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WOMEN IN TOP LEADERSHIP POSITIONS
Accordingly, the ideal worker is in any case an unencumbered employee.
Literature (Acker 1990) also calls it a disembodied worker, the shape of whom
is naturally close to a male worker. For this reason, those who have any nur¬
turing and caring responsibilities - predominantly women -— are excluded.
According to the model, therefore, employment is a male norm, since it basi¬
cally creates a system of expectations tailored to men. Essentially, “the concept
of a universal worker excludes and marginalizes women who cannot, almost
by definition, achieve the qualities of a real worker because to do so is to become
like a man".
It is equally necessary to distinguish the “invisible” segregation based on
prejudice from visible physical segregation as a further obstacle.
This is basically a component that plays an important role in workplace
organisations in redistributing positions. The basis for this is that men tend
to spend a lot of time building up their professional relationships. Thus, this
factor becomes an essential part of their work. Some researchers base this
phenomenon on human capital theory. As women collect less social capital
than men, they are less likely to be in a leadership position.'??
According to Alice Eagly and Linda L. Carli, social capital has become an
essential part of job advancement. “This suggests that social capital is even
more necessary to managers’ advancement than skilful performance of tradi¬
tional managerial tasks.”!*4 So executive nominations are made in closed circuits,
in the “old mens club".
Carli and Eagly describe a similar occurrence with their aforementioned
concept of social capital investment. (See obstacle IV: the lack of social capital
investment, on page 46.) They state that women generally spend very little time
with their peers in their free time, these occasions primarily meaning partak¬
ing in certain sports events (hunting, poker, football or other, mainly mascu¬
line activities), which women tend not to prefer or are not even allowed to
participate in. Although, while these events are officially not considered part
of work, it has been proven they provide social capital for men allowing them
to further their workplace positions as well." In other words, it can be claimed
that social capital is what influences or shapes the redistribution of leadership
positions in most cases, not only professional performance.
It has long been recognized that the phenomenon of uneven distribution
of nominations and rewards among scholars is common in science (Zuckerman,
1970). This is the so-called “Matthew effect”, which generally speaking, means
132 Acker quoted, ibidem.
Dreher, G. F.: Breaking the glass ceiling: The effects of sex ratios and work-life programs on
female leadership at the top, Human Relations, 56(5), 2003, 543.
Eagly—Carli: Women and the Labyrinth.
Cf. Nagy: Szervezet és nemek, 60.
Eagly—Carli Women and the Labyrinth.
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