Cross-Cultural Gender
Issues
France, US, China
Presented by Group 2A
Justin Sin
Yoann Loy
Nami Higashira
Yingshu Jin
Lynn Tan
General Information of China
• The third largest
country in the world:
- next to Canada and
Russia
• Employment in
China:
- Female employment
increased from 291
million in 1990 to 337
million in 2003
Source: XINHUANET, Beijing
Airline Industry in China
• Both Boeing and Airbus sell aircraft to China
• Chinese market is important for both companies
• China’s airline industry is growing
• However, gender inequality is still a serious problem in
China
• Men earn more than women for doing the same types of
work
Source:http://www.cen-chemjobs.org/employer/chemhr/NovDec03/womenexpatspr.html
The Most Common Beliefs For MNCs
• Women do not want to be international managers
• Women in dual-career marriages are poor
candidates for overseas assignments
• Foreigners’ unwillingness to accept women as
managers
Source:http://www.expatexchange.com/lib.cfm?articleID=937&start=1742&page=1
Barriers to Female in International
Assignments
• External barriers
- HR managers unwilling to select female
candidates
- Selector have stereotypes will influence
decisions
• Self-established barriers
- Women have limited willingness to relocate
- Women are often a barrier to their own careers
Source: International Human Resource Management 4th Edition
France’s General Facts
• Population: 60,424,213
• Capital City: Paris
• Major cities: Lyon,
Marseille, Toulouse.
• Language: French
• Land: 547,030 sq km
Political Overview of France
• Midst of transition, from a well-to-do modern economy to one that
relies more on market mechanisms
• government retains controlling stakes in several leading firms
• Social capitalism rules
• GDP: $1.661 trillion
• GDP Per Capita: $27,600
• Unemployment Rate: 9.7%
Gender issues in France
Work Market in France
Unemployment in France
45%
49%
51%
55%
Women
Men
Paradox approach on gender issues
• After 20 years of mass unemployment, despite all the forecasts, the
number of working women continues to rise
• But at the same time, inequalities are also rising between men and
women wages
• Gender pay gap between male and female is 22% nowadays,
whereas it was only 15% in the 70’s for new careers
• Why this difference? It depends of the career. Men tend to occupy
full time functions whereas women tend to have part time jobs
Paradox approach on gender issues (cont)
• France tend to have more a feminine culture, compared
to Western Societies
• How women are perceived?
- North/South different perceptions
• Typical French Women: « mothers of intervention » type
Male and Female expatriates Trends
(France)
• France-Expatriés Survey:
- Male expatriates: 48%
- Female expatriates: 52%
• Where are they located?
- Western Europe: 50.5%
- North America: 12.8%
- Francophon Africa: 10%
HRM & IRHM Practices in France
•
•
•
•
Policies and strategies
Selecting, recuiting, placement
Cultural orientation
Training: cultural awareness programs and language
oriented training
• Performance management
Source: IHRM 4th edition
Europe Movement
• Achieve female employment rate from 53% to
60% by 2010
• Recruit more female executives
• Gender balance for employment
– Neither sex should be over 60%
France Movement
• Presence of women in decision-making positions
(December 2000)
– Economic and Social Council
• “Gender Equality and Gender Balance in
Workforce Composition” (April 2004)
– Signed by France’s main employer’s organizations and
trade union confederations
National Action Plans for Employment
(2003)
Target
Specific
measures
Gender main
streaming
good
Substantial reduction in
gender gap in
employment
Objective is to
reach 60%
employment rate
in 2006
•Launch a national
equality charter
•Continue efforts for
equality law of 2001
X
substantial reduction
in gender gap in
unemployment
Reduce the
number of longterm unemployed
women by 5%
NO
Substantial reduction
in gender gap in pay
Reduce pay gaps
by a third by 2010
Notably
concerning pay
Reconciling work and
family objectives
The system is
ambivalent
Child care targets
Child care for
33% (instead of
30%)
Encourage
employers to
develop familyfriendly measures
positive
Neutral
or
negative
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
• Base in Toulouse, France
• European operations in France, Germany, Spain,
UK
• Main subsidiaries; Airbus North America, Airbus
China, Airbus Japan, Airbus Transport
International
(Source: www.airbus.com)
Male Dominated Industry, Airbus
• Strongly promoting gender equality
• Aircraft manufacturing business
– Less female labor over all (lack of interest)
• High positioned managers are mostly male
Management team of Airbus
• Vice executive presidents
• President, vice president,
chief executive officers
• General managers
• Subsidiary presidents
Female Employees’ Life at Airbus
• More visible and known,
• Added challenges (senior engineer)
• Respect from co-workers and business partners
(supplier development)
• Get treated no differently from the other men in
the factory (engineer)
(Source: Life at Airbus)
Airbus China
• Expatriates from Airbus France
– Majority is male
• Selection of expatriates to China issue
– Asia-women are tended not universally employed
2002年11月06日
8家供货商与空客中国
公司的代表合影
Recent Facts of Female in China
Science & Technology Workers in China 2000
Total
Occupied
by Women
Female
Proportion
Scientific
Research
744
262
35.20%
Technical
Service
903
309
34.20%
Total
1,642
571
34.70%
• Increasing number of female workers
• Female play important role
• Government promoting progress & development of
women
(Source: Chinese Statistic Annals of 2000)
Findings from Airbus
• Gender issues still exist
• Enforcing Equal Opportunity in France and China
• Employing more female
• Finding suitable female will be challenge because
of the industry
United States
• Language: English, Spanish
(spoken by a sizable minority)
• Land: 9,161,923 sq km
• Population: 293,027,571
(July 2004 est.)
