Modeling of career entry barriers for women in male dominated occupations: A case of Indian railways

Purpose: This study aims to identify, prioritize and establish the relationship among the set of career entry barriers of women employed in the male dominated occupations. It addresses the following research questions: What are the key barriers that restrict the career entry of women in male dominated occupations? Which are the most significant barriers and how these barriers are related to each-other? Methodology: A literature review method was used to identify the career entry barriers that was further validated through semi-structured interviews of women employed in the Indian railways. The interpretive structural modeling (ISM) method was used to establish a hierarchical relationship among the set of identified barriers. The Matrice d'Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliquee a un Classement (MICMAC) analysis was administered to classify the barriers based on their driving and dependence power. Findings: A set of eleven career entry barriers are found crucial for restricting women's career entry in the male dominated occupations. Three barriers namely 'social norms', 'organizational policies and procedures' and 'job description' emerged as the most influential barriers. Therefore, any action performed on these barriers can have a multiplier effect on the remaining barriers identified in this study. The ISM model helped in asserting the inter -linkage among the career entry barriers that dampen the participation and attractiveness among women to enter such occupations. Practical implications: The proposed ISM model for interaction and ranking of barriers can provide the acade-micians, practitioners, and policymakers a more realistic representation of the reasons for the negligible ratio of women in the male dominated occupations. Gender and discrimination theories can validate the findings of this study using case study method. The findings will be beneficial as it promotes more studies of similar nature in other divisions of Indian Railways as well as in the developing countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries to find the commonality and differences. Practitioners can use ISM model and MICMAC analysis to better understand women's career entry barriers and explore as where to channelize their efforts and resources towards change in the organizational structure, system, and processes to facilitate women's ratio in the male dominated occupations. Originality: A key contribution of this study is the development of a contextual relationship among identified set of career entry barriers. As per the researchers' knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to provide a hierarchical relationship among the career entry barriers from the world's fourth-largest railway network context (Ministry of Railways, 2021).