Exploding Some Myths about Women Managers

According to the Department of Labor, 40 percent of the work force is women, but only about 3 percent of them are in management or administrative positions. Men outnumber women in management by 5 to 1, and the ratio has changed little since 1950. In top management positions, men outnumber women by a ratio of 600 to 1.

For a comprehensive review of stereotypes of women see Orth Charles D. III Jacobs Frederic , “Women in Management: Pattern for Change,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1971), pp. 139–147; Hackamack Lawrence C. Solid Alan B. , “The Woman Executive,” Business Horizons (April 1972), pp. 89–93; Torrey Jane W. , “A Psychologist's Look at Women,” Journal of Contemporary Business (Summer 1973), pp. 25–40; Schwortz Eleanor Bruntley Rago James J. Jr. , “Beyond Tokenism: Women as True Corporate Peers,” Business Horizons (December 1973), pp. 69–76; and Loring Rosalind Wells Theodora , Breakthrough: Women into Management (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1972).

Brenner Marshall H. , “Management Development for Women,” Personnel Journal (March 1972), p. 166. For an example of a company operating under the same set of assumptions, see Ells Susan C. , “How Polaroid Gave Women the Kind of Affirmative Action Program They Wanted,” Management Review (November 1973), pp. 11–15.

Female Employment … Evaluation and Change (Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby, Inc., 1973).

Durkin Jon J. , “The Potential of Women,” (Bulletin 87, The Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation Incorporated, 1971).

Ibid., p. 3

Knowles Olenda S. Moore Barbara A. , “Today's Woman Executive,” Business and Public Administration Student Review (Fall 1970), p. 72.

Ellman Edgar S. , Managing Women in Business (Waterford, Conn.: National Foremen's Institute, Bureau of Business Practice, National Sales Development Institute, 1963), p. 23.

McClelland David , “Wanted: A New Self Image for Women,” Dialogue on Women (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1967), p. 37.

Crowley Joan E. Levitin Teresa E. Quinn Robert P. , “Seven Deadly Half-Truths About Women,” Psychology Today (March 1973).

Ibid., p. 96.

Lirtzman Sidney I. Wahba Mahmoud A. , “A Managerial Myth: Differences in Coalitional Behavior of Men and Women in Organizations,” Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Meeting of The Academy of Management (Academy of Management, 1973), p. 194.

For a more detailed account of the research methodology see Reif William E. Monczka Robert M. Newstrom John W. , “Perceptions of the Formal and the Informal Organizations: Objective Measurement Through the Semantic Differential Technique,” Academy of Management Journal (September 1973), pp. 392–394.

Basil Douglas C. , Women in Management: Promotion and Prejudice (New York: University of Cambridge Press, 1971).