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Gender Fatigue: The Ideological Dilemma of Gender Neutrality and Discrimination in Organizations
Abstract
Although gender discrimination remains a feature of working life in many contexts, research on gender in organizations has shown that workplaces are often constructed as gender neutral. This poses an ideological dilemma for workers: how can they make sense of gender discrimination at work while presenting their workplace as gender neutral? This article explores that dilemma through an analysis of how information communication technology (ICT) workers talk about gender discrimination. Instead of denying gender discrimination, workers acknowledge it can happen but construct it as singular events that happened in the past and they place the onus on women to overcome such obstacles. Navigating the ideological dilemma around gender neutrality and discrimination, interviewees display what the article characterizes as gender fatigue. Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bien que la discrimination fondée sur le sexe soit une caractéristique du monde du travail dans plusieurs contextes, les recherches sur la parité homme/femme dans les entreprises ont montré que les lieux de travail sont souvent conçus de façon non sexiste. Cette situation pose un dilemme idéologique aux travailleurs: comment peuvent-ils comprendre la discrimination fondée sur le sexe s'ils présentent leur lieu de travail comme non sexiste? C'est sur ce dilemme que cet article se penche, à travers une analyse des discours des employés en technologie de l'information et de la communication (TCI). Ces derniers ne nient pas l'inégalité entre les sexes; ils la présentent plutôt comme des épiphénomènes qui ont eu lieu dans le passé et estiment qu'il revient aux femmes de la combattre. Tiraillés entre le non sexisme et la discrimination, les sujets interrogés souffrent de ce que nous appelons «gender fatigue». Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Several scholars have acknowledged ideological dilemmas in contemporary working life: co-workers need to simultaneously construct themselves as similar to an organizational ideal, and as unique (Coupland, 2001); or the ideological dilemma of organizational inequality and difference and equality and sameness (Kelan, 2008). Kelan (2009) expanded the theoretical frame to show how dealing with ideological dilemmas might lead to organizational fatigue. Ideological dilemmas are up for negotiation in social interaction and is, as Edley (2001, p. 209) describes it, "a battleground upon which the struggle between these opposing ideals is played out". ...
... Ideological dilemmas are up for negotiation in social interaction and is, as Edley (2001, p. 209) describes it, "a battleground upon which the struggle between these opposing ideals is played out". Hence, previous research on organizational change often highlights contradictions between intended policies and actual outcomes that increase stress, frustrations, and worklife conflicts (Kelan, 2009;Kirby, 2000;Myers et al., 2013;Edley, 2001). ...
... Since the nature of ideological dilemmas is that they cannot be resolved, it is worth being aware of the opposing ideals digitalization poses. Previous research on organizational change processes has highlighted how ideological dilemmas in mixed messages increase stress, frustrations, and work-life conflicts (Kelan, 2009;Kirby, 2000;Myers et al., 2013;Edley, 2001). The ideological dilemmas lens has helped highlight that the nature of the problem with digitalization exists at a linguistic level and hence managers need to be aware of organizational opposing demands on employees through the construction of policies and rules. ...
Purpose
The ongoing “digitalization of work” is one of the major phenomena shaping contemporary organizations. The aim of this study is to explore linguistic constructs of white-collar workers (WCWs) related to their use of digital tools.
Design/methodology/approach
The framework of ideological dilemmas (Billig et al., 1988 ) is mobilized to investigate the conflicting demands WCW interviewees construct when describing the ongoing digitalization of their office work.
Findings
This study shows how “digitalization of work” is enforcing an organizational ideological dilemma of structure and flexibility for WCWs. In the digital workplace, this dilemma is linguistically expressed as the individual should be, or should want to be, both flexible and structured in her work.
Practical implications
The use of language exposes conflicting ideals in the use of digital tools that might increase work–life stress. Implications for managers include acknowledging the dilemmas WCWs face in digitalized organizations and supporting them before they embark upon a digitalization journey.
Originality/value
The study shows that the negotiation between competing organizational discourses is constructed irrespective of hierarchical positions; the organizations digital maturity; private or public sector; or country. The study confirms contradictory ideological claims as “natural” and unquestionable in digitalized officework.
... Technology organisations, as well as workplaces more broadly, are often constructed as gender-neutral (Acker, 1990;Kelan, 2009). The post-feminist climate, coupled with the neoliberal mantra of meritocracy, conceals the gendered nature of STEM workplaces (Nash and Moore, 2019). ...
... Adherence to gender neutrality can be beneficial by allowing women to survive such masculine atmospheres (Nash and Moor, 2019). However, the ideological dilemma women face, recognising gender neutrality and discrimination, causes additional affective labour, termed 'gender fatigue' (Kelan, 2009). ...
While FinTech gets promoted as an innovative and progressive solution to meeting financial needs globally, it is afflicted by pervasive gender inequalities, only recently noticed in research. To explore these gender inequalities at the core of FinTech, we use a mixed-methods approach, combining data on 100 leading FinTech firms and 15 interviews with FinTech professionals, collected in the latter half of 2021. We argue that women in FinTech face the ‘triple glass ceiling’ at the intersection of financial, technological, and entrepreneurial gender inequalities. Our sample shows that women account for only 7.69% of (co-)founders, 18.2% of executive committee members, and merely 4.04% of FinTech companies are led by a woman. Gendered stereotypes and a privileging of masculine performances produce significant barriers to women entering and progressing within FinTech. Discriminatory practices are overt and implicit, everyday and exceptional, micro and acute. Shattering the ‘triple glass ceiling’ in FinTech represents an immense challenge.
... It is used below to avoid coming to uncomfortable conclusions, stirred in the case below by a sound academic knowledge of feminist media studies. Namely, it serves as a strategy to manage an ideological dilemma (Kelan, 2009 The obsessive preoccupation to marry feminism with normative femininity is in part an attempt by women's magazines to make the former palatable to all those readers and producers deeply invested the latter. One Spanish freelancer defensively expressed: "I can wear red lipstick and stilettos and be as feminist as everybody else", while a British features writer declared: "I'm a feminist, but I love fashion and I want to see it". ...
In recent years feminism has gained spectacular levels of visibility, notably among young women and in the media, especially online. This article makes a novel contribution to a growing discussion about ‘the new cultural life of feminism’ (Diffractions, 2016), and in particular the ‘mediated feminist landscape’ (Banet-Weiser, 2015) and its ‘new luminosity in popular culture’ (Gill, 2016) by bringing to the conversation the voices of those very individuals doing the mediating, providing such luminosity. Drawing on 68 in-depth interviews with the producers of women’s online magazines from the UK and from Spain, we examine the range of ways in which these professionals define and dis/identify with feminism, as well as explain, applaud or critique the emergence of a ‘new feminism’ promoted by their publications. In general terms, the analysis shows that the talk of women’s magazine producers constitutes a heterogeneous discursive terrain filled with ambivalence and ideological dilemmas. Additionally we show how the recent interest in feminism by these media is deeply but not only ideological, necessarily but not simply commercially-driven, and involved in simultaneous practices of de-stigmatising as well as depoliticising the movement. We suggest that in its transition into popular media feminism is ‘rebranded’ in such a way that both opens up and closes down possibilities, in a contradictory dynamic of regulation and adaptation that is characteristic of ‘cool capitalism’ (McGuigan, 2009).
... Ahmed 2017). Furthermore, the fatigue of potential supporters of diversity among those from dominant groups (Kelan 2009) can leave nonnormative individuals, often facing co-occurring challenges (Butler 1993;Spade 2015), to bear the burden on their own, enduring additional stress on their well-being (Allison 1998;Williams et al. 2019;Geronimus 2023). ...
... Scholars and social commentators have advanced propositions to explain the marginalization of women in government. Mozumder (2022), Rahman (2013), Mboho and Atairet (2018), Kelly (2019), McKinsey and Company (2021), Acker (1990), Eagly and Karau (2002), Reskin and McBrier (2000), Shah (2010), Kelan (2009), andLockwood (2006) among others, have argued that women marginalization in governance emanates from gender stereotypes and biases, occupational segregation, work-life balance challenges and the lack of access to mentorship and networking opportunities, among other factors. ...
