Page 420 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

16. INTERNATIONAL EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION
in Turkey in 1997); the highest rates are in Scandinavian countries (e.g.,
Iceland with 68.4%) resulting from the combination of a highly educated
female workforce and government policies of childcare subsidies for work­
ing mothers (Elder & Johnson, 1999). 385
Another related issue is the effect of protective laws limiting women's
occupational choices. For example, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Poland have
protective laws that prohibit women from working in dangerous occupa­
tions (e.g., underground, in a tunnel, in contact with gene-mutable chemi­
cals or radiation; Diep & Ne, 2001; Mertus, 1998; Singer, 2000). The intention
may be benevolent but critics of such laws claim that these protections ef­
fectively pigeonhole women into low-wage "female" jobs, and encourage
employers to discriminate against women (Singer, 2000). For example, Pol­
ish women are banned from 90 occupations and jobs that are usually better
paid than "feminized" jobs (Mertus, 1998).
The Glass Ceiling For some women who are employed and who intend
to pursue a successful career, the discrimination against them may take a
more subtle form. The "glass ceiling" metaphor refers to artificial barriers
blocking women's efforts to advance to high decision-making positions
in an organization. The glass ceiling effect is experienced by women in
both developed and developing countries. For instance, the odds of an
Australian woman occupying a middle-level managerial appointment are
46% of those of a man; these odds were significantly reduced to only one-
third those of a man for a woman in Sweden (Baxter & Wright, 2000).
Chinese managerial women received a less positive social image than men
(Verschyurr-Basse, 1996) and were systematically excluded from senior
managerial positions (Meng & Miller, 1995). However, the modest 25%
of all administrative and managerial positions that Chinese women hold
(Kerr et al., 1996) is still an improvement compared with only 5.1 % of those
in Bangladesh (Zafarullah, 2000), 6.6% in Indonesia, 8.3% in Malaysia, and
15.4% in Thailand (Wright & Tellei, 1993). In Vietnam, although approx­
imately 50% of managerial appointments in some "feminized" major in­
dustries (e.g., process, utility) are occupied by women (Hoa, 2002), these
women managers are more likely to be a deputy to male top executives
than top executives themselves (Anh & Hung, 2000).
Feminization of Poverty This metaphor refers to the global phenomenon
of a gender-based pay gap favoring men (Hutchings, 1998). Throughout the
world, employed women typically have weaker earning power than men.
For example, a national study conducted in Australia found that on the
average, men earned up to 26% more than women did; this gender earn­
ings gap was reduced to 14% after taking into account major structural
factors such as demographics, sector, industry, occupation, and human
capital (Preston & Crockett, 1999). Similarly, on the average, full-time