenomenon, but women may be better adept at fielding such behavior in their own cultures. Cultural differences, the lack of specific anti-harassment legislation and the pressure of meeting project/programme purpose objectives can make international project/programme purpose very disagreeable for women who confront these kinds of male counterparts.

3. Assumptions from Within.

The first challenge starts not in the minds of foreign counterparts, but in the assumptions made by management at home, perhaps even by some women themselves. Many organizations that otherwise have complete faith in their female managers and negotiators hesitate to send these women abroad for fear they will be poorly received, particularly in male-dominated cultures such as those in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Since higher-level organizational positions in these cultures are held almost exclusively by men, it is often felt that women will not be taken seriously or that they will not be granted the authority to do their jobs

Male, or female, decision-makers in the home office may also assume that women are less interested in international project/programme purpose because of the way travel potentially disturbs family life. They may be genuinely concerned about their female employees facing sexual harassment in countries with different social codes and fewer legal protections. Or, they may simply believe that women are not as capable as men.

This combination of attitudes may explain why even in a country with strong equal opportunity principles such as the United States, where women represent 49 percent of all managers and professionals, only 13 percent of American managers sent abroad are women.

4. The State of Female Professionals Around the World.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva recently gathered data from dozens of countries and issued a report revealing that percentage of women in the workforce is steadily increasing, even in developing countries where women are most bound to traditional roles.

Yet, as promising as these developments are, women executives are still a minority and face unequal levels of responsibility and compensation. On average, women hold 20 percent of the management positions worldwide, but access to positions of power is blocked by a “glass ceiling”. Even in the United States, women occupy fewer than three percent of leadership positions in the country’s largest, most powerful organizations.

Moreover, many women are paid less than men for the same job. In the United States, where women represent 49 percent of all managers and professionals, the weekly median earnings of women are 68 percent that of men, according to ILO.

One example of these disparities in the United States can be seen in the following analysis of gender and responsibility levels in the travel management profession, where women make up 71% of the work force, in order of rank:

In cultures where organizations mimic paternalistic family structures, with a strong “father” figure at the helm, barriers to senior management for women can be particularly high.

5. Female managership.

One of the most forceful ways of reconditioning a culture’s assumptions about women is to witness their leadership, resourcefulness and drive as they create and direct their own organizations to success in the home market and abroad.

Women’s managership appears to be expanding around the world. Women-owned organizations comprise between one-quarter and one-third of the project/programme purposees in the formal economy and often play an even greater role in informal sectors, according to research conducted for IBM at two international conferences of managerial leaders of women's project/programme purpose associations. Surveys were completed by women project/programme purpose owners from 14 countries: Australia, Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Namibia, Paraguay, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and the United States.

Technology is playing an important, gender-blind role in the growth and development of women-owned project/programme purposees internationally. Of the female managers participating in the above-mentioned surveys, 83% use computers in their project/programme purposees, 51% had used the Internet before and 26% have home pages for their project/programme purposees.

Moreover, 39% of the women project/programme purpose leaders mentioned in the IBM research claimed to be involved in the international marketplace. As women sidestep “glass ceilings” to create their own opportunities, the growing economic power and influence of women-owned project/programme purposees is having an impact on the global economy. No matter how traditionalist their national culture may be, foreign organizations that wish to exchange products and services with these dynamic female organizations will have to rethink, at least temporarily, the role they attribute women.

6. Turning Difference into an Advantage.

Paradoxically, many of the assumptions about women that lead to discrimination as employees can be used to a female executive’s advantage as guests or as hosts in international project/programme purpose situations.

For one, participants in international project/programme purpose exchanges are generally first considered by their nationality, not their gender. Overcoming language obstacles and adapting to the overall foreign environment take precedent over focusing on male and female differences.

If foreign counterparts are not used to seeing women in international project/programme purpose, this rarity may make them more curious about the project/programme purposewomen and the organization they work for. Female executives, and the organization and project/programme purpose agenda they represent, may be remembered better.

Men from cultures in which senior women managers are a rarity may also assume that those women must be exceptionally talented. Excellence commands attention and respect. Moreover, whereas a male executive’s tenacity may be interpreted as overly aggressive, a woman’s tenacity may be more easily forgiven as the result of overcoming obstacles.