In some parts of Africa, discriminatory laws and policies restrict women's access to certain occupations and limit their property ownership rights. This limits women's political and economic participation, decreases their income-earning potential, and perpetuates gender inequality, hindering economic growth and poverty reduction. Nigeria as a post-colonial state adopted a democratic system based on non-gender discrimination in political participation, which was modelled after the British parliamentary democratic system. However, in Nigeria, the colonial legacy of marginalization of women in politics was intensified at independence in 1960 based on the patriarchal traditional norms of colonial Nigerian society of male dominance. This inequality is particularly problematic, as it contributes to a cycle of poverty and discrimination that disproportionately affects women and their economic status and well-being. Therefore, this paper intends to unravel how gender disproportionate representation in power structures leads to the marginalization of women in governance in Nigeria. The paper was anchored on structural-functional theory as its theoretical framework of analysis. The paper depended on the documentary method of data generation, using secondary sources. Content analysis was employed for the analysis of data generated from documents. This study found that gender disproportionate representation in power structures skewed in favour of the male gender accounted for the marginalization of women in governance in Nigeria. The recommendation here is that a system of gender quotas should be statutorily instituted for public service appointments, leading to a just and equitable society for all in Nigeria.
... Another, relatively newer manifestation of resistance is gender fatigue. After several decades of strategies and interventions for gender equality, we observe the emergence of gender fatigue in the academic community (Kelan, 2009;Reilly et al., 2016). This gender fatigue gives rise to a wish to go beyond gender as a focal point of university policies and redirect the attention (and notably the budget) toward 'diversity.' ...
... Possibly then, Johanna is rejecting the victimization associated with feminism (Kelan, 2009a;2009b). The term 'feminism' was mentioned twice across all interviews in Germany and both times rejected as something of a waste of time. ...
This book shares the findings of an original empirical study with women who made partnership in accounting and professional service firms in Germany and the United Kingdom. It is divided into seven chapters. The book brings together what is known about women’s entrance and advancement in the accountancy profession, historically and contemporarily, and considers the ways in which the profession is organized differently in both countries. It contrasts the UK’s neoliberal politics with Germany’s ordoliberal stance and the extent to which ethics of care feminism can offer new insights to the study of women’s careers in liberal and coordinated market economies by considering dependencies at work and at home. Introducing the notion of Gendered Hierarchies of Dependency, the book problematizes the ways in which dependency is considered unfavourably under advanced capitalism and the implications of this for women from a feminist perspective in relation to career advancement, perceived sex discrimination, motherhood, work centrality, and job security and the impact of economic crises. It shows how the profession is organized in variegated ways across borders and draws out the implications for women’s careers and, in doing so, also shares rare insights into the working lives of these elite women.
... Possibly then, Johanna is rejecting the victimization associated with feminism (Kelan, 2009a;2009b). The term 'feminism' was mentioned twice across all interviews in Germany and both times rejected as something of a waste of time. ...
This book shares the findings of an original empirical study with women who made partnership in accounting and professional service firms in Germany and the United Kingdom. It is divided into seven chapters. The book brings together what is known about women’s entrance and advancement in the accountancy profession, historically and contemporarily, and considers the ways in which the profession is organized differently in both countries. It contrasts the UK’s neoliberal politics with Germany’s ordoliberal stance and the extent to which ethics of care feminism can offer new insights to the study of women’s careers in liberal and coordinated market economies by considering dependencies at work and at home. Introducing the notion of Gendered Hierarchies of Dependency, the book problematizes the ways in which dependency is considered unfavourably under advanced capitalism and the implications of this for women from a feminist perspective in relation to career advancement, perceived sex discrimination, motherhood, work centrality, and job security and the impact of economic crises. It shows how the profession is organized in variegated ways across borders and draws out the implications for women’s careers and, in doing so, also shares rare insights into the working lives of these elite women.
... Possibly then, Johanna is rejecting the victimization associated with feminism (Kelan, 2009a;2009b). The term 'feminism' was mentioned twice across all interviews in Germany and both times rejected as something of a waste of time. ...
This book shares the findings of an original empirical study with women who made partnership in accounting and professional service firms in Germany and the United Kingdom. It is divided into seven chapters. The book brings together what is known about women’s entrance and advancement in the accountancy profession, historically and contemporarily, and considers the ways in which the profession is organized differently in both countries. It contrasts the UK’s neoliberal politics with Germany’s ordoliberal stance and the extent to which ethics of care feminism can offer new insights to the study of women’s careers in liberal and coordinated market economies by considering dependencies at work and at home. Introducing the notion of Gendered Hierarchies of Dependency, the book problematizes the ways in which dependency is considered unfavourably under advanced capitalism and the implications of this for women from a feminist perspective in relation to career advancement, perceived sex discrimination, motherhood, work centrality, and job security and the impact of economic crises. It shows how the profession is organized in variegated ways across borders and draws out the implications for women’s careers and, in doing so, also shares rare insights into the working lives of these elite women.
... Está de moda, se ha vuelto sexy (Gill & Toms, 2019). Sin embargo, existe preocupación sobre cuánto durará el interés por el feminismo en los medios, pues podría producirse lo que Kelan (2009) conceptualizó como "fatiga de género" 4 y que los y las periodistas se cansen de cubrir y proponer temas de la agenda feminista. ...
Las tomas feministas en universidades chilenas en 2018 supusieron un acontecimiento mediatizado que para los periódicos de referencia El Mercurio y La Tercera implicó una cobertura que trasluce tensiones entre la voz enunciativa del periodismo como institución y la necesidad de hacerse eco del feminismo de base, protagonista de los movimientos. Desde una semiótica indicial que reconoce los textos como objetos culturales, este estudio, basado en 130 piezas, revela, en medios con posiciones editoriales diferentes, un discurso periodístico compartido que emana de una institución generizada, que muestra dificultad para comprender y comunicar el fenómeno, lo que evidencia mediante el posicionamiento enunciativo adoptado.
... In their work, they suggest that feminist struggles should also embrace material and discourse-based strategies to undo gendered hierarchies and gendered disadvantages in societies and organisations. Even in those contexts that support gender equality, Kelan (2009) argues that there is gender fatigue, as individuals and organisations have an increasing tendency to call themselves gender neutral or gender blind as if such a thing could be possible or desirable. ...
... In their work, they suggest that feminist struggles should also embrace material and discourse-based strategies to undo gendered hierarchies and gendered disadvantages in societies and organisations. Even in those contexts that support gender equality, Kelan (2009) argues that there is gender fatigue, as individuals and organisations have an increasing tendency to call themselves gender neutral or gender blind as if such a thing could be possible or desirable. ...
... In their work, they suggest that feminist struggles should also embrace material and discourse-based strategies to undo gendered hierarchies and gendered disadvantages in societies and organisations. Even in those contexts that support gender equality, Kelan (2009) argues that there is gender fatigue, as individuals and organisations have an increasing tendency to call themselves gender neutral or gender blind as if such a thing could be possible or desirable. ...
... In their work, they suggest that feminist struggles should also embrace material and discourse-based strategies to undo gendered hierarchies and gendered disadvantages in societies and organisations. Even in those contexts that support gender equality, Kelan (2009) argues that there is gender fatigue, as individuals and organisations have an increasing tendency to call themselves gender neutral or gender blind as if such a thing could be possible or desirable. ...
... In their work, they suggest that feminist struggles should also embrace material and discourse-based strategies to undo gendered hierarchies and gendered disadvantages in societies and organisations. Even in those contexts that support gender equality, Kelan (2009) argues that there is gender fatigue, as individuals and organisations have an increasing tendency to call themselves gender neutral or gender blind as if such a thing could be possible or desirable. ...
... In their work, they suggest that feminist struggles should also embrace material and discourse-based strategies to undo gendered hierarchies and gendered disadvantages in societies and organisations. Even in those contexts that support gender equality, Kelan (2009) argues that there is gender fatigue, as individuals and organisations have an increasing tendency to call themselves gender neutral or gender blind as if such a thing could be possible or desirable. ...
... In their work, they suggest that feminist struggles should also embrace material and discourse-based strategies to undo gendered hierarchies and gendered disadvantages in societies and organisations. Even in those contexts that support gender equality, Kelan (2009) argues that there is gender fatigue, as individuals and organisations have an increasing tendency to call themselves gender neutral or gender blind as if such a thing could be possible or desirable. ...
