Barriers to Career Advancement of Women Managers in Indian Five Star Hotels: A Gender Perspective

Abstract

This descriptive study was carried out to understand the issues related to women managers’ career advancement from the perspectives of male managers as represented by general managers and human resource managers of Indian five star hotels. The male managers opined that attitude, leadership skills and communications skills are most important for women to advance in their careers.  Factor and regression analyses revealed the relationships between the dimensions of mobility pathway (gender stereotyping, social structure and culture, gender inequality, gaining social capital, and double bind) and human resource strategies adopted by the hotel organizations to support the career advancement of women managers. According to male managers, the utmost barriers to women managers’ ascent to leadership positions in Indian five star hotels are: ‘more family responsibilities than men’, ‘lack of flexible work solutions’, and ‘stereotypes against women’. The findings of this study will be useful for women managers who desire advancement to executive positions and to organizational leaders who wish to hire and promote the right person regardless of gender.