Strategic decision making in an organization plays an important role to achieve the desired goal. Strategic decision making is a process of how managerial faces complex issues and needs analytical skill to solve them.
The process and steps at a strategic decision include people who work in the organization, so they are able to transform risks into opportunities. The fact is, there are only few women sitting in high positions in organization compared to men. Whereas according to Zhou etc (2014) men in the decision making process have higher risks compared to women. The purpose of this article is to review women’s participation in strategic decision making in organization. This research uses qualitative approach. Data source uses secondary data through literary study, both from books and published research on national and international level journals in the last five years. The results of the analysis show that women’s participation is lower if compared to men’s. The strategic decision making process is still influenced by strong gender stereotypes in organization. Women have fewer opportunities and incentives in organization promotion compared to men. The inability to manage emotions and many job opportunities in high levels make women less optimal in participating in the strategic decision making. The ability of a woman in management perspective is more effective compared to men. Women can also construct a way out in financial achievement even in crisis. Another strength is women’s ability to multitask simultaneously. Some implications from this research are giving an equal opportunity between men and women in strategic decision making. Moreover, organization needs to provide higher education so women can develop their potential to be involved in strategic decision making.
Keywords: women’s participation, decision making, strategic decision, gender, leadership
