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Electoral authoritarian regimes have sought to use a variety of tactics to remain in power even as they have opened themselves up to competition through multiparty elections. These tactics have included an array of measures targeting opposition women. They became significant in Africa after the 1990s as most countries adopted multiparty systems and ruling parties needed to maintain vote share. Ruling parties in African authoritarian countries strengthened their patronage networks by promoting women as leaders. At the same time, women in opposition parties have fared poorly compared to women in ruling parties and male opposition candidates. This has been the case even where one finds the special dispensation of a gender quota in the form of reserved seats. This article looks at how Uganda's ruling party has used various tactics to advance women leaders, responding to pressures from both the women’s movement and international actors while seeking to ensure its continued dominance. It reveals an essential feature of authoritarianism in Africa today, namely the instrumental use of women leaders to entrench the ruling party in power.

This thematic issue provides the first comprehensive overview of women opposition leaders and their performance. Setting the stage for a new research agenda, this editorial piece integrates theoretical and empirical insights at the intersection of three distinct research areas: political opposition, political leadership, and gender and politics. It discusses various notions of opposition leaders and identifies three main lines of inquiry: (a) career pathways and trajectories, (b) patterns of selection and de-selection, and (c) the actual and perceived performance of women's oppositional leadership. Applying a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, this collection of original articles captures the diversity of women opposition leaders, their career trajectories, and their exercise of leadership across different political regimes and world regions.

Parliaments in the Pacific Islands are among the most male-dominated in the world. Yet despite the odds, there is a cohort of women who have been elected and won senior roles. This article adds to an emerging literature that examines the gendered pathways to political influence in the region by focusing on the hitherto overlooked role of the opposition leader. It uses a biographical approach to consider the pathways in and through this role by four women opposition leaders: Fiame Naomi Mata’afa (Samoa), Hilda Heine (Marshall Islands), Dame Carol Kidu (Papua New Guinea), and Ro Teimumu Kepa (Fiji). We parse out factors that explain the success of these leaders while also identifying barriers that have prevented their emergence in other Pacific states. We identify two main ways in which women politicians have used the position of leader of the opposition: first, the conventional understanding of the role as a path to power; and second, the less well-understood role of defending and protecting democratic norms and institutions. The latter can be interpreted as a version of the “glass cliff” phenomenon where women leaders assume key positions in times of crisis. Our findings thus highlight that while in the Pacific the role of leader of the opposition can be a path to power, the relatively few women leaders who have taken on this role have used it in diverse and varied ways.

While women have increasingly gained access to the position of opposition leader, we still know very little about their pathways to that office. Therefore, this article seeks to uncover the dynamics and patterns that distinguish the ascendency of women politicians to the office of opposition leader from a comparative perspective. In this article, opposition leaders are understood as the parliamentary party group leaders of the largest non-governing party in a given legislative assembly, which marks the closest equivalent to the Westminster understanding of leaders of the opposition that continues to dominate international notions of opposition leaders and oppositional leadership in parliamentary democracies. We draw on data from opposition leaders in 28 parliamentary democracies between 1996-2020 to identify opportunity structures that allow women opposition leaders to emerge across countries. In addition, we test how factors on the individual level (e.g., previous experience in party and parliament as well as in government) and at the party level (e.g., ideology) affect the likelihood that a parliamentary opposition leader is a woman. Our analyses demonstrate that the share of women in parliament significantly increases the likelihood that at least one of the parliamentary opposition leaders of the past 25 years was a woman. Moreover, opposition leaders in leftist parties are more likely to be women than their more rightist counterparts. Surprisingly, and contrary to our expectations, previous political experience does not shape the probability of women becoming opposition leaders. Thus, overall, the institutional and ideological contexts of selecting parliamentary opposition leaders seem to matter more than the experience and qualifications of individual candidates.