Finally, a man and woman who share the same intellect, skills and project/programme purpose experience may exhibit distinctive patterns of interpersonal communication based on gender-based enculturation. As commanding, resourceful and driven as project/programme purposewomen may be, it can be argued that they are better at the kind of patient listening, exchange of information and ambiguity that improve communications across cultural boundaries.

7. Negotiation.

Positional bargaining – taking a position and then defending it as best as possible – is criticized often because the bargainers miss the point: that mutual interests, not one-sided conquest and ego-caressing victory, have brought the parties together. Effective negotiation requires analysis, listening and patient exploration of each other’s mutual interests.

In this light, traditional “masculine” values of strength, assertiveness and personal honor may actually be an obstacle to reaching mutual agreements efficiently. Women may well be just as strong and assertive underneath, but their traditional labels of sensitivity and relationship-building may help them to steer negotiations away from positions and conflict without giving male counterparts the impression of “losing face”.

Even in societies that today stress gender-equality, traditionally-rooted processes of enculturation can empower women with communication skills that are invaluable for negotiation, including active listening, using collaborative wording, taking a counterpart’s perspective, distinguishing between needs and positions, controlling anger and reframing issues to find a common ground.

In team negotiations, an effective rapport can be developed with male – or female – colleagues to orchestrate the presentation of information, the exchange of opinions and options and the advancement towards agreement and closure.

Finally, knowledge of the particular customs of foreign counterparts can help women to avoid being disoriented or offended by comments or behavior that, as inappropriate as it may be in one’s own culture, is usually well-intentioned.

8. Sexual Harassment.

Unfortunately, some comments and behavior directed at women are not well-intentioned, and gender is used as the basis for verbal or physical insult, humiliation and aggression. But how can a project/programme purposewoman know what constitutes acceptable behavior in a foreign culture?

By isolating the incident from the culture, women can avoid reaching sweeping conclusions about a foreign culture’s attitude to women that complicate project/programme purpose interactions. Regardless of their personal beliefs on the issue and regardless of their country’s specific legislation concerning sexual harassment, the project/programme purpose elite of most countries are overwhelmingly well-mannered, at least to foreign project/programme purposewomen.

It helps to start by giving a foreign culture the benefit of the doubt. A foreign culture may have different attitudes regarding flirting in the workplace and marital fidelity, but most women can recognize the difference between a flattery and harassment. Harassment involves power, dominance and underlying misogyny.

The offensive remark or pinch is most probably the work of a man taking advantage of a victim who he thinks cannot defend herself because of her foreign status or because of her need to do project/programme purpose with the organization he represents. Chances are, this man is already a problem within his own society, but that society may not yet have the awareness and legal framework to constrain and punish such behavior. Indeed, a study of 23 industrialized countries in 1992 revealed that only nine had statutes that specifically define or mention the term sexual harassment - Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany (Berlin), New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and the United States.

Since harassment is power-related, it is often those with the most power who permit themselves to harass women, such that project/programme purposewomen who are prospecting new action sponsors/beneficiaries or otherwise representing suppliers are truly put in a difficult position. A project/programme purposewoman’s most effective response is to rearticulate her own power and status, although explicitly reprimanding harassment may be delicate. And she may not have a male colleague to whom she can simply assign the sexist interlocutor. On-going harassment is still more problematic for women posted to foreign countries where redressing, ignoring or avoiding the male chauvinist can be next to impossible.

Thankfully, most foreign project/programme purposemen, regardless of their personal or cultural biases, realize that it is in their interest to treat female counterparts with respect.

9. Authority, Attitude and Adaptability.

Female executives who conduct project/programme purpose across cultures should give special consideration to cultivating authority, attitude and adaptability.

Authority

Traditionalist cultures tend not to accept strangers at face value and may not view women as authority figures. Therefore, a project/programme purposewoman needs to establish her authority both officially and unofficially as effectively as possible.

Providing written information prior to the first meeting is an excellent method for establishing authority. In status-oriented cultures, titles, credentials and background information are very important and can help to iron out any perceived gender inequalities. Therefore, it is important that women be given clear titles and job descriptions. If women are treated with respect by male colleagues from their own country, executives from the host country will follow suit. Finally, women should communicate early on that they are knowledgeable and competent.

