Barriers to women's career advancement in Pakistan: Insights from women in senior management roles

Abstract

This research delves into the challenges impeding women's advancement into higher management roles within Pakistani workplaces. Employing qualitative methods, specifically semi-structured interviews, with six female higher management position holders in higher education institutions, the study explores the various barriers encountered along their career trajectories and the strategies to overcome them. Participants were selected using purposive and snowball sampling techniques, engaging in interviews lasting between 30 to 60 minutes. The findings reveal obstacles such as limited access to continuing education, subtle workplace discrimination, and biased colleague treatment. Additionally, the study highlights the effectiveness of family-friendly policies, such as remote work and flexible scheduling, in assisting women in balancing professional and parenting responsibilities. Furthermore, it identifies the need for women to adopt traditionally male behaviours, like assertiveness, to advance in their careers. This paper contributes by filling a gap in HR management and higher education, in which empirical studies on the status of women faculty and the barriers they face have been limited. Overall, the research underscores the importance of precisely addressing women's career-related challenges in career progression and provides a roadmap for further exploration by scholars in this field.