The European Parliament (EP) is an intriguing arena to study the nexus between gender, speech-making, and leadership performance, as it simultaneously challenges and confirms gender-based hierarchies in legislative contexts. While the EP has a higher level of women's representation than national parliaments, women's access to top-level positions nonetheless remains limited. Yet the EP is a special case of a legislature. Lacking a right of initiative, it often acts collectively as an inter-institutional opposition to the EU core institutions. In this article, through a software-assisted analysis of EP debates following the president's State of the Union Address, we investigate party group leaders' evaluations of the Commission's proposals and their charismatic rhetoric from a gender angle. Focusing on the three most recent legislatures (2009-2021), our analysis shows that while collective inter-institutional opposition is present in the EP, women leaders generally show higher levels of rhetorical skillfulness and voice either approval or opposition toward the Commission more emphatically than their male counterparts. Supplementary Files: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/downloadSuppFile/6172/3090

Das Corona-Homeoffice kann als Gelegenheitsstruktur für Karriere und Führungsbeteiligung von Frauen angesehen werden, die durch neue materielle (Aufbau digitaler Infrastruktur) und soziale (gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz) Rahmenbedingungen gekennzeichnet ist. Es ermöglicht Flexibilisierung, was insbesondere Menschen mit Sorgeverpflichtungen erweiterte Optionen für Rollenvielfalt eröffnet. Führen aus dem Homeoffice erfordert außerdem neue Führungsarchitekturen und -kommunikation. Inwieweit die hierdurch entstehenden Chancen genutzt werden können, wird von einem entsprechenden Wandel in der Unternehmenskultur sowie einer neuen Verteilung der Sorgearbeit im privaten Bereich abhängen., COVID-driven work from home can be seen as an opportunity structure for women's careers and leadership participation, characterized by new material and social framework conditions (development of digital infrastructure and social acceptance). It facilitates flexibility, which opens up expanded options for role diversity, especially for people with care responsibilities. Remote leadership also requires new leadership architectures and communication. The extent to which opportunities can be exploited will depend on a corresponding change in corporate culture and a new distribution of care work in the private sphere.

Under the motto "God, homeland, and family" - but also by stressing one further important marker of social identity, i.e., gender - Italian radical right party leader Giorgia Meloni multiplied her party seats in parliament from 2013 onwards. After the 2022 elections, she became the first woman prime minister in Italy. Starting from an overview of the figure of Giorgia Meloni as a radical right woman leader, we explore her and her party's position on women-related issues and their relevance while exploring, in opposition, two different contexts: representative institutions and social media. To do that, we draw on parliamentary data - bills and parliamentary questions introduced in parliament by Fratelli d'Italia - and on Meloni's public discourse - examined in an analysis of all the tweets posted by her official Twitter account, between 2013 and 2021. As expected, a low saliency of women's issues appears in all the types of data examined, although some of them are more exposed to the shift in attention caused by the rise of related trend topics. Both Meloni and her party are strong supporters of the "natural family" and make use of women’s issues in claiming femonationalist arguments, especially on social media. However, Meloni and her party cannot be considered as fully "neo-traditional," as are other similar parties in Europe, but rather as a combination of "neo-traditional" and "modern-traditional."

Women in Central and Eastern Europe have made gains as presidents and prime ministers. A notable exception to this is Belarus, where President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the longest dictator in Europe, has tightly clung to power since 1994. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya surprised many when she threw her hat in the ring for the 2020 presidential election. This article asks how Tsikhanouskaya arose as the 2020 opposition candidate and how gender shaped the campaign. Gender played a central role in her being able to stand in the election. Her husband had been a leading presidential candidate but was imprisoned by the regime. Like women who rose to executive leadership positions, Tsikhanouskaya ran in her husband’s place. Lukashenka permitted her candidacy because he did not see her as a political threat. Lukashenka regularly diminished her candidacy using sexist rhetoric. Tsikhanouskaya's own campaign highlighted more traditionally feminine traits such as being a nurturer, unifier, and non-power seeking, and only being in politics by chance. Referring to herself as an "accidental candidate," she made it clear that she sought to unify the Belarussian people against the dictatorship and would step aside after this was accomplished. As de facto opposition leader, she continues to highlight these more feminine qualities and craft a less threatening image.

