EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Perceived career challenges and response strategies of women in the advanced technology sector

Barbara Orser, Allan Riding and Joanne Stanley

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2012, vol. 24, issue 1-2, 73-93

Abstract: The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of the perceived barriers to career advancement specific to women in the advanced technology sectors. Strategies employed in response to perceived barriers are also examined. Empirical results are based on analysis of qualitative data from a sample of 115 women members of Canadian Women in Technology. Personal-, firm- and industry-level barriers to career advancement were documented. The respondents attributed a high proportion of the challenges they encountered to gender. Respondents were most likely to resolve challenges through personal, or ‘do-it-yourself’, solutions. Few cited firm- or industry-related support structures. While mentoring was identified as a frequently used response strategy through which women address career challenges, the majority of firms in the advanced technology sector lack sufficient numbers of suitable women mentors. The lack of mentorship opportunities is particularly acute for women entrepreneurs. The findings are discussed from the context of contradictions between an industry need to attract and retain entrepreneurial talent and respondents’ perceived career barriers. Industry-level remedial strategies are advanced in the form of: a women's mentoring programme; case studies about successful women entrepreneurs and a website to inform women about career advancement strategies. The programmes were designed by the research team to respond to the challenges cited by women and were implemented in cooperation with the trade association as a critical component of an on-going applied research programme.

Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08985626.2012.637355 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:entreg:v:24:y:2012:i:1-2:p:73-93

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TEPN20

DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2012.637355

Access Statistics for this article

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development is currently edited by Professor Alistair Anderson

More articles in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:taf:entreg:v:24:y:2012:i:1-2:p:73-93