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Abstract
This article describes findings from a Catalyst study that explored why there are so few women with global assignments. The study reveals several prevailing assumptions in corporate and professional America about women's willingness and ability to relocate. One of the most pervasive is that dual-career issues hinder women's ability to relocate internationally. This assumption is applied universally to women regardless of personal situation and discounts how men are also in dual-career relationships. Furthermore, the study provides recommendations for employers to support dual-career couples relocating globally, thereby increasing the likelihood that assignment offers will be accepted and the assignment completed successfully.
Keywords
Dual-career couples, Expatriates, Women, Job mobility
It has been nearly impossible to open the business page over the last five years without witnessing the impact of globalization on business. Global customers and clients are contributing increasingly to the bottom-line of US corporations and professional firms and represent for many industries the most significant growth potential. A growing proportion of employees also hail from around the world. As a result, more and more chief executives are realizing that as their businesses globalize, so must their executive teams.
Most US organizations are flying blind in managing an increasingly diverse workforce. Companies know they do not have the necessary global bench strength, lacking both breadth and depth in global leadership capabilities (Gregersen et al., 1998). Yet companies are missing out on half of their global talent pool by not capitalizing on the capable women in their ranks. Women comprise only 13 per cent of expatriates (GMAC Global Relocation Services/ Windham International, National Foreign Trade Council, Institute for International Human Resources, 2000), while women are virtually equally represented in the middle management ranks from where expatriates are typically drawn.
To understand why there are so few women in global roles and to determine what employers can do about it, Catalyst (2000) conducted a two-year study, Passport to Opportunity: US Women in Global Business. The study included interviews and surveys of five key stakeholders:
(1) Current expatriates (individuals who have been relocated by their employer from their home country to another country).
(2) Spouses/partners of current expatriates.
(3) Former expatriates (those who have returned from an expatriate assignment within the last five years).
(4) Frequent...