Breaking through the glass ceiling, but at what cost? From transitions between hierarchical levels to the diversity of ascending, lateral, or descending career paths of women executives

Abstract

The present article proposes to broaden the understanding of the life courses of women executives to include an experiential perspective of meaning built around their different life projects. Our study is based on a qualitative approach employing narrative research methodology to analyze interviews with a sample of 51 women executives. Our findings reveal key experiences and events and a diversity of transitions between hierarchical levels that characterize their career development. They also show a number of possible configurations of rapprochement, integration, distancing, or separation between the different spheres of life and their influence on executive careers through ascending, lateral, or descending career paths. These findings contribute to a deeper insight into the complex career paths of women executives and underscore the value of including these different dimensions when considering guidance support strategies for this clientele.

Exploratory Study of Women Managers’s Career Development in Mining Industry: Challenges, Support, and Strategies Behind It

“…Strategies in climbing the career ladder are divided into strategies from the internal side, namely strategies carried out by women managers in matters relating to themselves in the form of increasing their capabilities by being proactive in increasing work experience and increasing knowledge so that they can adapt to the company's needs if there are promotional opportunities (Lee & Lee, 2018;Calinaud et al, 2020), and strategies from the external side, namely strategies carried out in matters related to their role in the workplace in the form of networking or creating professional relationships in the workplace to make it easier to get promotions initiative (Lyness & Thompson, 2000;Remington & Kitterlin-Lynch, 2017), and hierarchical mobility or changing positions, either moving up a position (ascending), moving positions at the same level (lateral), or dropping a position (descending) (Giguère et al al., 2023) This research seeks to capture and explore the perceptions of women managers in the oil and gas sub-sector in their career development process by using research questions packaged in career development theory, the glass ceiling and its antecedents to understand the challenges they feel, explore the support they receive, and identify the strategies they implement. by women managers in their career development…”

“…The strategy from the external side looks at the efforts made by participants in their career development process related to their role in the workplace as a women manager. Participants change positions by filling a higher position (upward hierarchical mobility) because there is an offer to fill a higher position and changing positions at the same level (lateral hierarchical mobility) due to boredom and the need for new challenges, coupled with the desire to improve one's abilities by learning from other work positions (McDonald & Hite, 2015;Cimirotić et al, 2017;Lee & Lee, 2018;Calinaud et al, 2020), as a strategy in the career development process (Giguère et al, 2023). Networking in the workplace is carried out to make it easier to get promotional initiatives (Lyness & Thompson, 2000;Remington & Kitterlin-Lynch, 2017) by knowing key people according to the needs and interests of women managers.…”

“…In the career development process, there are two types of support for the career development of women managers: internal support obtained from personal life in the form of support from a partner (Cimirotić et al, 2017) and external support obtained from the organization or company where women managers work (Remington & Kitterlin-Lynch, 2017;Calinaud et al, 2020;Perks & Schulz, 2020;Taparia & Lenka, 2022). In the process of climbing the career ladder, strategies are divided into two, namely internal strategies carried out by women managers themselves (Cimirotić et al, 2017;Calinaud et al, 2020) and external strategies carried out by women managers in matters related to the workplace (Remington & Kitterlin-Lynch, 2017;Giguère et al, 2023).…”

De la proximité à la tyrannie : dynamiques relationnelles et pratiques de gestion des femmes cadres

“…Plus largement, l'objectif du présent article se situe dans un projet de recherche plus vaste qui cherchait à comprendre les expériences de travail des femmes cadres et leurs répercussions sur les processus d'intégration, de mobilité et de maintien au travail. D'autres publications (Giguère et al, 2020;Giguère et al, 2021;Giguère et al, 2023) ont notamment permis d'analyser leurs trajectoires et leur parcours de vie.…”

“…1 : Émilie Giguère, professeure 2 : Mariève Pelletier, professeure 3 : Karine Bilodeau, chargée de cours 4 : Jade Avoine, étudiante à la maîtrise 5 : Mireille Sirois Gagné, doctorante 6 : Louise St-Arnaud, professeure Citation : Giguère, É., Pelletier, M., Bilodeau, K., Avoine, J., Sirois Gagné, M. et St-Arnaud, L. (2023). De la proximité à la tyrannie : dynamiques relationnelles et pratiques de gestion des femmes cadres.…”