While some world regions have seen women opposition leaders with no ties to political families rise to national leadership, in East Asia, women opposition leaders who ascend to national executive positions have been largely limited to the wives, daughters, or sisters of prominent male politicians. Locally, however, there have been some broadening and diversification of women who seek and win executive office through oppositional politics. Given the small number of women opposition leaders who have gained leadership positions in the government, this article develops an interpretive study of the relationship between becoming "critical actors" and doing "critical acts" as women opposition leaders. Using four illustrative cases of women who have pursued executive power through oppositional politics, this article questions whether and how the variation in women’s pathways affects their exercise of power in Indonesia and South Korea, two young though consolidating democracies in East Asia. Drawing on the biographies and policies of two presidents (Megawati Soekarnoputri and Park Geun-hye) and two mayors (Tri Rismaharini and Kim Soo-young) it shows that local women opposition leaders use their executive leadership to initiate and implement public policies, unlike their national counterparts whose pathways and performance are intertwined with family background. By doing so, the article sheds light on the complex nexus between political pathways and performance of women opposition leaders.

In some precolonial regimes in sub-Saharan Africa, queen mothers ruled alongside kings. Yet, women were dislodged from leadership positions over time. Today, many countries are discussing how to boost the number of women in politics and business. Some sub-Saharan African countries are already among the top 25 in terms of proportion of women in parliament, and boast above-average percentages of women on corporate boards. How did women become leaders in these sectors? Men usually dominate in leadership positions; however, some countries have achieved impressive numbers of women in political and economic leadership by introducing affirmative policies in favour of fast-tracking women's participation. Although there are still miles to go before gender parity is finally achieved, certain countries in sub-Saharan Africa show that changing the rules of the game by implementing a mixture of affirmative policies increases the number of women in leadership positions. Women's movements are behind the big jumps in female representation that countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made. Especially in post-war societies, women's movements have used the opportunity to push for more women in leadership. For example, the Women's National Coalition in South Africa lobbied for a gender advisory body to the Constitutional Assembly, which contributed to the Constitution now including a strong equality clause. Even though we have witnessed many women being sent back to private spaces after wars, the immediate post-war context can drastically change the social standing of women for the better. Alongside structural factors that increase women's participation in leadership, there are also individual factors that certain women bring to the table. Wealthy and educated women often climb up the career ladder. Additionally, women who benefit from training for management and mentoring are empowered to participate in politics and business. While it is easy to look at the global gender equity gap and s

Die Beteiligung von Frauen an Entscheidungsprozessen und damit an (fach-)politischer Macht ist ein wesentliches Element von Geschlechtergerechtigkeit. Wichtige Grundlage für eine stärkere Repräsentation von Frauen in Leitungs- und Entscheidungsgremien und daraus gleichstellungspolitische Impulse und Maßnahmen zu entwickeln, sind eine gute Datengrundlage und ein regelmäßiges Monitoring. Der Datenreport stellt Daten zur Hochschulleitung, Senaten, Hochschulräten und Fakultätsleitungen zusammen. Aufbereitet werden Daten des Statistischen Bundesamt sowie eigene Erhebungen. Bundesweite Daten zur Besetzung von Senaten und zur Leitung von Fakultäten erhob das CEWS erstmalig für 2018. Diese Erhebung wurde für 2021 wiederholt und wird zukünftig alle drei Jahre aktualisiert. Differenziert nach Hochschultyp, Trägerschaft und Bundesland sowie im Zeitverlauf wird die Teilhabe von Frauen an den Hochschulgremien ausgewertet. Ziel des Berichts ist das Datenmonitoring.

Narratives of Triumph and Loss explores the successes, challenges and controversies of women's post-conflict political leadership. Through interviews with women who have held significant leadership positions, the book explores the relationships between their educational, professional, activist and personal backgrounds. It situates their stories within historical and contemporary political contexts, illustrating the gendered ways in which women experience politics as citizens and politicians. Rwanda and South Africa have amongst the highest representation levels of women in national legislatures in the world. Consequently, the recent literature on women and politics in these countries mostly focuses on women parliamentarians only. However, there is a need to examine the nuances of women's political leadership, amongst and beyond parliamentarians. To this end, narratives were collected from eleven semi-structured interviews with women political leaders in Rwanda and South Africa. These narratives suggest new insights in the area of women and politics in these countries. Firstly, early life experiences influence their political priorities as leaders. Secondly, in relation to ordinary women, women political leaders are an educationally and professionally advantaged group of women. Thirdly, their experiences and positions within society and politics are still greatly influenced by their gender, and gender inequality. Lastly, their leadership is influenced by numerous factors, which ultimately affects the impact of their presence. In light of this, their experiences show that women political leaders are still affected by their gendered status within society, thus affecting the contributions that they are able to make in rebuilding their societies.

