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Introduction
Despite equal pay legislation, women earn 15 per cent less per hour than men across countries that comprise The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2016). While the gender pay gap is only 4 per cent in Sweden, it is 29 per cent in the UK and 36 per cent in the USA (International Labour Organization, 2015). Women are significantly less likely to achieve senior management positions, with globally only 24 per cent in senior roles in 2016, an increase of only 3 per cent since 2011. Amongst global businesses, 33 per cent had no women in leadership positions in 2016 a position that had not changed since 2011 (Catalyst, 2018), while the proportion of women on FTSE 100 boards stands at only 28 per cent (Vinnicombe et al., 2017). It is no surprise, then, that this position has been termed either an opaque steel ceiling, or in neoliberal competitive work cultures, a glass ceiling. The difference between the two is that while the steel ceiling is impassible, for the glass ceiling the next level is visible with advancement dependent on working long hours, committing to continuous employment for the career life span and to meet or surpass excessive demands, relocating, organizing life around work and tolerating crisis-oriented and chaotic work patterns (Brumley, 2014; Kelly et al., 2010). As Schein (2001) puts it, studies lend strong support to the view that “think-manager - think male” is a global phenomenon, especially amongst males, fostering bias against women in managerial selection, promotion and training (Schein et al., 1996). This binary gender perspective was first identified in research stretching back to the late nineteen sixties and seventies which identified the attributes that are used to describe men and women (Broverman et al., 1972; Driekman and Eagly, 2000). Broadly, these gender stereotypes designated that men are agentic: they are considered to be aggressive, ambitious, dominant and task-oriented. In contrast, women are thought to be communal: they are seen as kind, sympathetic, interpersonally sensitive and people-oriented’ (Caleo and Heilman, 2013). These binary stereotypes have contributed to discrimination in organizations as they are descriptive: they describe what men and women are like, but also prescriptive; they state what men and women...