Browsing by Subject "Naisjohtajat"

The aim of this master’s thesis was to describe, analyze and interpret the perceptions of women who have progressed to the management level about their own success and the factors that have positively or negatively influenced their career path. In addition, the purpose of the study was to understand at a more general level their perceptions of the relatively small number of female leaders compared to men and their ideas of ways to increase that number. This dissertation is made at a time when equality matters have been on the table for a long time. My qualitative research consisted of seven semi-structured thematic interviews and they were analyzed by data-driven content analysis. The interviewees were currently or formerly in leadership positions, all women over 40 and under 70 years of age. All interviewees worked or had worked in medium-sized or large listed companies. Results of the study show that women leaders described their own success and the positive and negative factors that influenced their career, as well as the relative scarcity of women leaders and ways to increase the number with societal and organizational, social, and personal factors. Both their own success and the relative scarcity of female leaders were justified in particular by the importance of their own attitude and personality. Other important criteria for one’s own success were given, such as networks and contacts. The relative scarcity of female leaders was seen to be resulted from for example gender inequality in parental leave, segregated gender networks, and the different upbringing styles of boys and girls. Equalizing parental leave, having gender-neutral networks, raising children in the same way, and examining one’s own attitude were some of the solutions given by the interviewees. Overall, the results revealed that many explanations were given for one’s own success and for the lack of female leaders in general, and the interviewees did not name just a few decisive factors that determine a person’s success, but it is a sum of many different factors.