In recent years, female senior scientists at universities and research institutions have repeatedly been accused, completely anonymously, of "leadership misconduct" or "abuse of power". In leadership positions, women are in the minority, in general as well as academic contexts. Their behaviour has been shown to be evaluated differently by superiors, colleagues, employees, and students than that of men in similar positions due to unconscious bias. In this paper, we argue that as a result of unconscious bias, female senior scientists are at increased risk of becoming involved in conflictual processes as a result of complaints because there is a mismatch between gender expectations and professional roles. This is especially true for organisations that have inadequate structures, processes, and procedures for dealing with complaints and conflict. Based on this, we provide recommendations for the development of procedures for dealing with conflicts at universities and research organisations that constitute viable and better alternatives to anonymous complaints.

Das Thema der Chancengleichheit bei der Besetzung von Führungspositionen hat in der öffentlichen Debatte in den letzten Jahren an Fahrt aufgenommen. In diesem Forschungsbericht zeigt sich, dass der Fortschritt bei der Gleichstellung im Managementbereich sehr langsam vorangeht und dabei der Frauenanteil in Führungspositionen stark vom Frauenanteil in der Belegschaft abhängt. Zum Beispiel nennen etwa 30 Prozent der Betriebe keine explizite Frauenförderstrategie, bewegen sich im Mittelfeld bei den Frauenanteilen in Führungspositionen, weisen aber höhere Frauenanteilen in den unteren Ebenen auf. Nur sehr wenige Betriebe haben eine Geschlechterquote für die Besetzung von Führungspositionen eingeführt. Bei der Bewertung der Geschlechterquote zeigen sich deutliche Interessenkonflikte zwischen weiblichen und männlichen Beschäftigten. Frauen weisen eine höhere Akzeptanz der Quote auf, Männer möchten eher nach dem Leistungsprinzip entschieden haben. Schlussendlich haben Betriebe mit einem expliziten Frauenförderziel eine höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit, ihren tatsächlichen Frauenanteil in Managementfunktionen zu erhöhen. Frauen honorieren diese Strategien, indem sie sich weniger benachteiligt und mehr gefördert fühlen., Equality of opportunities regarding promotions was increasingly debated in the recent years. This report shows however, that the convergence of chances between the sexes develops slowly and the female share in management positions is highly determined by the female share in the workforce. For instance, around 30 percent of the establishments report no explicit strategy to support women for being promoted to a management position. These establishments exhibit a medium share of women in management positions but a larger share among lower level jobs. In addition, only few establishments announce a gender quota for management positions. Conflicts of interest between male and female employees are observed when the perception of a gender quota is evaluated. While women show a larger acceptance of a gender quota, men prefer promotion decisions to be based on the meritocracy principle. Finally, those establishments with an explicit strategy to support women exhibit a larger probability to actually increase their female share in management positions. And these establishments profit from women perceiving less discrimination and a higher level of support.

Many have argued that supporting women’s leadership is an important pathway to women’s empowerment. However, there is still a need for better understanding of how women become leaders, particularly at the grassroots level, and how they support social change. This article explores women’s leadership as part of a grassroots microfinance organisation, Rojiroti. Through interviews and focus group discussions, it finds that Rojiroti’s women leaders were motivated to become leaders to create better opportunities for their families and communities, and that they lead in line with frameworks of transformative leadership by supporting relationship building, by facilitating and guiding knowledge transfer and by providing space for reflection and skills for action (Wakefield, 2017). In particular, their situated knowledge was essential for inspiring shared vision for challenging unequal power relations. Overall, better understanding their leadership, that particularly nurtures relationships and collaboration, due to their position as being from the social groups they sought to support, is critical to the current challenges facing interventions and activism that seek to promote women’s empowerment and contribute to social change.