... In their work, they suggest that feminist struggles should also embrace material and discourse-based strategies to undo gendered hierarchies and gendered disadvantages in societies and organisations. Even in those contexts that support gender equality, Kelan (2009) argues that there is gender fatigue, as individuals and organisations have an increasing tendency to call themselves gender neutral or gender blind as if such a thing could be possible or desirable. ...
... All people, regardless of social identity, are positioned as having equal opportunity to succeed in academic institutions (Blackmore 2006). However, gendered (and other) social inequalities are invisible and legitimated (Acker 2006), rendering inequality more difficult to articulate and address (Kelan 2009, Sullivan & Delaney 2016, and it is this kind of inequality that has been further deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic-related measures have impacted the lives and work-related activities of Antarctic researchers. To explore these impacts, we designed, piloted and disseminated an online survey in English, Russian, Spanish and Chinese in late 2020 and early 2021. The survey explored how the pandemic affected the productivity of Antarctic researchers, their career prospects and their mental wellbeing. Findings exposed patterns of inequities. For instance, of the 406 unique responses to the survey, women appeared to have been affected more adversely than men, especially in relation to mental health, and early-career researchers were disadvantaged more than their mid-or late-career colleagues. Overall, a third of the research participants reported at least one major negative impact from the pandemic on their mental health. Approximately half of the participants also mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic had some positive effects, especially in terms of the advantages that working from home brought and opportunities to attend events, network or benefit from training workshops online. We conclude with a series of recommendations for science administrators and policymakers to mitigate the most serious adverse impacts of the pandemic on Antarctic research communities, with implications for other contexts where scientific activities are conducted under extreme circumstances.
... From this perspective, research adeptly documents how postfeminist discourses offer a sense of normality that governs behaviour in the neoliberal world of work, and the gendered subjectivities that are formed, portraying women as entrepreneurial and liberated (see e.g., Sullivan and Delaney, 2019;Adamson and Kelan, 2019;Marlow and McAdam, 2015;Gill and Ganesh, 2013;Lewis, 2014;Kelan, 2009). Highlighting the problematic nature of such discourses that fail to address structural barriers, Lewis (2013), in her influential piece on gender-blindness in entrepreneurship, asks "Why is it so important for [women] to deny the impact of gender on their experience of business?". ...
Studies of gender and entrepreneurship highlight the problematic emphasis of the gender equality discourse in entrepreneurship that ignores wider structural inequalities but provide a limited explanation of how the allure of this discourse is sustained. To address this lacuna, we draw on Bourdieu's theoretical ideas to theorise and demonstrate how certain women trade-off their capital endowments to compensate for gender inequality in entrepreneurship. Through an analysis of forty-nine biographical interviews with women entrepreneurs in London (UK), we show two forms that the 'illusio' of gender equality manifests: 'illusio of work-life balance', and 'illusio of meritocracy', and reveal how this doxic experience that escapes questioning and allows certain women to continue to play the game, entrenches the illusio of an entrepreneurial field free from gender bias. We thus illustrate the conditions of possibility and the various trade-off mechanisms through which gender inequality in entrepreneurship is reproduced or contested.
... The need to understand the nature of women's leadership has led to research into female leadership (Olsson & Walker, 2003), 'gender fatigue' or weariness of constructing a gender-neutral workplace on the one hand and powerlessness through facing discriminatory practices on the other hand (Kelan, 2009), and recognising feminine traits of gendered leadership practice as powerful leadership capital (Elliot & Stead, 2008). ...
This article is a case study of the cultural gendered professional identity construction of an educational leader contextualised by an ethnically diverse and multilingual UK University language centre. The leadership identity of the female participant is co-constructed by the researcher through narrative-in-interaction to reveal its dilemmatic nature, being agentive and influenced by external forces and being unique vis-a-vis belonging to the wider community, staying the same and being subject to change. The study is presented within a Post Structuralist framework and views discourse as a means of identity construction. The implicit and explicit identity claims are elicited through small story analysis at three levels of positioning – against story actors, against the interlocutor and in relation to global discourses to ensure the best scrutiny of multiple and contradictory identity claims. The article gives voice to the underrepresented ethnic minority of female educational leaders by revealing boundaries to leadership identity development against discourses of gender ideology, marriage, ethnicity, migration, illness, death, work/life balance, professional success, and leadership learning. It also aims to contribute to the body of research on small story and positioning analysis.
... Faculty from marginalized groups often discuss having an "arsenal of responses" as tools of self-protection from racial macro and microaggressions (Smith, Yosso, & Solórzano, 2008). Gender fatigue is the fatigue of trying to mentally construct workplaces as gender neutral despite the continued evidence of gender discrimination and the powerlessness to change these structures of reproduction (Kelan, 2009). ...
This article uses methods from narrative analysis to consider how the macro-level experiences of racism and sexism appear in micro-level small stories about hierarchical microaggressive intersectionalities (HMI) in higher education. Small stories shared by university faculty and administrators reveal that microaggressions were simultaneously experienced along the lines of race, gender and role in the institution. Themes emerge that link deprofessionalization, invisibility, and fatigue to these small stories. On a nuanced level, the narratives in this paper demonstrate how broader societal notions of women’s and women of color’s roles in institutions translate into a negative campus climate for those who experience HMI.
... Post-feminism is an increasingly popular cultural form and emotion. In the early 20th century, it was a "relatively unknown field" [7], and was simply defined as "freedom of choice in work, family and parenting" and "physical, especially sexual empowerment" [8], and it focuses on the disappearance of words that talk about structural inequality and cultural impact [9]. McRobbie and others mainly put forward this kind of statement, suggesting that feminism has gone far enough, and post-feminism has participated in the destruction of feminism [10]. ...
This paper mainly summarizes the research on Feminism from 2015 to 2020, including the development of new post-feminism, the study of games and feminism, and the study of gender binary. It includes the latest remarks of post-feminism and its limitations with the development of the times. In terms of game research, the stereotype in game design and the plight of female employees are the most frequently mentioned problems. How players obtain a sense of identity in the game, how to reduce gender discrimination and realize self transformation in reality are the directions worthy of research in the future. For gender binary, one of the most promising developments is to reduce discrimination against transgender people in policies and laws and safeguard their rights, which only a few countries have done this, so more attention needs to be paid to the reasons why people defend the gender binary and find a feasible direction for the future. As times evolve and feminist rhetoric changes, there is an urgent need to revisit the feminist phenomenon. This paper will propose new avenues and implications for future research.
... This happens when women present their femininity as a gendered competitive advantage. equally, when hyper-femininity is adopted ironically and consciously it is on the assumption that current gender discrimination is 'fixed'. in this chapter, there is evidence that: 'Women construct themselves as active agents who can avoid confronting gender discrimination by making themselves responsible for overcoming it' (Kelan, 2009). as a result, women are less likely to question gender asymmetries, hierarchy and persistent power inequalities. ...
This chapter explores women leaders' outward appearance in the male-dominated world of rail, through the lenses of postfeminism and neoliberalism. Drawing on 31 interviews with women leaders in rail, it maps how a postfeminist logic is evident in women leaders' narratives of aesthetic femininity. Aesthetic femininity refers to women leaders' outward appearance which they describe as feminine. The research participants justify their feminine 'work style' through postfeminist themes of individual choice, natural sex differences, irony, personal initiative, skill and empowerment. The findings also show a patterning of justification around aesthetic femininity that fits a neoliberal self-governance as enterprise, self-flexibility and self-confidence. It is argued that whilst these iterations of aesthetic femininity are rooted in postfeminist and neoliberal contexts, they have consequences for sustaining gendered inequalities and traditional feminine norms in the highly masculinised culture of rail. Women's narratives, whereby gender inequalities are acknowledged then subsumed into individualised agency through dress and appearance, do little to challenge the gendered culture in this sector.
