El acuerdo político-administrativo (Producto 3)

Most private sector women expressed similar views where developing business requires networking, formally or informally. Informal networking for women in the private sector tended to be conducted both externally and internally to their organisation. When asked about their involvement in networking activities, two thirds of private sector interviewees had participated in informal networking and identified three main activities such as joining male networks, attending corporate events for clients and within the job itself. These reasons were mostly instrumental such as catching up with or getting to know professional contacts within the industry. In addition, and unlike their public sector counterparts, three senior women in the private sector had taken up golf, sports, and even a marathon with their male networks in order to be visible among senior managerial people, which was usually dominated by males (Linehan and Scullion, 2008). Private sector interviewees had a number of strategies to cope with the old boys’ networks. For instance, working in the manufacturing industry, Seroja believes that women should not be too feminine as men do not find that appropriate. She had to be firm and independent in order to be accepted into exclusive male networks.

“I used to play golf last time and being the only woman … My networks are all males because of the nature of my business. If we were being embarrassed, the guys will make a joke of it … If they make joke, I am fine … I can tolerate with them, so they feel that they can work with me, that is the reason I can partly move up in the association.” (Seroja, Managing Director, Private Sector)

Seroja clearly valued the importance of her participation in male networks and placed a high priority on her involvement. This, however, is in contrast to Melur’s view who also played golf with her male networks. She admitted that it was not easy to be at the top, but to advance women within the organisation, it is important for senior women to stand out as role models without being too masculine and domineering like men.

“I play golf … It’s not easy to be at the top … I was the head of charity golf … I have been surrounded by guys, but I don’t have to be like them. I still dress very well, I still wear baju kurung, wearing hijab.” (Melur, Director, Private Sector)

Also, two private sector women reported feeling comfortable about mixing socially with male groups from work. Some women were likely to follow their husbands, who were also professionals in the business world, which has enabled them to break into the all-male- networks. They did not feel worried that their behaviour would be misconstrued by others in their organisations because their spouses were also attending the same functions. Nona said that following her husband in networking would indirectly allow her to access into old boys’ networks. Melur highlighted that it was easy for her to expand her networking strategies given that her husband who was also a company CEO, had always engaged with many politicians, who had been predominantly male in Malaysia.

The internal informal networking was more likely to take place with senior managers who were predominantly male. Three private sector women had joined informal networking by attending staff events or club activities organised by their employers. Although Ramlah did not play golf, she explained how being well networked helped her to perform her role and to get to know decision-makers at a very senior level. She would attend all. functions held by her organisation and felt she had greatly benefited from doing this. From an intersectional viewpoint, the Chinese appeared to excel more because of their capability to talk and promote themselves through networking. For instance, Xiu Ying mentioned that she will have either a one-to-one meeting or bring her team to have dinner with their clients for celebrations. Likewise, Daisy will also go out for dinner with the people in the company she works in.

Three interviewees explained that their job nature required them to network. For example, Nona who used to work in a marketing team found that she did not have to network separately

as her daily tasks involved meeting people and organising functions. Rose and Iris mentioned that they had no choice but always had to attend lunch, dinner or tea functions to entertain their clients. For formal networking, most interviewees’ reasons were based on instrumental perspectives (Feeney and Bozeman, 2008) such as building business rapport, enhancing corporate profile and knowledge sharing. Five private interviewees highlighted that they only joined formal networking during office hours and mentioned the difficulties they experienced in trying to attend informal networking events. Surprisingly, these five women shared similar views, as they were unable to attend an informal networking event mainly because of their dual responsibilities both at home and at work. Jasmin and Kamelia wanted to spend time with their family and relax at home during weekends as they had already worked a lot on weekdays. Kenanga felt that having childcare responsibilities made it difficult for her to attend any informal networking events after office hours. These findings could be linked to career and family commitment challenges encountered by senior women in this study (see Chapter Seven). Being a career woman would not enable these women to fully challenge private patriarchal relations in Malaysia as a whole. Women were still likely to be seen as a homemaker when they are at home. Apart from family responsibilities, Mei Feng, a Chinese senior woman, who regarded herself as an introvert, thought that networking was the least interesting activity and it seemed a shortcut to succeed. She believed that her strength was in her performance rather than approaching a stranger in order to network. Teratai mentioned that once she went home, she would entertain her family and avoided having a meeting outside office hours. She also shared her experience working in the US which had strengthened her determination to be respected despite refusing to join informal networking.

