Perceptions of women in management: Tokenism, relative deprivation and social change.

Abstract

Statistics indicate that women in management remain concentrated in junior levels while underrepresented in senior positions (Employment and Immigration Canada, 1992). Researchers have pointed to the effects of sex discrimination as responsible for women's slow progress into upper-management (Morrison & Von Glinow, 1990). Given this disadvantageous situation, the question remains: What activities do women managers initiative to improve their conditions in the organization? The purpose of the present study is to examine this issue while considering a significant situational factor: women's proportional representation. Moreover, the concept of relative deprivation was used to account for women's motivation to take an active role in the promotion of their personal and collective situation. Reactions from a total of 253 women managers were solicited. Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance uncovered four noteworthy findings: (1) greater personal deprivation was expressed among women managers who either perceived themselves as underrepresented or perceived the entrance of no new female recruits in their work group; (2) greater collective relative deprivation was reported among women who held high, rather than low personal relative deprivation scores; (3) the preferred group enhancement activity for women who expressed high, rather than low levels of collective deprivation was endorsement of employment equity programmes and (4) priority was given to the individual strategy, intention to leave, for women who expressed high, rather than low personal deprivation. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.