Is HR A Woman's Bastion?

Though the traditional patriarchal structure of the corporate legacy seems to suggest that HR is a man's bastion, the fact that women occupy almost two of the available three HR positions globally is a clear erudition that HR shall be an increasingly woman function in the days to come.

- S.Ajay Kumar

HRxAnalysts*, in its report titled "What HR Thinks and Feels: The 2011 HRxAnalysts Psychographic Survey of HR Professionals" has concluded that HR remains to be a female function among today's organizations. Though the traditional patriarchal structure of the corporate legacy seems to suggest that HR is a man's bastion, the fact that women occupy almost two of the available three HR positions globally is a clear erudition that HR shall be an increasingly woman function in the days to come. Moreover, the fact that the number of women in senior HR positions are on the increase functions as an effective validation to the argument.

Morten Kamp Andersen, an expert in the arena of HR analytics and leadership development has stated the following reasons for women occupying pivotal HR job roles:-

● The very feminine nature of caring and nurturing people makes HR roles more suitable for women

● The fact that human resource management is increasingly manifesting itself as a study of human behaviour and psychology

● The fact that women are more communicative, a necessary element for a HR professional

● The very understanding that HR as a function is non-discriminatory making it easy for women to enter John Sumser, the Chief Editor of HR Examiner, in an article titled "HR is Female" writes, "The essence of HR might be its ability to make clear judgments about really intangible things like personality, potential and match-making. These are stereotypical female things", to substantiate the fact that women become the natural choice for an HR position.