77)." Aside from familial obligations -- since the vast majority of expatriate roles assume that such positions would require managers to live their spouses and progeny in their native countries while they worked abroad -- another particularly interesting facet revealed in this article was the fact that initially, women were just as eager to pursue international careers in management positions as men were. This notion was confirmed by a survey performed by Adler (1993) that surveyed over a thousand MBAs who were graduating from seven highly esteemed business schools in throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States, and revealed that both men and women had equal aspirations for international careers.

Perhaps the most valuable result gained from the survey conducted in "Women in Global Business -- Female Expatriation" is the worth of including women in the decision making process endemic in upper management positions. Due to the variety of thought-process and the means by which they guide other employees, women play an integral role in the achieving of a particular company's business vision -- particularly when they are engaged in an expatriate position -- as the following quotation evinces. "The female expatriates questioned in our research found that including women in international business is very important, since women bring diversity to the organization with their different way of thinking and understanding. By hiring women, multinational companies taking a global approach can act as role models for firms in many countries that have...

82)."
In fact, it is this propensity for encouraging the promotion of women to management level positions in domestic situations that may be the ultimate value of the implementation of female managers in expatriate roles. Adler's study (1994) previously determined that the vast majority of countries allow women in expatriate roles to expand their authority beyond those who work domestically, whether or not they are employed in a management capacity. Yet Women in Global Business -- Female Expatriation primarily demonstrates that the traditional myths that explain why women do not pursue international, upper-level management positions have a need to be challenged and exposed for the myths that many of them are. By elimination such stereotypes, the paucity of women in expatriate roles (Linehand and Scullon, 2001) may eventually expand to include more competent, female professionals that can increase the effectiveness and productivity of their respective organizations.

References

Adler, N.J. 1984. Women in International Management: Where Are They? California Management Review, 26 (4), 78-89.

Adler, N.J. 1993. Competitive Frontiers: Women Managers in the Triad. International Studies of Management & Organization, 23 (2), 3-24.

Kooskora, M and Bekker E. 2007. Women in Global Business -- Female Expatriation. EBS Review, 23 (3) 70-84.

Linehan, M and Scullion, H. 2001. Selecting, Training, and Development for Female…