EXPECTATIONS AND REALITIES: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FEMALE GENDER AND INSTITUTIONAL PRESSURES

This paper is questioning about the hurdles and the opportunities to women’s ascent to senior executive offices. To examine the women carriers’ trajectory and their factor of success, we use a cross-disciplinary approach and a qualitative method. After conceptualizing the female gender as an institution and its reality as a social construction, we developed a multilevel discussion about the women’s barriers, opportunities and choices during her carriers. The preposition is that female executives are exposed to institutional factors and institutional duality. After interviewing 46 women in Brazil we concluded that the social pressure could be a cause of the institutional duality and also lead women to become more isomorphic to male stereotypes. This study suggests that the relationship between women and their families, society and institutions changes with timLe. Among Phase I women the environment involves expectations and their families support them in their quest for their professional trajectories. Family and societal pressures are compounded for Phases II and III women. In both groups the pressure if applied upon professional success and by the self-actualization of women as wives and mothers. Phase IV women who opted for a better quality of living and feel less pressured by the institution. Despite the discontent with the condition of women within the organizations, none of the respondents seemed engaged to act as a male institutions change agent, making them better balanced and adequate to the professional growth of other women. We also concluded that this isomorphism is correlated with the female success achievement to higher hierarchical positions. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this research.