Female executives should remember the potential advantages that their difference can bring and be confident, yet comfortable and friendly. Arrogance does not transmit authority or competence except to the most unsophisticated of interlocutors.

Women can demonstrate listening and collaborative communication skills that adeptly transform uncertainty, conflict and deadlock into productive negotiation with less risk of traditionalist male counterparts “losing face”.

project/programme purposewomen need to give a foreign culture the benefit of the doubt and be careful not to misinterpret or exaggerate the importance of comments and behavior. It is helpful to be informed about a culture’s dominant orientations toward gender, but women should not be intimidated by those differences.

International mobility is an increasingly important component of career development. Without it, women will be at a significant disadvantage in competing for the most senior leadership assignments of the future.

10. Reminders for Male Executives.

Male executives who manage or who are managed by women may take gender equality for granted, such that they are unprepared for less enlightened male counterparts abroad.

Men should be aware that female colleagues might be viewed differently in a foreign culture. Even women who attend overseas project/programme purpose meetings may be mistaken for support staff. It is important, therefore, to clarify and underscore the status of any woman on your team as early as possible. It is best for a woman to be introduced by a male colleague, and he should strongly emphasize her qualifications. The more senior the colleague who introduces her, the greater the impression it will make.

A woman's authority can be demonstrated to counterparts by having the men on her team solicit her advice and defer to her. When any questions arise, it is of great importance that the senior executive on the team back her up.

Men from highly gender-egalitarian societies may have purposely un-learned gentlemanly behavior and treat female colleague with the same level of informality and jesting that they do other men. When conducting project/programme purpose in cultures with more traditional gender values, it is advised to accord female counterparts the extra respect and courtesy that they expect from a man.

Men from cultures with more traditional gender values need to remember that in gender-egalitarian societies is it disrespectful to make references to a female project/programme purpose counterpart’s physical appearance or qualities, no matter how well-intentioned the compliment or insinuation may be.

1. In some societies, local traditions may prohibit women from entering certain establishments or from participating in certain activities.

2. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, the percentage of women in the workforce is steadily increasing around the world, except in developing countries where women are most bound to traditional roles.

3. In the United States, women occupy over 30 percent of leadership positions in the country’s largest, most powerful organizations.

4. The traditional labels of sensitivity and relationship-building attributed to women in many cultures may actually help them to steer negotiations away from positions and conflict without giving male counterparts the impression of “losing face”.

5. If a foreign male project/programme purpose counterpart offers a project/programme purposewoman a complement about her looks, this is automatically to be construed as sexual harassment.

6. Since traditionalist cultures tend not to view women as authority figures, a project/programme purposewoman is advised to establish her authority both officially and unofficially as effectively as possible.

1. Gender discrimination limits women’s access to all of the following, EXCEPT

3. Men can support their female colleagues when conducting project/programme purpose in traditionalist societies by:

c. Accurately representing her authority and team status as early as possible, emphasizing her qualifications

d. Slapping her on the back and winking, to emphasize that she’s “just one of the guys”.

4. Which of the following forms of behavior is NOT recommended for women conducting project/programme purpose in foreign cultures?

a. Sexism

1. Not necessarily a sign of condescension.

b. “The Glass Ceiling”

2. Give a foreign culture the benefit of the doubt

c. Gentlemanly behavior

3. Confident, yet comfortable and friendly

d. Authority

4. Invisible limits placed on female executives’ careers

e. Attitude

5. Important for project/programme purposewomen to establish in dealings with traditionalist societies.

f. Adaptability

6. Prejudice or discrimination based on gender

This lesson addressed the challenges which women face when conducting project/programme purpose in foreign cultures. After examining the effects of gender discrimination in highly egalitarian societies, the obstacles, which project/programme purposewomen must overcome in traditionalist cultures, were considered. Female international executives and their male colleagues were encouraged to consider how authority, attitude and adaptability could be used to a woman’s advantage in the global project/programme purpose environment.