... Distinctive features of a "postfeminist sensibility" (Gill, 2007), such as the discursive focus on empowerment, choice, and individualism, strongly connected with the neoliberal discourse (Gill, 2007(Gill, , 2017Gill and Scharff, 2011), shape also the strategies of addressing gender inequalities. Studies on postfeminism and its discourses on gender equality in organizations show that if inequality is acknowledged and not "overed" or located in the past (Kelan, 2009;McRobbie, 2009) then it is often addressed with individualist strategies focusing on empowerment and choice rather than a focus on changing structures (Adamson & Kelan, 2019;Gill, 2007 ;Gill, Kelan et al., 2017 ). Bearing in mind that a genuine organizational change requires a systematic transformation of both organizational culture and structure (Benschop and van den Brink, 2018), the empirical part of this study will question the change that the promoters of father-friendliness institute. ...
This article explores novel forms of proactive support for fathers in organizations and analyzes how newly instituted organizational promoters of father‐friendliness in Germany (organizational consultants, fathers' representatives, and fathers' networks) legitimize and strengthen organizational acceptance of fathers' use of family‐friendly workplace arrangements. Bringing together the notions of organizational masculinity, the ideal worker norm, and postfeminism, the paper focuses on caring formations of postfeminist masculinity at work and how they contribute to gender change in organizations. The analysis shows that organizational promoters construct father‐friendliness in three ways (I) by constructing a new, “caring” organizational masculinity, (II) by creating organizational value for care‐related practices, (III) by framing father‐friendliness as a prerequisite for gender equality. Our theoretical argument is that configurations of positive masculinities are possible within a postfeminist culture, and they produce incremental yet limited gender change through a reshaped organizational masculinity and a reframed “ideal worker” within organizations. The study of a rather unique group of change agents in organizations shows how additional offerings for fathers might contribute to changing gendered assumptions about care in organizations.
... However, Noon (2018, p. 206) takes a view from a critical diversity perspective that unconscious bias training, for example, may simply be seen as "yet another distraction from the embedded, structural disadvantages within organizations" (Noon, 2018, p. 206). We propose mandatory reporting in accreditations standards and rankings criteria as one mechanism to counter gender discrimination in organizations (Kelan, 2009;Knights & Richards, 2003). Importantly, we need to guard against "fake solidarity" in resisting and dismantling sexism. ...
The legitimacy of business schools is based on rankings, revenues, branding, and opportunities to support staff and students "to make a difference in the world". Yet sexism in business schools is endemic. Drawing on Acker's inequality regimes framework and a thematic analysis of reports in Poets&Quants, EFMD's Global Focus and AACSB Internation-al's BizEd/AACSB Insights over a decade, this study explores how business schools are dealing (or not) with sexism. We propose a typology of four categories of sexism in business schools: belligerent, benevolent, ambivalent, and oblivious sexism. Our findings contribute to understandings of institutional theory and the institutional development of business schools as important sites of (sexist and gendered) knowledge production and dissemination and entrenched inequalities. We posit that media constructions of sexism may better inform individual decisions, organizational development , and governance about the imperative to eliminate sexist behaviors and discrimination. We argue that business schools need to gain substantive legitimacy as effective role models by reforming themselves. They must actively tackle institutional and cultural sexism from within. Implications for practice include the effective inclusion of mandatory sexism reporting in international business school accreditation
... It is quite possible that the I-positions Rosie moves through to construct her past self, which draw on an affective vocabulary ("I didn't know how to handle it", "I was a bit embarrassed", "I got quite upset") and clearly suggest a strong emotional reaction to having been treated disrespectfully by a co-worker, would have been given more space, had she told this story to a close friend. However, as Kelan (2009) has shown in a study on women's accounts of gender discrimination at work, this tendency to narrate structural and relational issues as individual deficits is a hallmark of neoliberal (and postfeminist) culture. Through the conceptual lens of the dialogical self, such an individualising reading becomes dominant because the voices-of-the-self articulating hurt and frustration are reined in by I-positions which reformulate Rosie's distress as inexperience and a lack of maturity: "I didn't really know how to handle it in the moment", "I took it quite personal at the time but now you know things like that can happen and I just brush it off". ...
In this article, I develop the notion of self-othering defined as the affective orchestration of different voices-of-the-self as an important self-constitutive practice of neoliberal subjectivity. I posit that neoliberal subjectification relies on othering those facets—skills, attributes, bodily properties—that do not conform to idealised notions of the self. By applying this conceptual lens to empirical material drawn from a qualitative research project on women’s identity negotiations, my aim is to show that affect, notably what feels right/wrong, plays a crucial role in aligning the body with neoliberal culture. The affective-discursive approach to analysing the dialogical self I propose is based on a problematisation of neoliberal logic and thus draws attention to the normativity of affect. The analysis of practices of self-othering lays bare how certain voices and ways of being become unsayable. However, their presence in people’s self-constructions also suggests that they could be re-articulated to formulate a counter ideal.
... However, Noon (2018, p. 206) takes a view from a critical diversity perspective that unconscious bias training, for example, may simply be seen as "yet another distraction from the embedded, structural disadvantages within organizations" (Noon, 2018, p. 206). We propose mandatory reporting in accreditations standards and rankings criteria as one mechanism to counter gender discrimination in organizations (Kelan, 2009;Knights & Richards, 2003). Importantly, we need to guard against "fake solidarity" in resisting and dismantling sexism. ...
The legitimacy of business schools is based on rankings, revenues, branding, and opportunities to support staff and students ‘to make a difference in the world’. Yet sexism in business schools is endemic. Drawing on Acker’s inequality regimes framework and a thematic analysis of reports in Poets&Quants, EFMD’s Global Focus and AACSB International’s BizEd/AACSB Insights over a decade, this study explores how business schools are dealing (or not) with sexism. We propose a typology of four categories of sexism in business schools: belligerent, benevolent, ambivalent, and oblivious sexism. Our findings contribute to understandings of institutional theory and the institutional development of business schools as important sites of (sexist and gendered) knowledge production and dissemination and entrenched inequalities. We posit that media constructions of sexism may better inform individual decisions, organizational development, and governance about the imperative to eliminate sexist behaviours and discrimination. We argue that business schools need to gain substantive legitimacy as effective role models by reforming themselves. They must actively tackle institutional and cultural sexism from within. Implications for practice include effective inclusion of mandatory sexism reporting in international business school accreditation standards and rankings criteria as well as requirements for research funding.
... "The results show that gender discrimination reduces employees' satisfaction, motivation, commitment and enthusiasm, and increases employees' stress level." [2] The next step in the development of gender issues in the field of new media requires a more in-depth discussion of internal oppression in the working environment. ...
Gender bias and discrimination in the workplace remain significant global challenges, impacting individuals and organizations. Despite heightened awareness and scholarly focus, a comprehensive, up-to-date evaluation of the literature’s scientific impact and citation trends is missing. This research article addresses this gap through a bibliometric analysis from 2000 to 2023, assessing gender bias’s scientific significance, citations, and pre-publication information. Utilizing tools like RStudio, VOS viewer, Dimensions analytics, and MS Excel, the study analyzes manuscripts from the Dimensions database. The analysis reveals notable trends, showing a steady rise in publications from 2003, with fluctuations in 2002 and 2008-2011, stability from 2012-2015, and a significant surge from 2016-2023, peaking in 2019-2022. The United States leads in publication quantity and collaboration. Key topics such as "Economics and Identity," the "glass cliff phenomenon," and the "climate for women in academic science" dominate citations. Prominent journals like "Building A New Leadership Ladder" and "Plos One" highlight the interdisciplinary nature of gender bias research. Influential contributors like Geffner CJ, Kim S, and Ryan MK are acknowledged for their dedication. This study underscores the interdisciplinary reach of gender bias research across Human Society, Commerce, Law, Biomedical Sciences, and Psychology, offering valuable insights into publication trends, collaborative networks, and thematic developments. The findings emphasize the need for continued exploration and collaboration to address gender-related challenges in professional settings.
