Experiences and Needs of Female College Students in Administration

As more and more women enter the work world, an increasing number are enrolling in schools of business administration, public administration, management and administrative sciences at undergraduate and graduate levels (Gordon and Strober, 1975). These women are seeking positions offering upward mobility to the top levels of organizations. They expect and are willing to compete with men not only as students in the classroom during their formal university training but also on the job. Let us consider the environment in which they acquire their career training and preparation. First, they are in a minority position in the classroom in terms of numbers. Second, they are extremely visible. Third, the faculty responsible for their training and preparation is almost exclusively male. And fourth, the few women on the faculty are themselves more than likely subjected to discrimination in terms of salary and rank. Thus, women who decide to prepare themselves for a career in administration through university training will do so in an environment in which they are in the minority and which has itself been found to be discriminatory against females (Stead, 1975). Let us now consider the organizations into which they will go for their first jobs. Like men with similar training, they will probably assume positions of some responsibility. This means they will once again find themselves as a minority. If the first woman hired into a particular job or at a particular level, there will be no organizational precedent to rely on, few knowledgeable and sympathetic females for support, and few male superiors, peers and/or subordinates with previous experience in working as equals with females. Such a woman is certain to encounter one or more of the following: (1) men who perceive her in stereotyped ways (as a threat,