Recruiting and developing female managers for international assignments

One of the most significant features of the global labour market in the last half of the twentieth century has been the increasing labour force participation rate of women. It is evident from the extant research that women are not progressing to senior international management positions at comparable rates to their male counterparts. Previous research has estimated that only 3 percent of expatriate managers are women. This paper argues that female international managers have to overcome overt and covert barriers in their home organisations before being developed for international assignments. Based on an extensive empirical research study conducted with senior female international managers in a European context, the findings suggest that organisations may have to review their organisational policies in relation to the recruitment, selection, training and development of international managers if they want to have “the best” people to represent their companies overseas.