Promotion and Management: What Choice for Women?
| Published date | 01 March 1989 |
| Date | 01 March 1989 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058903600103 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
m
Promotion
and
Management:
What
Choice
for
Women?
It
is
commonly
assumed
that
women
in
probation
seek
promotion
but
are
held
back
either
as
a
consequence
of
their
socially
ascribed
gender
role
or
because
of
indirect
dis-
crimination
within
the
Ser-
vice.
Recognising
her
own
ambivalence
about
promo-
tion,
Michelle
Hayles,
a
Proba-
tion
Officer
in
West
Yorkshire,
researched
whether
women
really
aspire
to
management
and
concludes
that
they
are
likely
to
hold
substantial
doubts
about
the
present
style
of Service
management
and
its
compatibility
with
practice
values
and
personal
growth.
e
knowthatwhilstwomen
and
men
are
represented
in
more
or
less
equal
numbers
at
main
grade
level
(ratio
1:1.5)
their
numbers
decline
markedly
at
SPO
level
(ratio
1:5)
and
abovel.
The
same
pattern
arises
in
Social
Services
Departments
where
the
vast
majority
of
high
status
posts
are
held
by
men,
and
through-
out
industry,
commerce
and
public
j~
organisations.
Whilst
social
work
~
requires
skills
normally
ascribed
to
~
women
in
the
private
domain,
leader-
F
ship
and
management
are
seen
pri-
marily
as
male
prerogatives.
But
women’s
reluctance
to
apply
for
promotion
can
be
explained
other
than
by
notions
of
discrimination.
It
may
also
be
understood
in
terms
of women’s
experience
of
the
world,
leading
to
a
different
system
of
values.
In
my
inter-
views
with
women
colleagues
it
emerged
that
there
are
features
of
the
management
role
to
which
women
are
positively
inclined,
eg
the
possibility
of
influencing
the
direction
of the
Service
and
of
using
their
skills
to
enhance
so-
cial
work
practice.
However,
they
also
sense
that
if promoted
they
would
have
to
struggle
for
survival
in
alien
territory.
Women
thus
become
suspicious
of
promotion,
conscientious
objectors
to
an
organisational
role
in
which
they
are
uncomfortable
and
which
they
feel
is
not
necessarily
compatible
with
their
values
and
behaviour.
One
way
of
making
sense
of
gender,
power
and
values
is
through
the
Chinese
belief
in
the
dynamic
interplay
of
Yin
and
Yang.
Yin,
linked
to
female
To continue reading
Request your trial