Fourteenth session of the Faculty Working Paper Series
“This study explores the lived experiences of working women within the manufacturing sector how women attempt to ascribe to and/or subvert from the social roles they are bound to. Women and men often have prescribed gender roles arising from the division of labour that existed from the past where men were categorized as the breadwinner and women as the docile caregivers of the family. These gender roles reinforce various stereotypes and binaries, thus constricting the mobility of women in socio-economic and political paradigms. As women progress further in the managerial levels in the male-dominated world of work, they face covert and overt forms of discrimination. This study is qualitative in nature, and data was collected through 12 semi- structured interviews with women holding managerial level positions at different companies in the manufacturing sector. The data gathered were thematically analyzed to obtain the findings. When the role of the manager is idealized in an extremely masculine manner, women in managerial positions have to balance and exchange the agentic and communal behavior as appropriate to mitigate the challenges and carry out the leadership and networking functions in order to progress further in their career.”
