The rise of female warriors: Unveiling the factors behind career progression of Indonesia's army corps

Abstract

Although modern‐day institutions have bridged gender inequality gaps to some extent by recruiting female employees, there is limited information about the career progression (CP) of these females especially in military institutions. Accordingly, the present study aims to investigate the factors affecting the CP of female army corps employed in developing countries. The fundamentals of the theory of gendered organizations are operationalized to develop the theoretical model and investigate whether institutional factors (IFC), sociocultural background (SCB), resource facilitation (RFC), and personal skill and competency (PSC) influence CP of female army corps. The primary data was collected from 352 females employed in the army corps and was analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. The findings confirm that our conceptualized factors (IFC, SCB, RFC, and PSC) influence CP. Particularly, the results indicate a significant positive impact of IFC and PSC and an insignificant positive impact of SCB and RFC on the CP of female army corps. This empirical study contributes to developing gender and talent management strategies in the workplace by enhancing the CP of females.