Theories of Gender in Organizations: A New Approach to Organizational Analysis and Change1

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ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a framework for understanding gender and organizational change. We consider three traditional treatments of gender and discuss the limitations of each as a basis for organizational analysis and change. We then propose a fourth approach, which treats gender as a complex set of social relations enacted across a range of social practices in organizations. Having been created largely by and for men, these social practices tend to reflect and support men’s experiences and life situations and, therefore, maintain a gendered social order in which men and particular forms of masculinity dominate (Acker, 1990). We provide numerous examples of how social practices, ranging from formal policies and procedures to informal patterns of everyday social interaction, produce inequities while appearing to be gender-neutral. Drawing on previous research and our own three-year action research project, we develop an intervention strategy for changing gender relations in organizations accordingly.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

There can be little doubt that women have made progress in raising the height of the glass ceiling – that invisible barrier that prevents some groups from ascending to the highest-level positions in organizations. Recent statistics show that the number of Fortune 500 companies that have at least one woman among their top five earners has doubled since 1995, and, for the first time, over half of these companies have more than one woman corporate officer (Catalyst, 1999a). The data also suggest,

THREE TRADITIONAL APPROACHES TO GENDER AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

The burgeoning literature on feminist theory and feminist treatments of organizations suggests a variety of ways to classify different approaches to gender and the ‘gender problem’ in organizations (e.g. Calas and Smircich, 1996, Ely, 1999, Harding, 1986, Tong, 1989). In our typology, we identify three traditional approaches as well as a fourth, non-traditional approach (Kolb, Fletcher, Meyerson, Merrill-Sands & Ely, 1998). This typology is rooted in the distinctions we see among different

FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM OF GENDER INEQUITY

The problem of gender inequity from the fourth frame perspective is rooted in traditional notions of male and female, masculine and feminine, as fixed categories distinguished by a series of putatively natural, hierarchically-ranked oppositions. In Western organizations, these oppositions are defined by the prototypical white, Western, heterosexual male experience in contrast with the prototypical white, Western, heterosexual female experience. They include: public-private,

CONCLUSION

In contrast to other perspectives on gender, our understanding of gender in organizations begins with the notion that organizations are inherently gendered as a result of having been created by and for men. Their gendered nature has been sustained through social practices that organize and explain the structuring of daily life inside, as well as outside, the organization. These social practices reflect gendered themes, in the form of masculine-feminine dichotomies, which have become deeply

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    1

    We are grateful to Lotte Bailyn and our colleagues affiliated with the Center for Gender in Organizations, Simmons Graduate School of Management – Gill Coleman, Joyce Fletcher, Deborah Kolb, Deborah Merrill-Sands, Rhona Rapoport, and Bridgette Sheridan – for their contributions to these ideas and for their foundational research, on which this paper builds. We also appreciate the feedback we received on an earlier draft from members of the FSC Research Group, Elaine Backman, Herminia Ibarra, Maureen Scully, and Kathleen Valley. We thank Joanne Martin and Barbara Reskin for their comments, which helped in our conceptual framing of the paper. Finally, we thank Bob Sutton and Barry Staw for their helpful suggestions. This research was funded in part by the Ford Foundation.

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    Order of authorship is alphabetical; we produced this chapter in full collaboration.

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