Female on International Assignments
World is growing with lightening speed to become a global village, business horizons are widening their wings to take over every street of the world, no matter how different market style is, how different cultural barriers are. Different customs, norms, language, gender are crucial issues for any individual, team, or organization. We are focusing about women facing problems at international assignments. This for sure affects the success of women who work across borders. Gender perspective varies a lot across time, culture. There are some countries like Sweden with low gender discrimination and on other hand its Japan with very high gender discrimination. Different cultural environments, cultural beliefs, and attitudes significantly impact gender expectations and govern much of the interactions and interpretations that occur between men n women. It came to known by a survey that more women are sent to work on international assignments than men, but the question arises, aren’t the challenges faced by women the same as those for men…? Is working in Australia is same as working in India? The first problem faced by women on international assignment is the cultural difference. Where in male dominating business world n environment it’s hard for a lady to be acceptable as a decision maker. Clients will not do business with women in the way they would with a man. Especially in the Middle East countries where boys have to be boys and girls to be girls, one has got to play along with it. One have to be respectful in order to get their respect, and noting that women need to be "very mature" in their behavior. Women, who want to lead in business, have a family knot with them. The first question, an owner going to think prior to appointing an assignment, is she a lady with family, and the amount of travel she can carry along? Whereas men can easily be mobile for international assignments. It is as well a cultural attitude toward the role