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SUMMARY
Modern business faces challenges every day. In a globalized world, these challenges are often complex since each society has its own traits. One of the challenges in a globalized business is a gender issue, which raises many questions among members of academia and broad public as well. The participation of women in management is obviously not sufficient, regardless of a country's development. Women face stereotypes, prejudices and segregation in the workplace worldwide and they often do not have the same opportunities as their male colleagues. "Glass ceiling" effect is also relevant issue since it represents the invisible barrier which disables women in their efforts to reach the corporate top. Aforementioned issues are more complex in cross-cultural and changing environment since different cultures have different view on these issues. In this paper, authors will elaborate the problem of participation of women in management in Bosnia and Herzegovina, former socialist society. Transition to liberal democracy combined with market economy triggered many changes in lifestyles, rate of employment, family relations, redistribution of resources and social classes. These changes combined with patriarchal heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina burdened women in their pursuit for career and professional success. Main objectives of the research were: a) to ascertain the number of women in management, b) to identify stereotypes women face and c) to analyze the influence of patriarchal cultural heritage which observes women as wives and mothers. Hopefully, the results of this research will open a discussion among members of academia and broad public, since results showed insufficient participation of women in management due to the legacy of patriarchal heritage and stereotypes that emerged from it.
Key words: gender, glass ceiling, management, participation, stereotypes, women
INTRODUCTION
Although progress had been made in business concerning human resources in a globalized world, the gender issue and equality of women in business still poses many questions to theoreticians and public worldwide.
Regardless on development of a country, women and minorities still face invisible barriers which disable them in their carrier achievements in corporate world. This phenomenon was first introduced in Wall Street Journal ini 986 and was metaphorically called "glass ceiling". Ever since, large number of studies on glass ceiling on international level had been conducted1.
In 2006, data show that...