While all government portfolios used to be the purview of men exclusively, more and more women are selected to sit around the cabinet table. But under which circumstances do women get appointed to different ministerial portfolios? This article, proposes a theoretical framework to consider how party leaders’ attitudes and motivations influence the allocation of portfolios to male and female ministers. These propositions are tested empirically by bringing together data on 7,005 cabinet appointments across 29 European countries from the late 1980s until 2014. Considering the key partisan dynamics of the ministerial selection process, it is found that women are significantly less likely to be appointed to the ‘core’ offices of state, and ‘masculine’ and ‘neutral’ policy areas. However, these gender differences are moderated by the ideology of the party that allocates them. Women are more likely to be appointed to ‘masculine’ portfolios when a party's voters have more progressive gender attitudes. This theoretical framework and analysis enhances our understanding of women's access to the government, which has important implications for how ministers are selected, as well as how women are represented in the most powerful policy‐making positions in Europe.

Wie steht es um die Gleichstellung zwischen Frauen und Männern innerhalb der Gruppe der Professor:innen? Das BMBF-geförderte Verbundprojekt "Jenseits der Gläsernen Decke: Professorinnen zwischen Anerkennung Marginalisierung" unter Leitung von Prof.Dr. Tanja Paulitz (TU Darmstadt) und Prof.Dr. Leonie Wagner (HAWK) hat dies untersucht und präsentiert nun zentrale Ergebnisse in einer Handreichung für die hochschul- und gleichstellungspolitische Praxis. Die Sozialwissenschaftler:innen befragten Professorinnen und Professoren an Universitäten, Fachhochschulen, Kunst- und Musikhochschulen. Die Studie zeigt hochschultyp-übergreifend: Auch jenseits der gläsernen Decke der Lebenszeitberufung bleiben geschlechtsbasierte Asymmetrien bestehen. Diese sind nicht immer offensichtlich, sondern in informelle Praktiken eingebettet. Maßnahmen für mehr Gleichstellung stehen daher vor der Aufgabe, über die reine Steigerung der Frauenanteile auf der Professur hinaus einen grundlegenden Kulturwandel an Hochschulen einzuleiten.

Despite South Africa's progressive and comprehensive labour legislation that promotes gender equality in the workplace, this goal has not been fully achieved as yet. This is particularly evident when comparing managerial ranks, particularly in top management at South African banks. This phenomenon is still present today despite overwhelming evidence, supporting the benefits of a diverse management team. This study, therefore, explores the factors, influencing the underrepresentation of women in top management. Therefore, the main objective was to determine the challenges women face in progressing into top management at a South African bank. The study used a qualitative research approach in the form of a case study at one of the largest South African banks. The population for the study included women in top and senior management of the case study bank. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data were analysed through Atlast T. I. Findings indicate that poor career progression prospects exist, mainly hampered by organisational structure, lack of sponsorship and a hostile working environment. The study adds to the existing body of knowledge by providing insights into barriers to women's progression in the financial services sector and providing practical implementation measures to promote career progression for women.

Teilzeitarbeit in Führungsetagen ist eine Ausnahme, obwohl das Thema Arbeitszeitreduzierung durch veränderte Familienarrangements und zunehmende berufliche Belastung wichtiger geworden ist. Daran hat weder der seit mehr als 20 Jahren bestehende Rechtsanspruch auf einen Teilzeitarbeitsplatz noch das im Jahr 2019 eingeführte Rückkehrrecht auf einen Vollzeitarbeitsplatz nach zeitlich begrenzten Arbeitszeitreduktionen etwas geändert. Dieser Beitrag nutzt Daten der Europäischen Arbeitskräfteerhebung, um Teilzeitarbeit von Führungskräften in Deutschland sowohl im zeitlichen als auch im internationalen Vergleich einzuordnen und damit ein empirisches Fundament für die gesellschaftliche Diskussion um Teilzeitführungskräfte zu legen. Die Auswertungen zeigen: In Deutschland arbeiteten im Jahr 2019 laut eigener Aussage rund 14 Prozent der Führungskräfte in Teilzeit. Im europäischen Vergleich gehört Deutschland damit zu den Ländern mit dem höchsten Anteil an teilzeitarbeitenden Führungskräften. Die Auswertungen zeigen auch, dass in Deutschland der Anteil der weiblichen Führungskräfte in Teilzeit mit rund 32 Prozent deutlich über dem der männlichen Führungskräfte liegt (rund 3 Prozent) und es große Unterschiede nach Altersgruppen gibt. Als Motiv für eine Arbeitszeitreduktion geben Führungskräfte, insbesondere Frauen, zumeist Pflege- und Betreuungsverpflichtungen.

