This qualitative research was carried out to explore the perceptions and real-life experiences of female managers working in the retail sector and uncover whether they have faced barriers related to their gender during their progression. The previous literature drew a lot of attention to gender-based barriers and stereotyping occurring for female managers in STEM organisations but little research was found on managers in retail and so the intention of this research was to fill this apparent gap.
Semi structured interviews were conducted with 6 participants who each shared their perceptions and reflected on their experiences in their management career and on the topic of gender bias which generated 4 interesting themes. These themes led to in depth findings which demonstrated that generally the working hours at a managerial level in retail are full time and fixed hours, so it was suggested that this is problematic for females who also are or want to be mothers, leading to an assumption that this is a barrier for progression and leading to less women being represented at a senior level. Some participants also felt that they were treated or spoken to differently than their male colleagues which led to some thought-provoking conversations surrounding gender bias and stereotyping in the workplace. The most unexpected finding was that most participants who worked in female dominated retail sectors still experienced some negative experiences which they believed could be related to their gender. However, some participants felt that due to a large dominance of women in their sector they had never experienced any barriers to their career progression, yet there still appeared to be gender inequalities at the senior levels due to reasons which are unclear.
The general conclusions from the findings is that gender bias still exists within retail organisations, which can create barriers for females looking to progress. However, due to the research being qualitative in nature and value is placed on giving social experiences multiple meanings and interpretations (Sarma, 2015), the findings cannot be generalised or transferred to all female retail managers and across all retail organisations. Therefore, no claims or direct conclusions can be established and further study should be undertook with a utilisation of a mixed methods approach for a richer understanding.
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