WOMEN AND MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING: THE “GLASS CEILING” FOR WOMEN’S CAREERS

Abstract

Considers some of the problems which management presents for women′s careers in professional engineering. Using careers history data from 15 women engaged in professional engineering work in a high technology industrial organization, certain aspects of their promotion progress are examined. The interaction of aspects such as the women′s aspirations and certain organizational processes were producing particular consequences for the women′s careers. The women managers′ careers illustrated the difficult cultural decisions which these women had had to make. Concludes with a discussion of the possibilities for change in the emerging gendered patterns of engineering careers.