• GDP: $10.99 trillion (2003
est.)
• GDP Per Capita: $37,800
(2003 est.)
Population and Employment Comparison
Total Population in North
America (millions)
Male
49%
Female
51%
Employment in North
America (millions)
Female
43%
Male
57%
Male
Female
Male
Female
HRM & IHRM Practices in the U.S.
•
•
•
•
•
•
With globalization more HR activities
Human resource planning
Recruitment, selection, placement
Performance management
Training and developing
Compensation and benefits
Source: IHRM 4th edition
Reasons for International Assignment
• PricewaterhouseCoopers 2002 survey
- Surveyed 273 companies from 17 countries
- Use of expatriates would continue to grow in the
future business
Reasons for International Assignment
(Cont)
• Position filling
- to fill a skills gap and technology transfer
• Management development
- training, development purposes, and to transfer common corporate values,
send staff to other countries
• Organization development
- transfer knowledge, competence, and to exploit global market
opportunities
Male and Female Expatriates Trend (The U.S.)
• ORC survey:
- Male expatriates: 86%
- Female expatriates: 14%
• GMAC-GRS 2002 survey:
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Male
Female
Boeing
(Source: http://www.boeing.com)
Company’s Profile
• Boeing has operations primary in U.S but also in:
- Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia,
U.K, United & Arab Emirates
• Given Boeing commercial market problems the company
focused on restructuring, choosing to place more
emphasis on military (25%) and space segments (20%)
Company’s Profile Cont’
• Employs: 157,000 in 70 countries and 48 states in the
United States
• Chairman: Lewis E. Platt, age 62; President and CEO:
Harry C. Stonecipher, age 67
• Top Officers 70
- 4 female top officers, which is 5,7%
• Many long-term & short-term expatriates activities
- Women expatriates: 16%
- Men expatriates: 84%
Company Leadership In United States
Office of the Chairman
President and Chief
Executive Officer
Harry Stonecipher
Non-executive Chairman
Lewis Platt
Business Unit Leaders
Executive Vice President
President and CEO,
Integrated Defense Systems
Jim Albaugh
Senior Vice President
President,
Connexion by BoeingSM
Scott Carson
President,
Phantom Works
Bob Krieger
Executive Vice President
President and CEO,
Commercial Airplanes
Alan Mulally
President,
Boeing Capital Corporation
Walt Skowronski
President,
Shared Services Group
Rick Stephens
Senior Vice President,
Chief Legal Counsel
Doug Bain
Functional Leaders
Senior Vice President,
Washington, D.C Operations
Rudy de Leon
Executive Vice President,
Internal Services
Laurette Koellner
Senior Vice President,
Communications
Tod Hullin
Senior Vice President,
International Relations
Tom Pickering
Executive Vice President
and Chief Financial Officer
James Bell
Senior Vice President,
Chief Technology Officer
James Jamieson
Gender discrimination In Boeing
• Brought on behalf of 28,000 Boeing women, the lawsuit
claims the company systematically paid women less
than men
• Women who filed a lawsuit
- Terri Wertz
- Patti Anderson
- Cheryl Lee Persinger
- Kathis William
Pay Disparities In Boeing
• Boeing has been aware of the pay disparities since 1994
• In 1997, Boeing created a Diversity Salary Assessment team
- to examine its compensation and promotion practices
- the power point presentation summarized that female paid less
• In 1999, the demographic salary analysis project showed that
- Boeing needed to allocate about $30 million annually (salary
adjustments)
- However, Boeing allocated only $10 million
(Source: April 26, 2004.Business Week)
Female Expatriates in China
• Gender issues exist in China
- Job discrimination, wage differences, and regulations on a
different retirement
Caligiuri & Tung Study
- Male and female expatriates perform equally
Theory Of Rights
• Is a concept of taking individual into account and
doing good for every individual rather than a
number of people
• Boeing abused theory of rights by discriminating
against a group of employee (ex. Women)
Recommendation
• Select the very best person regardless of gender
• Notice each potential women expatriates'
characteristics
• Promote women expatriates
• Prepare women expatriates
• Support the entire family
• Offer in-country support networks
• Listen to women expatriates’ experiences
THANK YOU
ANY QUESTION?