Gender discrimination in the workplace remains a persistent issue with significant implications for employee well-being and organizational effectiveness. This study investigates the multifaceted impact of gender discrimination on employee performance in the transportation sector, focusing on the experiences of female commercial drivers in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates qualitative thematic analysis with quantitative survey findings to provide a comprehensive understanding of discrimination dynamics and their implications for organizational productivity. To determine the effects of discrimination on employee performance, data were gathered from 243 front-line female commercial drivers employed in Coimbatore’s road transportation industry. Analysis of the data is done statistically using correlation and regression techniques, and mixed-method analysis was used as comparative analysis using cross-tabulation and chi-square and moderation analysis using AMOS. This study considers three types of gender discrimination: hiring, promotion, and facility discrimination. The level of employee performance is more a result of discrimination against women in hiring and amenities. The paper offers principles for human resource managers to follow to prevent discriminatory behavior that negatively impacts employee performance. Guidelines for human resource management and empirical information from the Coimbatore road transport sector relate to employee performance and how it affects organizational productivity.
Patriarchy has an unmatched legacy with its existence still strong in the present era. This can be seen by the fact that it has the capacity to reinvent itself; gender neutrality being its latest incarnation. In this context, this essay seeks to argue that gender neutrality is not a panacea for bringing equality or justice for the disadvantaged groups; in fact it gives root to a new problem i.e. reaffirming patriarchy and instilling bio-power in the hands of the majority. To prove this argument, the essay will, firstly, talk about the meaning of gender neutrality and its inherent patriarchy (deconstructing the idea of the ‘mainstream’, shackled in the sex-gender confluence, becoming a safe haven for homophobia and ignorance of different vulnerabilities); secondly, its ignorance that gendered violence requires gendered response, thereby only encouraging gender blindness and not gender justice; thirdly; its covert aims of propagating a homogenization project; lastly, talking about how it becomes a tool of exercising bio-power over the disadvantaged and marginalised by seizing their narrative. This essay will, thus, debunk the myth of the panacea of gender neutrality.
The belief in meritocracy – that advancement is based solely on individual capabilities and hard work – remains ingrained in organizations despite evidence it is a flawed concept that perpetuates gender and other social inequalities. Critical streams of research have highlighted the ideological character of meritocracy discourse, its entrenched nature and acceptance as ‘common-sense’. Less is known about how this ‘meritocracy myth’ is maintained, that is, how this hegemonic discourse retains its potency in day-to-day talk in organizations. We argue that leaders, given their active discursive roles and opportunities to establish and control discourses, play an important but underexamined role in the reproduction and legitimization of this seemingly progressive yet ultimately destructive discourse. We conduct a critical discourse analysis (CDA) drawing on qualitative interviews with leaders in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK focusing on their talk about women’s recruitment and progression in academic roles. We identify three discursive interventions through which leaders routinely maintain and reinforce and on occasion challenge the existing system of meritocracy: invisibilizing gender inequality through gender-neutrality; denying constraints through individualization; and problematising meritocracy to uphold or challenge the status quo. We argue that by uncovering the means through which meritocracy discourse retains its resilience, our paper offers the opportunity to scrutinize and challenge these discursive underpinnings that uphold the ‘meritocracy myth’. We suggest it is possible to re-imagine what might be considered ‘merit worthy’ in universities recognising and centring structural gender and other social inequalities to create more equal institutions.
This paper examines how the neoliberal injunction to be authentic as addressed to working women operates at the level of the individual. Drawing on Foucault’s framing of self-construction, the paper conceptualizes the quest for the authentic feminine self as a technology of the self which enables women to work upon transformation of their subjectivity to attain a state of authenticity. The developed conceptual framework is applied in an in-depth structural and content analysis of work-life narratives of authenticity related by women training and development professionals. These narratives are a part of the field material collected during a two-year ethnographic study of the sector. Derived from theoretical and empirical analysis, the paper develops the notion of postfeminist technologies of authenticity which demonstrate the quest for the authentic feminine self as aligned with postfeminism, a neoliberal sensibility under which individualized and retraditionalized notions of femininity are constructed. Authenticity is therefore shown as a gendered form of control which works upon women’s self-construction in regressive ways contributing to the reproduction of gendered work, organizations, and power relations.
The European Union has made a firm commitment to quality education for active citizenship taking up the demands of international movements and organisations, making gender equality a fundamental part of it. As previous research has shown a precarious implementation of these demands in Spain, in this study, we conduct 24 semi‐structured interviews with key informant university professors who provide clues about the existing resistance and counter‐resistance in the implementation of gender equality in initial teacher training. The results show how agents and their discourses impact on training, both positively and negatively, as well as the institutions in relation to their own organisational culture, resources and material elements, and influences. The information they supply provides insight into the limitations and possibilities for changing the culture and practice of higher education organisations at the international level in order to enhance gender mainstreaming in universiti.
A relatively small number of students post content in their online courses that is overtly and deeply offensive to other students and/or the instructor. Termed “macroaggressions,” these insults are easily recognized and may even be actionable when they violate universities’ codes of conduct and anti-discrimination policies. “Microaggressions,” the focus of this chapter, can be less overt but equally hurtful. In the online course environment, such slights can be detected in posted class discussions, within submitted assignments, and in the work of online groups. Online microaggressions take many forms, both verbal and non-verbal. They may be directed toward one or more fellow students or the faculty member. Moreover, it can be unclear whether a specific microaggression was intentional or accidental. Whatever the motivation, a microaggression can be detrimental to the learning environment. This chapter addresses the challenges presented by online and in-person microaggressions directed toward either students or faculty members (especially women of color) and suggests strategies to prevent and manage their occurrence.
There are many industries wherein gender imbalance is the norm. One of these is shipping. As far as gender is concerned, the maritime domain seems to be a catalyst for discrimination on board vessels and on shore. The number of women as compared to that of men is completely unbalanced and what is more so, even the few women that are employed in the entirety of the maritime domain, may be faced with further discriminatory practices; exclusion, harassment, and even abuse. Within this situation, the studies demonstrating and analysing the specifics of gender dynamics in shipping are sparse. This distinct research gap is covered by the present work. A questionnaire-based survey was administered with reference to pertinent strategic factors in shipping and the responses were segregated based on gender. Statistical analysis uncovers that there are differing perceptions in the way males and females acknowledge different factors. Further cluster analysis in the results reveals that both females and males can contribute distinct added value to the shipping sector. These results are important as they prove that the gender imbalance in shipping is completely unsubstantiated and needs to be addressed imminently if the industry wishes to head towards a sustainable paradigm.
This paper explores the coping strategies utilized by Muslim women entrepreneurs in the country‐specific context of crises‐laden Lebanon. In so doing, we capitalize on a qualitative interpretative methodology, drawing upon in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews. We present empirical evidence detailing how women entrepreneurs utilize Muslim feminism and various Islamic practices and values as means of coping with crises situations and contexts. We also provide insights into how the doing of gender unfolds as a coping strategy enabled by Muslim feminism in the advent of adversities. Hence, we underscore the importance of approaching religion as a social construct which is performed, as opposed to treating religion as something located outside the spheres of gender and economics.
The literature in management has pointed out male and female entrepreneurs show different levels of risk aversion as well as self-confidence or self-efficacy. This study aims to contribute to the extant literature on this issue through the identification of the most discriminating characteristics of entrepreneurial orientation across gender, as well as the association between performance, entrepreneurial orientation style and gender. From a survey among 226 French franchisees, we conclude that proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness and commercial autonomy are the most differentiating entrepreneurial orientation dimensions between male and female franchisees. Relevant associations between gender, entrepreneurial style and individual and network perceived performance are observed.
This study aims to provide evidence that managers’ commitment towards preventing gender violence against women is affected by implicit resistance from the patriarchal culture. A structured questionnaire was given to 673 managers of 243 small, medium, and large private companies in Metropolitan Lima, Peru. We design and test a conceptual model using covariance-based structural equation modeling. Even though 90.3% of managers report being committed to and in favor of preventing gender violence in companies, 48.6% have intense implicit resistance against it. In general, 3 out of 4 managers do not believe in violence against women because they consider it “biased”, and think that policies should only talk about family or partner violence. In addition, 2 out of 4 believe that equality policies have “hidden interests” that generate mistrust. The structural equations show that implicit resistance, directly and indirectly, decreases managers’ commitment and actions towards preventing gender violence in organizations. Gender biases, irrational beliefs about sexual violence, and a lack of appreciation of gender equality strongly predict these resistances. Business involvement in the prevention of gender violence is a more complex process than expected, requiring a reinforced strategy aimed at overcoming managers’ implicit resistance.
