Gender-Role Stereotypes: Perception of Tunisian Leaders

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to report on the problem of the glass ceiling in Tunisian companies. First, by recalling on the basis of statistical findings the situation of women at work, and then highlighting the main results of the surveys carried out in Tunisia on the question, and finally by highlighting some prospects for the strategies envisaged to go beyond The glass ceiling.

While organizations are places of meritocratic recognition in which more and more women graduate into skilled occupations, they are also places where informal, often unequal power relationships are built that determine access to decision-making positions. Women are becoming increasingly scarce as they rise in the hierarchy and remain a minority in high-level decision-making and accountability positions. They have less access to hierarchical positions (Ben Hassine, 2007). They are often limited to administrative or relational activities (Gadéa, 2003). Thus, in the private sector, out of 30 large Tunisian companies, only 4 of them have a woman on their works council (GIZ, 2013).

The identification of the different factors involved in the glass ceiling also raises questions about the behaviors and strategies developed in the context of organizational contexts reproducing the male career model, as well as the diversity of these behaviors. This study also allows us to consider changes and strategies of change in career development and women's access to decision-making positions that will push the boundaries.