Gender, Career Ambition and Organisational Barrier in the Hotel and Retail Industries in Hong Kong

This paper investigates gender differences in the career ambition of managers. In our study of women and men managers in retail and hotel industries in Hong Kong, women managers express weaker ambition for their careers than their male counterparts. We contest the preference theory that posits that women’s preference is the main determinant of their career choices. We hypothesise that there are marked gender differences in the organisational factors affecting career ambition, namely perception of gender fairness in opportunities, career help received from senior experienced persons, women’s prospects, difficulties in work practices, existence of men’s networks, views on female employees within the organization and the organization’s sensitivity towards employees' needs to balance their work and family needs. We also examine separately the differential effects of these organisational factors on men and women managers’ career ambition. Data for this paper are drawn from a larger study which employed both survey questionnaires and in-depth interviews as data collection instruments.