Purpose: Previous research identified a measurement gap in the individual assessment of social misconduct in the workplace related to gender. This gap implies that women respond to comparable self-reported acts of bullying or sexual discrimination slightly more often than men with the self-labeling as “bullied” or “sexually discriminated and/or harassed.” This study tests this hypothesis for women and men in the scientific workplace and explores patterns of gender-related differences in self-reporting behavior.
Basic design: The hypotheses on the connection between gender and the threshold for self-labeling as having been bullied or sexually discriminated against were tested based on a sample from a large German research organization. The sample includes 5,831 responses on bullying and 6,987 on sexual discrimination (coverage of 24.5 resp. 29.4 percentage of all employees). Due to a large number of cases and the associated high statistical power, this sample for the first time allows a detailed analysis of the “gender-related measurement gap.” The research questions formulated in this study were addressed using two hierarchical regression models to predict the mean values of persons who self-labeled as having been bullied or sexually discriminated against. The status of the respondents as scientific or non-scientific employees was included as a control variable.
Results: According to a self-labeling approach, women reported both bullying and sexual discrimination more frequently. This difference between women and men disappeared for sexual discrimination when, in addition to the gender of a person, self-reported behavioral items were considered in the prediction of self-labeling. For bullying, the difference between the two genders remained even in this extended prediction. No statistically significant relationship was found between the frequency of self-reported items and the effect size of their interaction with gender for either bullying or sexual discrimination. When comparing bullying and sexual discrimination, it should be emphasized that, on average, women report experiencing a larger number of different behavioral items than men.
Interpretation and relevance: The results of the study support the current state of research. However, they also show how volatile the measurement instruments for bullying and sexual discrimination are. For example, the gender-related measurement gap is considerably influenced by single items in the Negative Acts Questionnaire and Sexual Experience Questionnaire. The results suggest that women are generally more likely than men to report having experienced bullying and sexual discrimination. While an unexplained “gender gap” in the understanding of bullying was found for bullying, this was not the case for sexual discrimination.
Gendered organization theory refers to an understanding of organizations as sites that (re)produce gender dynamics and the gender order. Bringing the gender lens to discussions about organization theory is useful to capture the filter through which relational dynamics operate in organizations and the way these (re)construct the psychological, cultural, and social dimensions that shape the organization as a dynamic, relational, and interdependent structure. Key ideas associated with gendered organization theory center on gender as a social category that continues to be the basis for inequality in working life. Gendered organization theory pays particular attention to how gender interacts with different dimensions of social, political, economic, and technological life and how this is mobilized in organizations as well as how organizations foster and tackle new and reformulated gender(ed) inequalities. However, gender is not the only social category of difference that shapes inequality in organizations and would benefit from more explicit insight from feminist theories to unpack the complex dynamics in organizations and the impact they have on individuals. Focusing on intersectionality, decolonial feminism, ecofeminism, queering, and theorizing beyond the human provides a more integrated framework to understand the complex and fluid impact of gender in organizations.
This study addresses gender in China’s hospitality industry. Grounded in doing gender theory and feminist discourse, the research explores gender performance in work and non-work domains based on data gathered through 32 in-depth interviews in the mainland of China. Findings reveal that China’s gender revolution is uneven across spheres and that women’s liberation, centered on productive labor, represents a hegemonic gender discourse. Additionally, the gender identities of women in hospitality have undergone numerous changes. “Redoing gender” is defined in this study as challenging traditional gender norms in multiple spheres. Women redo gender by redefining gender norms, labeling hospitality feminism, strategically using femininity, and selectively performing gender in various domains. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.
The authors examined how gender stereotypes affect negotiation performance. Men outperformed women when the negotiation was perceived as diagnostic of ability (Experiment 1) or the negotiation was linked to gender-specific traits (Experiment 2), suggesting the threat of negative stereotype confirmation hurt women's performance relative to men. The authors hypothesized that men and women confirm gender stereotypes when they are activated implicitly, but when stereotypes are explicitly activated, people exhibit stereotype reactance, or the tendency to behave in a manner inconsistent with a stereotype. Experiment 3 confirmed this hypothesis. In Experiment 4, the authors examined the cognitive processes involved in stereotype reactance and the conditions under which cooperative behaviors between men and women can be promoted at the bargaining table (by activating a shared identity that transcends gender).
Quite often "gendered" means the common hierarchical difference between men and women, between the masculine and feminine, with men and masculinity in the dominant position. The difference is quite strong in working life all over the world, and also in the context where gender equality is an acknowledged ideology. Gendered practices may be global, as for instance some management ideologies or uses of information technology, and they may be simultaneously local and situational. Many visible gender relations in working life have changed - and yet remain basically the same. The construction of gender is entangled in many processes. Persistence in itself is a problem, because all constancies reproduce themselves as "naturalness", as the unquestioned and unquestionable way of being. The practices which differentiate between women's and men's activitivities naturalise the gender hierarchy in the world of wage work. But so do the practices which tend to hide the difference. The seeming gender neutrality and the ideology of equality may produce the very same hierarchy. Research on gendered practices demands sensitivity and readiness to make yourself a part of a common learning process with people you study. From the researchers this requires a conscious effort to see the common cultural walls that enclose them as well as others.
This thesis deals with work environments defined as post-bureaucratic, and which are characterised by individualisation and a decrease in the employer's formal control. The study shows how the employees in such work contexts are both empowered and disciplined. The main questions concern to what extent power shifts in relations between the employer and the employees and between female and male employees are visible and how such potential power shifts manifest themselves.
The primary analysis of this power shift focuses on post-bureaucratic work ideals. Work ideals prescribe the skills, competence, manner and qualities of the ideal worker. While bureaucratic work ideals have emphasised employees' rule-following and role adaptation, reflecting the employer's supervision and control over employees, the post-bureaucratic work ideal has been suggested to a shift in power and control that challenges the bureaucratic relationship between power and position.
The study uses a narrative analysis to highlight post-bureaucratic work ideals through examining in depth how Swedish IT consultants constitute, and position themselves in relation to, the ideal IT consultant. Although the consultants present themselves as powerful and autonomous vis-à-vis their managers, they also appear highly controlled by the system of consulting, by customer relations and by a work environment restricted by economic, individualised rationality. They also portray themselves as powerless in relation to threats of being made unemployed.
Notwithstanding the supposed feminisation of a post-bureaucratic work ideal characterised by social competence, this study also shows that the work ideal that is rewarded in post-bureaucracy is not a feminine ideal. Although alleged to be gender-neutral, it is concluded that the idealised character of IT consulting is a gendered construction that gives precedence to hegemonic masculinity, and subordinates traditional feminine qualities, thereby reproducing gendered power relations.
The notion of postfeminism has become one of the most important in the lexicon of feminist cultural an alysis. Yet there is little agreement about what postfeminism is. This article argues that postfeminism is best understood as a distinctive sensibility, made up of a number of interrelated themes. These include the notion that femininity is a bodily property; the shift from objectification to subjectification; an emphasis upon self-surveillance, monitoring and self-discipline; a focus on individualism, choice and empowerment; the dominance of a makeover paradigm; and a resurgence of ideas about natural sexual difference. Each of these is explored in some detail, with examples from contemporary Anglo-American media. It is precisely the patterned articulation of these ideas that constitutes a postfeminist sensibility. The article concludes with a discussion of the connection between this sensibility and contemporary neoliberalism.
This article used the concept of discursive positioning to explore the narrative construction of professional identities among women engineers. The analysis of interviews with 15 women in a variety of engineering specialties suggested that they adopt a variety of distinct and sometimes contradictory positionings to present themselves as qualified professionals. In general, participants were reluctant to acknowledge gender relations as consequential for their careers and were also ambivalent about the implied focus of this research on female engineers as a “marginalized group.” A case is made for including and examining female engineers’ selfdetermined identities to arrive at more adequately complex descriptions of their work realities.