Seit über 30 Jahren informieren Berichte der Gemeinsamen Wissenschaftskonferenz (GWK) bzw. der Bund-Länder-Kommission für Bildungsplanung und Forschungsförderung (BLK) über Chancengleichheit im deutschen Wissenschaftssystem. Die 25. Fortschreibung des Datenmaterials gibt in diesem Jahr Anlass, einen qualifizierten Rückblick auf die Repräsentation der Geschlechter an Hochschulen und außerhochschulischen Forschungseinrichtungen zu werfen. Schlaglichter sollen Erfolge und Stagnation beleuchten, insbesondere mit Blick auf weitere notwendige Schritte auf dem Weg zu mehr Geschlechtergerechtigkeit in der Wissenschaft. Darüber hinaus berücksichtigt der Rückblick für einzelne Bereiche (Studierende, wissenschaftliches Personal, Professuren) die Verknüpfung der Kategorie Geschlecht mit anderen Ungleichheitskategorien wie z.B. sozialer Herkunft. Damit folgt der Bericht Erkenntnissen aus Gleichstellungspraxis und Geschlechterforschung, die besagen, dass Personen gleichen Geschlechts keine homogenen Gruppen darstellen. Dieser Rückblick betrachtet deshalb einzelne Bereiche auch aus intersektionaler Perspektive. Schließlich soll in diesem Rückblick auch thematisiert werden, an welchen Stellen - trotz deutlicher Verbesserung der Datenlagen seit der ersten Publikation - weiterhin Daten fehlen.

Eine Tätigkeit als PR-Beraterin oder PR-Redakteurin eröffnet Geisteswissenschaftlerinnen eine Vielzahl von Chancen in Agenturen und Unternehmen. Sie gelten als kommunikativ, sprach- und stilsicher, kreativ und kompetent im Umgang mit Menschen. Mithilfe ihrer im Studium erworbenen Fähigkeiten zum Disziplinen übergreifenden Denken und ihrer Intuition erschließen sie sich den Kontakt zu den verschiedensten Kunden, Branchen, Medienpartnern und weiteren Bezugsgruppen. Doch zu welchem Preis? Wo stoßen die hochqualifizierten, zu Generalistinnen ausgebildeten Geisteswissenschaftlerinnen an ihre Grenzen? Welche Anforderungen werden an Führungskräfte in puncto Verhandlungsgeschick, Durchsetzungsvermögen und Machtbewusstsein gestellt? Es wurden über 30 Geisteswissenschaftlerinnen interviewt, die im Bereich PR in Agenturen und Unternehmen auf unterschiedlichen Hierarchieebenen und in den verschiedensten Branchen tätig sind. Die qualitativ ausgerichtete Befragung behandelte die Themen Studium, Einstieg in den Job, Berufsalltag, Qualifikationen, Aufstieg und Karrierehemmnisse. Die im Studium zu Generalistinnen ausgebildeten Berufsanfänger werden beim Berufseinstieg durch Praktika, Studentenjobs oder Volontariaten mit dem oft mühsamen und aufwändigen Dienst am Kunden konfrontiert. Die Absolventen verfügen selten über im Studium erworbene spezifische PR-Kenntnisse; vielmehr haben sie ein komplexes Instrumentarium an Herangehensweisen, Denkarten oder Strategien zum Erschließen von Texten entwickelt. Im Job müssen sie plötzlich im Alleingang scheinbar uninteressante Meldungen an Journalisten verkaufen, Beratungskompetenz gegenüber Kunden in Krisensituationen beweisen, in kürzester Zeit Presseverteiler für spezielle Fachthemen aufbauen oder ohne spezifisches Fachwissen und Kontakte neue Kunden akquirieren. Nicht nur das Schreiben, sondern vor allem das Verkaufen steht im Mittelpunkt - zuerst dienen, dann verdienen. Dies gelingt meist nur durch überdurchschnittliche Selbstmotivation un

