Corporate Governance and Corporate Glass Ceiling: The Gender Stereotyped Role of Sri Lankan Company Secretaries

Abstract

Phenomenon of corporate glass ceiling still exist in many companies across the globe and especially evident in Asian region including Sri Lanka. Comparative to other top management positions, boards are dominated by men. Hence, boards are recognized and acknowledged as a masculine arena in modern corporates. From its inception to date, the role of company secretary is drastically changed overtime. However, it has been claimed that company secretary is the longest serving member in a board comparative to directors. Nevertheless, due to orthodox patriarchal mindset, this critical and significant role of company secretary in the modern companies is still an under researched area. With the recent corporate and financial crisis, the role of company secretary regained its prominence as earlier. This study examined and reflected on three wider research questions related to the role of modern company secretarial role; first, Does Company secretarial role is a gender stereotyped role in Asian region especially in Sri Lanka? Secondly, does this company secretarial role transformed from simple secretarial role to more influential governing and leadership role in modern corporates? Thirdly, does this gender stereotyped role which was predominately employed by women workers were utilized as a strategy to shatter the corporate glass ceiling in modern corporations to reach higher positions in corporate governance? This is a qualitative exploratory and descriptive research. Findings of the study revealed that modern company secretaries plays an important role as central corporate governance professional in both private and public companies. Also, company secretarial role was transformed from simple administrative record keeping to a topnotch corporate governance and leadership role. Further, this study provide evidence, how Sri Lankan company secretaries utilized this gender stereotyped role was used to scatters contemporary corporate glass ceiling and utilized it as a strategy to diffuse gender equality on contemporary patriarchic Sri Lankan society.