This paper has two linked tasks: one strategic, the other tactical. The first is to provide a critical review of the state of knowledge within organization theory of the topic of gender and organizations. This is seen as a necessary project both because of the relative neglect of the topic and the scatter and variety of relevant literature. A second task, that is tactical in nature, is the reapplication of the typology of organizational analyses developed by Burrell and Morgan. The topic is reviewed in terms of functionalist, interpretive, radical structuralist, and radical humanist paradigms, together with the consideration of feminist critiques. Specific discussion is given to the questions of work and the division of labour, power and authority, and sexuality. The paper is concluded with a brief analysis of the implications of this literature for the general development of organization theory, and the specific implications for women and men researchers.
Scholars frequently recount the ups and downs, the purportedly embarrassing – although always heroically turned to account – mishaps of research. However, acknowledging that one has rethought an analysis in the absence of new data makes explicit that social science is an interpretive project, and as such is rarely discussed in print. In this article I break that taboo, analyzing how I began to doubt my claim that a global shop floor was organized around an ungendered shop-floor subject. I then detail the more contextually sensitive reading of my fieldnotes that allowed me to grasp the fundamental masculinization of the shop floor in question. In the process, I theorize the aspects of gendered structure that enabled the error at the outset. Thus, the discussion reconstructs the life history of an argument – tracing the shifting development of analysis in a particular ethnographic case. In so doing, it follows epistemic problems back to their ontological roots, looking at how the tricky, obdurate situatedness of meanings – gendered and ungendered alike – requires an ongoing analysis of context in interpreting even our most minute and focused observations.
This paper describes the results of an empirical study of the gender subtext in organizations. We examine the divergence of practice and impression of gender distinctions: gender inequality is still persistent in organizational practices while a dominant perception of equality occurs at the same time. Our analysis focuses on the processes (re)producing this divergence. We argue that both the persistency of gender inequality and the perception of equality emerge from a so-called gender subtext: the set of often concealed, power-based gendering processes, i.e. organizational and individual arrangements (objectives, measures, habits), systematically (re)producing gender distinctions. These gendering processes are examined in five departments in the Dutch banking sector. We explore the gender subtext in three organizational settings: show pieces (the token position of the few women in top functions), the mommy track (the side track many women with young children are shunted to) and the importance of being asked (the gendered practices of career making).
This paper comments on some of the different senses of the notion of discourse in the various relevant literatures and then overviews the basic features of a coherent discourse analytic programme in Psychology. Parker's approach is criticised for (a) its tendency to reify discourses as objects; (b) its undeveloped notion of analytic practice; (c) its vulnerability to common sense assumptions. It ends by exploring the virtues of ‘interpretative repertoires’ over ‘discourses’ as an analytic/theoretical notion.
This paper will focus on the problems and prospects for organization theory when some of its central concepts are in question under the 'weight' of the demise of an episteme of representation (Benhabib 1992). Fundamental concepts such as 'action' and 'structure' have been examined critically over several years with the aim of removing either voluntarist or determinist and individualist or holistic tendencies (Giddens 1979; Knights and Willmott 1983, 1985). Though questioning the dualistic separation of these categories from a phenomenological or social constructionist perspective, these perspectives still presume an episteme of representation in which the categories of the dualism (subject and object) can be operationalized to represent phenomena with concrete existence in the world. Structure and agency remain in a relationship of exteriority with respect to one another (Game 1991). Organization theory, as conventionally constructed, can readily accommodate such a critique of dualism as long as the categories remain relatively durable, stable and in a relationship of exteriority to each other. However, the demise of an episteme of representation spells trouble for the durability and stability of these categories. Drawing on a range of discourses, the paper seeks to indicate a variety of solutions to the dualistic problematic ending with the work of the deconstructionist approaches of a limited sample of postmodern feminists.
To understand gender relations in organizations, I use feminist standpoint theory and critical scholarship on men and masculinities to guide an analysis of accounts from six women about their experiences with/interpretations of men at work. Restricting these accounts to those in which women perceived men as not intending harm to themselves or other women, I conclude that men routinely act in concert to 'mobilize masculinities' at work, that men routinely conflate masculinities and work dynamics, that often men are only liminally aware of mobilizing masculinities, and that women experience masculinities mobilization, especially when conflated with work, as harmful. The discussion notes how the gender institution makes men's masculinities mobilizing behav- ior possible, and shapes women's interpretations and experiences of these behaviors. To subvert gender practices that harm people, I call for more research on how these practices are mobilized and conflated with work relations. Key words. conflation; gender as institution; liminality; women 's stan dpoin t(s)
A set of accounts concerning final year university students' views on the status of employment opportunities for women is examined to identify some of the practical ideologies surrounding the reproduction of gender inequalities. The focus of the analysis is the structure of the discourse produced and what is revealed about wider systems of making sense. This approach is contrasted with conventional survey research. We argue, first, that our sample's responses represent a conflict between their endorsement of equal opportunities and their emphasis on the practical considerations supposedly limiting those opportunities and, second, that their model of the human subject in society is individualistic in nature as are their notions of social change and explanations for existing inequalities.
Social Postmodernism defends a postmodern perspective anchored in the politics of the new social movements. The volume preserves the focus on the politics of the body, race, gender, and sexuality as elaborated in postmodern approaches. But these essays push postmodern analysis in a particular direction: toward a social postmodernism which integrates the micro-social concerns of the new social movements with an institutional and cultural analysis in the service of a transformative political vision.
In the late 1980s, there was a proliferation of popular imagery of 'new' men and 'post-feminist' women, with the concept of 'post-feminism' reinforcing and emphasizing the differences between independent, upwardly-mobile, career orientated women, and those women who 'choose' the more 'natural' role of wife and mother. The Illusions of 'Post-Feminism": New Women, Old Myths maintains that 'post-feminism' is a myth. Through in-depth interviews with women about four major areas of their lives: education, work, the media and the family, the authors challenge and expose the myths implicit in the concept of 'post-feminism'. The research illustrates that women's discontent continues, despite the assumption that gender equality would result from equal opportunities legislation. The chapters highlight the ineffective nature of liberal reformism and demonstrate how power relations still lie at the root of the oppression of women.
This paper presents a feminist poststructuralist account of the role of men and masculinity in the development of Air Canada, specifically in its early years and the development of the organization's culture. It is argued that an understanding of the development of gendered practices (i.e., the development of male associated or dominated work) over time can help us to understand and identify how such practices develop, are maintained, and also change.
Managing diversity in organizations requires creating an environment where all employees can succeed. This paper explains how understanding "stereotype threat" - the fear of being judged according to a negative stereotype - can help managers create positive environments for diverse employees. While stereotype threat has received a great deal of academic research attention, the issue is usually framed in the organizational literature as a problem affecting performance on tests used for admission and selection decisions. Further, articles discussing stereotype threat usually report the results of experimental studies and are targeted to an academic audience. We summarize 12 years of research findings on stereotype threat, address its commonplace occurrence in the workplace, and consider how interventions effective in laboratory settings for reducing stereotype threat might be implemented by managers in organizational contexts. We end the paper with a discussion of how attention to stereotype threat can improve the management of diversity in organizations.
What kinds of practices are used to construct gender in working life? Through its multidisciplinary approach and rich empirical data this book creates a wide perspective on gendered practices in working life, in many cultural contexts, from the level of labour market structures to the personal experiences of men and women, and from the persistence of gendered divisions to intentional deconstruction and change. It shows that many assumptions of gender in social sciences, feminist research and political debates are challenged by a view through the "Nordic window".
From the ‘woman's point of view’ ten years later: Towards a feminist organization studies During the last 30 years, the ‘women's liberation’ movement achieved profound social, political, and economic gains, improving the situation of many women. At the same time, feminist movements have contributed strongly to contemporary cultural analyses and, in universities all over the world, women's studies programmes have helped foster energetic cross-disciplinary scholarship and a plurality of feminist ‘theories’ aimed at rethinking the grounds of knowledge. Despite these gains, however, the sex segregation of occupations and organizations persists world wide, as does pay inequity between women and men (Calás and Smircich 1996: 218). We started our chapter for the first edition of this handbook with these words, attempting to capture the impact of feminist theorizing on organization studies. We wrote convinced there was much more feminist theorizing could contribute to our field. Our task was articulating, at least ...