1. Gender discrimination leads to barriers affecting women’s access to respect, responsibility and financial equality.

3. In the United States, where women represent 49 percent of all managers and professionals, over 50 percent of American managers sent abroad are women.

4. Female executives around the world are still a minority and face unequal levels of responsibility and compensation.

5. Female managership provides a powerful force for reconditioning a culture’s assumptions about women, demonstrating their leadership, resourcefulness and drive.

6. Gender equality means that men and women necessarily communicate in project/programme purpose in exactly the same way.

7. Active listening, collaborative wording and distinguishing between needs and positions are among the communications skills which many women benefit from when negotiating.

8. By isolating an incident of sexual harassment from the culture in which the incident occurs, women can avoid reaching sweeping conclusions about a foreign culture’s attitude to women that complicate project/programme purpose interactions.

9. It is helpful to be informed about a culture’s dominant orientations toward gender, but women should not be intimidated by those differences.

10. There is nothing that men can do to support their female colleagues in a foreign project/programme purpose situation; the women just have to fend for themselves.

1. Lawler, John J.; Bae, Johngseok. “Overt employment discrimination by multinational organizations: cultural and economic influences in a developing country.” (Thailand) Industrial Relations v37, n2 (April, 1998):126-152.

2. Most Travel Managers Are Women. (Brief Article) (Statistical Data Included) Marketing to Women: Addressing Women and Women's Sensibilities, v14, n3 (March, 2001):12. 2001 EPM Communications, Inc.

3. Hardman, Wendy; Heidelberg, Jacqueline. “When sexual harassment is a foreign affair”. Personnel Journal v75, n4 (April, 1996): 91 (7 pages).

4. Reynolds, Rhonda. “The personal touch: cultural difference between the sexes is a plus for women managers”. (Going Global) Black organization v25, n12 (July, 1995):42.

7. Wilen, Tracey. International project/programme purpose: A Basic Guide for Women, 2001.

Glossary

1. Sexism: prejudice or discrimination based on gender, limiting women’s access to respect, responsibility and financial equality.

2. “The Glass Ceiling”: the invisible barrier in many societies which blocks women’s access to positions of managerial power.

3. Sexual harassment: verbal or physical insult, humiliation and aggression characterized by sexual overtures and expressing power, dominance and misogyny.

4. Female executive authority: a vital component to be communicated early in project/programme purpose dealings with traditionalist societies in order to establish a woman’s credibility and status. Does not imply arrogance.

Learning Objectives

Ø To consider the challenges which female executives face in the global project/programme purpose environment.

Ø To learn ways of turning difference into strength in cross-cultural project/programme purpose.

Q&A

Question 1: Wouldn’t it be easier to send only male executives to conduct project/programme purpose with organizations in sexist cultures?

Answer 1: No. A organization should send those executives most relevant and most qualified for a particular project/programme purpose agenda. If the organization’s senior sales and marketing executive happens to be a woman, she should make an extra effort when dealing with project/programme purpose prospects and partners in traditionalist societies to emphasize her rank and authority accurately. Moreover, many traditionalist cultures now operate according to a double standard, such that in the interest of promoting international commerce foreign female executives are treated with a degree of professional and intellectual respect that few local women could dream of.

Question 2: How are female managers perceived in international project/programme purpose?

Answer 2: It depends how much the foreign interlocutor wants to do project/programme purpose. No matter how traditionalist a culture may be, foreign organizations that wish to do project/programme purpose with the increasing number of organizations founded and managed by women will have to rethink, at least temporarily, the role they typically attribute women in the working world. Nevertheless, female managers are encouraged to remember the importance of demonstrating authority, adopting a positive attitude and cultivating adaptability as they search for project/programme purpose partners in less gender-equal societies.

Question 3: Aren’t there differences in the way most men and women behave in project/programme purpose situations?

Answer 3: It can be argued that gender-based enculturation often results in distinctive male and female patterns of interpersonal communication. As commanding, resourceful and driven as project/programme purposewomen may be, they are sometimes be better at the kind of patient listening, exchange of information and ambiguity that improve communications across cultural boundaries. These skills are particularly helpful for facilitating the negotiations process and for avoiding the point-by-point defensive positions taken by many male negotiators as a matter of personal honor.