This paper is focused on the Albanian electoral system, its total inclusion approach, protection and promotion of gender characteristics, historical and legal developments on the gender quotas necessity, the comparison in time and space, the barriers and opportunities to promote gender politics in public and social area in Albania. The methodology will consist of a comparative analysis of legislation, the international legal framework, recommendations of international institutions, policy papers on identifying the causes why higher gender representation in politics produces estimated results in the public area, social and economic development. Analysis of the circumstances, historical periods, social and economic impact in legal amendments would be another methodology component. Gender quotas provide a critical minority of women, from 20% to a gender balance of 50%, either as an education of the community to face with real gender balance in common life.

Women remain under-represented in leadership positions in many countries. Since executive search consultants (also known as headhunters) act as gatekeepers in the hiring process, headhunters' biases might influence the female under-representation. There is preliminary evidence that suggests headhunters favor men, but direct evidence is missing. Thus, this study directly tested this assumption using implicit and explicit measures (an implicit association test and a gender role attitudes survey), completed by 123 German executive search consultants. Although neither measure showed an anti-women bias (with the explicit measure being compared to a match sample from a representative survey using propensity score matching), the implicit association test showed an in-group bias (i.e., male headhunter had a stronger association of men and competence than of women and competence). The latter is worrisome because the majority of consultants in this business are men. Thus, organizations interested in more female managers need to carefully consider who they hire as their executive search consultants.

This paper looks at men's and women's positions in the labour market and relates them to their basic skills. In a meritocratic society higher skills are supposed to relate to higher outcomes. We question whether this relation is equally true for men and women. Using data for 13 countries from the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), an international large-scale assessment, this paper examines monthly wages and a person's probability to be in a managerial position. Our analyses show that, on average, men with higher skills get higher wages and have a higher probability to be in a managerial position than women with equally high skills. We show that the relation between skills and outcomes is more proportional for men than for women and that the gender pay gap does apply to women and men with similar skills. In addition, the results highlight a gap in managerial positions between men and women with the same basic skills., Wir wissen, dass auf dem Arbeitsmarkt eine Vielzahl von Mechanismen greift, die Frauen und Männer ungleich positionieren und deren Erfolgschancen beeinflussen. Dennoch bleibt in unseren meritokratischen Gesellschaften die grundlegende Annahme, dass höhere Kompetenzen und (persönliche oder gesellschaftliche) Investitionen in Bildung zu einer größeren Gleichberechtigung beitragen könnten. Doch trifft dies tatsächlich für Männer und Frauen gleichermaßen zu? In diesem Artikel prüfen wir anhand der PIAAC-Datensätze (Adult Skill Survey) für 13 europäische Länder, in welchem Maße die Kompetenzen von Männern und Frauen mit deren Positionen im Arbeitsmarkt korrelieren. In multivariaten Regressionen wird in der vorliegenden Untersuchung festgestellt, dass der Zusammenhang von Kompetenzen und Erfolg für Männer proportional verläuft, während dies für Frauen nicht der Fall ist. Ein Mehr an Fähigkeiten führt für sie keineswegs zu höheren Positionen oder Einkommen. Dies gilt sowohl für das monatliche Einkommen als auch für das Innehaben von Führungspositionen. Frauen haben im Schnitt höhere Kompetenzen als Männer bei ähnlicher Bezahlung und ähnlichen Positionen.