“Well I mean this is an American company … sometimes they go for happy hours after work … When we go out, I will be drinking coke and they will be drinking beer. So, the atmosphere is different. After a while, I feel like I am not fitting in anymore … then I leave.” (Teratai, Business Analysis and Reporting General Manager, Private Sector)

As a Muslim female working in Western society, she did not feel comfortable due to Islamic rules (Omar and Davidson, 2001), which had not allowed her to drink alcohol. Meanwhile, two interviewees felt that networking was unlikely to be useful and never felt disadvantaged as women in careers despite this.

“I do not see any need … I just had my personal style test. It did say I do not like to network. If you are my friend, you’re going to be my friend for life and I pick my friends very carefully … But I do not network … I am not a social person. I like to sit at home and read books” (Kekwa, General Manager, Private Sector)

In summary, networking I can be important and can lead to successful career outcomes for private sector interviewees. Women opted to participate in formal networking due to the need to maintain a balance between work and family, outside of office hours. Notwithstanding, the majority of private sector senior women had actually built on their career progression by socialising with their male colleagues after office hours such as playing golf or attending events. Research findings suggest that old boys’ networks remain a gender culture in organisations. The analysis from the data has demonstrated that in order for women to succeed, they must know their subjects, possess good networking skills and a high level of perseverance. Whilst public sector interviewees had less to say about old boys’ networks, this does not mean that the male networks do not exist in the public sector. Their presence could be felt less due to a greater critical mass of women in the workplace compared to their private counterparts.

8.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY

The chapter has discussed the interviewees’ perceptions about gender quotas in senior managerial positions. The debate on critical mass as argued in the Western literature (Kanter, 1977; Dahlerup, 1988) was reflected in the analysis of this study when some women supported the movement to challenge the structural power relations of Malay male privilege in Malaysia. Some senior women argued that progression should be based on merit. The analysis has demonstrated that around half of public sector women were advocates of quotas, contributing to the empirical validity on Kanter's (1977) theory, where there is a transition from skewed to tilted groups in the public sector. Although this is not the case in the private sector due to under-representation of women in senior management, private sector interviewees appeared to acquire good human capital skills such as education and work experience. Private sector interviewees suggested that women ought to be at least in the balanced group with 60:40 to 50:50 distribution of quotas. The government needs to revoke the Malay privilege and open access without favouring Malay males that sustains gendered discrimination.

In terms of senior women’s strategies to succeed, evidence suggests that there is a correlation between mentoring and networking with career progression and interviewees in both sectors confirmed this. Clearly, there are differences between mentoring and networking processes, even though they are conceptually aligned as a platform to raise visibility, make business contacts and aid promotion. In the public sector, formal mentoring was designed where interviewees would be assigned to a mentor on the first day at work. Having a female mentor, who could provide emotional support, was also cited as a benefit amongst public sector interviewees. This differs to their private counterparts where women tended to search for a powerful mentor, particularly males, either within or outside of the organisation. More women in the private sector also served as mentors to other women as compared to their public counterparts.

The networking opportunities may be more likely to benefit those in the private sector, rather than their public sector counterparts where progression opportunities are possibly more restricted, and networking is less beneficial. There was not much discussion around networking amongst public sector women, particularly about the existence of male networks in organisations. In contrast, private sector women had demonstrated their propensity to network, this had been achieved through informal networking by joining the old boys’ networks. This is unlikely to happen without mandatory quotas. Organisations may want to encourage their senior women to make themselves more visible and attend more formal and informal networking events. Getting more senior women involved would enable other female employees to understand the demands of being in a senior career position and to consider strategies to avoid career barriers as they progress. Otherwise, it is difficult to see how things will change without the senior women themselves actively enabling more women to enjoy more success in their careers.

CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSIONS 9.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter highlights the empirical findings of this research, which both supports and questions previous empirical studies concerning the participation of women in the labour markets in general and in senior management in particular. It summarises the empirical data from the study by addressing the key research questions investigated. This exploratory empirical research revealed that the multiplicity of experience and discrimination encountered by Malaysian senior women managers is complex and varied depending on gender and ethnic background. It focuses on the possible strategies that could be adopted in Malaysia to produce better work opportunities for women at work generally and women in senior management specifically. This is followed by a theoretical discussion of the issues which emerge from these findings that could improve the socio-economic status of Malaysian women and society at large. The discussion further draws out the impact of patriarchy, intersectionality and critical mass in the context of women in senior management in Malaysia. The limitations of the empirical study have been considered, and some policy recommendations suggested which may assist to increase women’s participation in paid labour in Malaysia. Finally, the chapter presents directions for future research.