Women at the top : the facilitating factors that contribute to women's career advancement in organisations

Abstract

Research reveals that women make up half of our population, yet underrepresented in decision-making positions in politics and in business in Malta (EC, 2019). This research study aims to understand the positive and negative factors that help or prevent women from advancing in their careers in the Maltese economy and/or retain this position. The purpose is to recognise the facilitating factors that contribute to encourage ambitious young females who aspire to become the future business leaders in organisations. From an analysis of the literature, it was clear that there were more studies on the obstacles standing in the way of an increased female representation on boards. Literature on the facilitating factors was harder to come by. This study adopted a qualitative approach and resorted to the feminist institutional theory as this theory underlined the factors which need to be taken into consideration in studies focusing on this topic. Case studies were conducted with four Maltese women who hold or held decision-making position, to find out the factors, which facilitated their career progression and the dynamics, which enabled them to reach and remain at the top. The results that emerged from this study describe how gendered norms and expectations play out in the Maltese culture and institutions in the reproduction of gender-power relations, where males have a greater advantage over females in a workplace environment, due to the more senior positions held by men. At the same time, these were the people who facilitated the women’s progression to the top and ensured that the institution was flexible enough to respond to the needs of the female participants in question. When the institution did not respond to the family obligations these women were socially expected to shoulder, they had to reluctantly relinquish their posts and set up their own business where they used the skills and acumen they had learnt from their previous job. The concluding part of the dissertation raise a number of feasible solutions, suggested by the participants themselves, as to how Maltese institutions can support women’s progression to corporate boards, if women are to be an engine for a more effective change.