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In this article, we put forth a comparative study of gender distinctions and relations within the processes of organizational reform in a German and a Finnish bank. We demonstrate how these processes are interwoven with assumptions about the 'ideal worker' (cf. Acker 1990; 1992) that organizational members are measured against in management. We argue that the 'ideal worker', even though, in general, a masculine notion, should not be perceived as a universal or as a static category. We suggest that notions of the 'ideal worker' not only vary within different models of work organization, but that they vary across societal contexts. These notions are based on different gender orders (cf. Connell 1987) which penetrate organizational life and become incorporated in different, though predominantly masculine, conceptions. 'Ideal worker' is also not a static category. If we consider gender distinctions and relations in organizations as produced, reproduced and redefined through continuously ongoing social interaction, there is a need to analyze how the notion of the 'ideal worker' evolves in time — when organizations become subject to change efforts through reforms.
This paper treats a number of issues within the area of gender and organization. Alternative approaches are discussed - from comparing groups of women and men in organizations to using gender as a metaphor for illuminating the character of organizations. The limitations of generalizations on the relationship between gender and organizations are indicated. Instead of advocating a unitary feminine view and making just one case against male-domination and discrimination in organizations, differences between groups of women and a multiplicity of forms of masculinity in working life are suggested. In order to better understand gender bias and conflicts in organizations, a differentiated understanding of gender/organization relations is suggested, based on an organizational symbolism approach.
In spite of feminist recognition that hierarchical organizations are an important location of male dominance, most feminists writing about organizations assume that organizational structure is gender neutral. This article argues that organizational structure is not gender neutral; on the contrary, assumptions about gender underlie the documents and contracts used to construct organizations and to provide the commonsense ground for theorizing about them. Their gendered nature is partly masked through obscuring the embodied nature of work. Abstract jobs and hierarchies, common concepts in organizational thinking, assume a disembodies and universal worker. This worker is actually a man; men's bodies, sexuality, and relationships to procreation and paid work are subsumed in the image of the worker. Images of men's bodies and masculinity pervade organizational processes, marginalizing women and contributing to the maintenance of gender segregation in organizations. The positing of gender-neutral and disembodied organizational structures and work relations is part of the larger strategy of control in industrial capitalist societies, which, at least partly, are built upon a deeply embedded substructure of gender difference.
Since the launch of the Women into Science and Engineering (WISE) campaign in 1984, many initiatives to increase the participation of women in these areas of work have been launched under its banner and the WISE approach has come to represent the dominant discourse on equal opportunities for women in science and technology, having a major influence on both policy and practice. This article examines the WISE discourse in depth, arguing that WISE has had only very limited success because it is so narrowly focused on women's 'choices', which it understands as being constrained both by a lack of information about scientific and technological work and by a masculine image of science and technology which, it infers, is alienating to women. Drawing on empirical research which examined both women's and men's occupational decision-making processes, this article takes issue with this construction of the problem, arguing that whilst the assumptions of the WISE discourse cannot be supported empirically, the discourse itself nevertheless continues to structure and limit the space women have to speak of the conflicts and contradictions they experience, explanations for which require a better understanding of the ways in which subjective experiences of both gender and sexuality impinge upon work choices.
This Research Note argues that Organizational Theory (OT) has been resolutely blind and deaf to gender and suggests how a gendered approach may be developed. Despite the fact that authors such as Richard Brown (1976) and Janet Wolff (1977) argued long ago that gender should figure more largely in organizational analysis, little progress had been made. OT has accepted, and continues to accept, male ideology as the status quo. Male ideology and values must be uprooted and be seen. We must recognize the ideologies of difference which define us as men and women and the inequality that this often produces.
challenge the use of methodology, and the importance which social scientists give to methodological matters
recommend an alternative approach: that of traditional scholarship
this anti-methodological stance will be illustrated by considering the issue of ideology and, in particular, the conspiracy theory of politics
the views of one politician will be examined in detail
it will be suggested that more understanding is to be gained by using the traditional, ill-defined skills of scholarship than by following a rigorous, up-to-date methodology (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
"Ideological Dilemmas" is a major contribution to the social scientific understanding of how people make sense of their lives. It presents an illuminating new approach to the study of everyday thinking. Contradictory strands abound within both ideology and common sense. In contrast to many modern theorists, the authors see these dilemmas of ideology as enabling, rather than inhibiting: thinking about them helps people to think meaningfully about themselves and the world.
The dilemmas within ideology and their effects on thinking are explored through the analysis of what people say in specific key situations: education, medical care, race and gender. The authors identify common ideological themes running through the common-sense discourses they analyse. They highlight the tensions between themes of equality and authority, freedom and necessity, individuality and collectivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This paper is concerned with the dynamics of producing gendered hierarchies in the workplace. While the focus is on the present day, developments over the past ten years are also examined. The term ‘doing gender’ is adopted as a method of outlining these dynamics within seemingly static gendered hierarchies. Within the case study organization, a Finnish employment office, the ways of doing gender have shifted from maintaining gendered hierarchic harmony towards women?s and men's separate but invisible cultures. However, men's practices are linked in a more direct way to the textual and official goals of the organization, whereas women's working methods show some implicit opposition to the organizational logic. Throughout gendered contradictions are emphasized: between inequality and equal opportunities; informal sociability and formal rules; and the invisibility and visibility of gender.
The optimism regarding opportunities for women to enter the professionalization process in software development during the past years has not been fully realized and the gender gap in Germany's information technology (IT) sector still persists. Women are almost completely unrepresented in the technical fields of the German software industry, particularly in small enterprises. In this article, I firstly offer an overview of the German IT sector's development and current status. Secondly, I discuss the construction of expertise and gendered meanings in the practice of software development and related implications for the enrolment of women in this field. Gender stereotypical assumptions about expertise in the practice of software development and structural factors related to the lack of life–work balance programmes, as well as the lack of internal training in most IT companies, contribute to organizational segregation
The emphasis in research on female entrepreneurship remains focused on the impact of gender on women’s experience of business ownership, often demonstrated through comparisons of male and female entrepreneurs. By contrast, this article explores the differences and divisions between women business owners who are silent about gender issues and those who are not. The main data drawn on in the article are e-mails conducted through a web-based entrepreneurial network set up to promote and support women in business, supplemented with interview material derived from an interview study of 19 women business owners. By considering the way in which some women business owners not only treat entrepreneurship as gender-neutral, but also seek to conceal its gendered nature, we can see how some female entrepreneurs are trying to avoid being identified as different from the masculine norm of entrepreneurship.
This article analyses the explanations organizational members used to make sense of the meanings and practices of gender equity. Studying gender equity as an organizational value provided a way of understanding how gender inequity is perpetuated and embedded in the culture of an organization. This study was informed by post-structuralist feminist theory as it provided a lens for understanding and critiquing the local meanings and production of gendered knowledge, and encouraged discussion of transforming meanings and practices. This study was situated in a Canadian university athletic department in which gender equity was an espoused organizational value, but gender inequities were evident. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with administrators, coaches and athletes, observations of practices and competitions, and the analysis of relevant documents. These data were coded and categorized using Atlas.ti. Respondents' explanations for the gap between what was espoused and what was enacted centred on two dominant, but contradictory, themes: a denial of gender inequities and a rationalization of gender inequities. These themes suggested respondents often understood inequities as expected, natural, or normal.
Computing is one of the most growing industries offering many opportunities for employment and advancement. Furthermore it is one of the newest industries which comprises of mainly young firms and relatively freshly constituted forms of working practices. Using empirical work in the UK, this paper presents and asesses gendered patterns of work and employment in the computing sector whilst comparing it to other traditionally male-dominated sectors.
The analysis in this article draws on interviews with managers and employees in the Swedish IT consultant sector, a sector characterized by widespread redundancies in the first three years of the 21st century. The article suggests that the interviewees' distinction between and assessment of workers of value and workers without value to justify and explain these lay-offs, are permeated by stereotyped images of gendered qualities and reflect a gendered work ideal. As the interviewees argued, not everybody had the necessary and valued competence of an ideal consultant and those who failed to fulfil the requirements of an ideal consultant were subsequently laid off. Since the behaviour, qualities, technical skills and knowledge considered necessary for the effective and competent performance of an ideal IT consultant are associated with hegemonic masculinity, male qualities and men's experiences, these arguments justify the exclusion of women from this occupation.