Women Mangers in Transition: From Homes To Corporate Offices

This paper discusses the shift of the Indian society from agrarian to industrial, and from rural to urban with reference to women in this process of transition. The career paths of women in management are classified in three distinct phases of about fifteen years each and the subsequent movement from being job-oriented to career-oriented to profession-oriented are discussed. In all the three phases women had distinct characteristics as far as their interface with home and work was concerned. They held a different corporate perspective in each of the three phases. They brought along the baggage of social structures, roles and relational processes of the previous phase and the role models of the preceding phase were identified with. In the second half of the paper, the external and internal barriers to women’s growth in management are discussed. External barriers range from culture, society, family to government policies and the economic factor. Internal barriers vary from mobility, socialization to duty at odd hours. Recognizing the need for change at a broader level, subsequently, training issued are directed towards building a new ethos of management in the relevant socio-cultural context.