Management courses and women

Abstract

Over the past decade there have been many reports and a lot of research into women's employment and women's concentration in low-paid, low-status jobs. A major explanation of the small numbers of women at management levels have usually been the lack of training and development of women, so that policy recommendations to government, employers and trainers have stressed the need for greater management development of women (Hunt 1975, Ashridge 1980). Practical response has, however, been generally low and evaluation of pilot schemes has been even more scarce. The following paper therefore sets out to describe the response to one such pioneering venture—the Henley Women's Scholarship Scheme—and to discuss some of the broader issues for those developing courses for women managers.