In Case study 15.3 of Northouse (2016)., “pregnancy as a barrier to job status” it has been described that how an efficient woman, who works very hard, had management skills and is much better than other employees is being asked to leave the job due to her pregnancy. It was usually a tendency of people in earlier times to think that women are much less efficient than men in management skills and in other specified jobs. In this case study, a lady named Marina Soslow’s story is being described as “Marina Soslow is a senior managing director at a manufacturing company. She has worked at the company for 10 years, gradually working her way up to a responsible position. She would like to win promotion to a top executive position and has recently finished an MBA, which supplements her master’s degree in chemical engineering. Several months ago, she found out she was pregnant. She is reluctant to tell her boss, Roy Bond, the division head, because she knows several other women who were eased out of their positions before they gave birth or shortly thereafter. After a meeting with Roy about a new product, Marina mentions her pregnancy and says that she plans to take a three-month leave of absence after her delivery. She begins describing the plans she has carefully worked out for distributing her work. Roy cuts her short and says, “I knew this was going to happen sooner or later; it always does.” He says this as if a disaster is about to occur. “There’s no point in talking about this now. We’ll think about it later.” Marina can tell that he’s very annoyed about what he thinks is going to happen. She can see his wheels spinning and worries about the implications for her. She thinks, “Doesn’t Roy know about the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993? Legally, this company has to guarantee my job, but I know he can make it very rough for me.”(pg. 414,415).
It is a story that made me think how could a woman was criticized for no reason, at time when she actually need help nobody was there beside her, the only barrier that came for her advancement was she is a woman and she was asked why she is pregnant, her boss who is a male can never understand what a woman have to go through during that period of life, it is very heart throbbing to know such things prevailed in society. As mentioned in notes of unit 8 “The issue of gender equality in leadership needs to be addressed at the individual, interpersonal, organizational and societal levels. A more androgynous conception of leadership focusing on best practice is what is needed”.
At the time when Roy knew that she was pregnant He should allow Marina medical leave and allows allows her to distribute her work among other co-workers.Rather saying to talk later on that matter, he should respond quickly and efficiently.
To support her the other co-workers working extra will be paid for extra time and work who will be doing Marina’s work. Asking Marina if she can do extra time before going for medical leave, will schedule her work properly and as a good servant leader he should take care of all her work being done properly or not and should also involve in some of her work too.
On the organisational basis certain measures can be taken as framing new rules like advanced notice of medical notice should be given so, that during that time another employee can be hired on part time basis. So, that it doesn’t affect working efficiency and even advancement of the women. Medical leave should be paid during that period and complete medical help if possible should be given by the organisation to support women during pregnancy.
In today’s modern world, their is no one denying the fact that women are growing along with men in same pace rather a step ahead in every field.
It was not their deficiency that they were unable to come up in earlier times. Rather it was the opportunities, they were deprived of but not world has been growing and women too. What do you think about women growth in society now a days and what could be the other measures that can be taken to support women in an organisation ?
References :
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.