Frauen waren und sind in Führungspositionen deutscher Wirtschaftsunternehmen unterrepräsentiert. Trotz politischer und betrieblicher Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen liegt der Anteil weiblicher* Führungskräfte in nahezu allen wirtschaftlichen Sektoren deutlich unter dem Anteil weiblicher* Beschäftigter insgesamt. Unabhängig davon, ob Organisationen als strukturell vergeschlechtlicht (Acker 1991, 2006) betrachtet werden oder die Aktualisierung von Geschlecht als kontextabhängig (z. B. Heintz/Nadai 1998) und kontingent analysiert wird, problematisiert die Geschlechterforschung, dass politische Gesetze und/oder einzelne Selbstverpflichtungen von Unternehmen jene mehr oder weniger subtilen Prozesse der Geschlechterdifferenzierung in Organisationen über die Ungleichheit hergestellt werden, kaum berühren. Anhand einer qualitativen Untersuchung in der Verwaltung eines großen Einzelhandelsunternehmens in Deutschland wird gezeigt, wie informelle Prozesse einer Geschlechtergleichstellung entgegenstehen - selbst wenn die Organisation eine Erhöhung des Frauenanteils in Führungspositionen wünscht und in den untersten Führungsebenen der Frauenanteil bereits vergleichsweise hoch ist., Women remain underrepresented in management positions in Germany. Despite political, legal and company-level equal opportunities measures, the proportion of female* managers in almost all economic sectors is significantly lower than the overall proportion of female* employees. Irrespective of whether organizations are regarded as structurally gendered (Acker 1991, 2006) or gender is analyzed as a contextual and contingent category (i. e. Heintz/Nadai 1998), the main challenge is that political laws and/or individual voluntary commitments by companies hardly touch subtle processes of gender differentiation and inequality at organizational level. Using findings from a qualitative study in the administrative department of a large retail company in Germany, the article shows how informal processes oppose cultural change towards gender equality even though the organization aims at bringing more women into management position. And it shows that a larger percentage of women in lower management positions does not automatically improve their career opportunities.

Das seit 2008 bestehende Professorinnenprogramm zielt auf eine Erhöhung des Professorinnenanteils und die Verstärkung von strukturellen Gleichstellungswirkungen. Mit dem Ansatz einer rigorosen Wirkungsevaluation wird untersucht, ob sich kausale Effekte des Programms auf die Erhöhung des Professorinnenanteils nachweisen lassen. Im Vergleich von teilnehmenden und nicht teilnehmenden Hochschulen mit einer Pre-Post-Messung und der Berechnung der Differenz von Differenzen kann ein Effekt von 1,8% an teilnehmenden Hochschulen nachgewiesen werden. Auswahleffekte haben keinen Einfluss. Eine Zeitreihenanalyse belegt, dass bundesweit der Professorinnenanteil stärker stieg, als nach dem Durchschnitt der Vorjahre zu erwarten war. Wie sich die Wirkungen in den Hochschulen entfalten, ist eine offene Forschungsfrage. Mit dem Beitrag konnte ein quasi-experimentelles Forschungsdesign in einem Politikfeld verwirklicht werden, in dem rigorose Wirkungsevaluationen bisher wenig Anwendung finden., The "Women Professors Programme", which started in 2008 in Germany, aims at increasing the percentage of women professors and at strengthening structural change in gender equality: The approach of a rigorous impact evaluation enables to analyse causal effects of the programme on the representation of women professors. Pre-post-measurement and calculating differences in difference reveal an effect of 1.8% by which the percentage of women professors increased more in participating than in non-participating universities. Selection bias don't have any effect on the impact. A time series analysis proves that nationwide the percentage of women professors increased more than expected by the annual growth rate of the previous years. How the effects emerge inside the universities rests an open research question. The impact evaluation of the "Women Professors Programme" realizes a quasi-experimental design in a political area in which rigorous impact evaluations are scarce.

This article analyses the agency freedom of manager fathers in Hungary to claim work-family balance through corporate flexible working arrangements. Hobson’s interpretation of Sen’s capability approach (Hobson, Fahlén, & Takács, 2011) is applied to appraise the effect of individual resources and organizational and national context on managers' work-family balance, as well as their influence on organizational culture. An interview-based case study was undertaken at the Hungarian subsidiary of a Scandinavian multinational company, wherein 43 personal interviews were conducted with fathers in managerial positions. The interviews were analysed according to structuring qualitative content analysis. Managers benefitted from corporate flexibility (home office and flexible schedule), but experienced power asymmetries in terms of access to and use of the former according to hierarchy and department. Even though the men in these positions are assumed to be change agents, the majority of them perceived limited agency freedom to convert flexible working into work-family balance, or to influence organizational culture. The privileged position of managers was detected at the level of their individual agency. Most managers could economically afford to maintain a male breadwinner model. Therefore, limitations related to securing parental and flexibility rights were due to traditional gender norms, and the strong sense of entitlement to work. Consequently, the extent and means of use of flexibility did not challenge deeply rooted assumptions about ideal employee norms.