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30/04/2008Women on assignment: An evolutionary perspective

Women need air-miles to improve their international career prospects, but the first challenge many ambitious women face is getting an assignment in the first place. Natasha Gunn looks at the issues involved and examines the possible root of the problem.

Shelley Wheeler, who works for a multinational energy company, had been putting herself forward for an expatriate role for several years before she finally got a posting.

"I think it was difficult for people to 'hear' my request," Wheeler says.

"Decision-makers make assumptions as to what they think the best sort of assignment for someone would be. When they move that framework over to women they tend to eliminate certain jobs because of the locations they are in and assume they are either too dangerous or difficult," she says.

Now from her base in Dubai, Wheeler focuses on doing business in Kazakhstan.

After five months in her new role, she hasn't met any real problems due to being a woman in her early 30s in a traditionally male-dominated industry and culture.

Wheeler explains that when her company is dealing with local business contacts it is not usual that anybody goes alone. "Because I am the only woman on the team, inevitably it is a male colleague who goes with me," she says.

Cultural barriers

So how would Wheeler deal with men who found her gender to be an issue on the business floor? "I think it is always a matter of context," she says

"If I am the decision-maker in the room, and the men I am doing business with constantly address a male colleague, then, if it is necessary for the successful outcome of that meeting, I slowly make the other side aware that I am the person they need to refer to," Wheeler explains.

Intercultural trainer Dean Foster has observed that, depending upon the degree to which a culture has been involved in the process of globalisation, "foreign businesswomen are seen firstly as business people, secondly as representatives of their culture, and thirdly as women."


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