Handbook of Gender, Work & Organization

Citation

McGowan, R.A. (2013), "Handbook of Gender, Work & Organization", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 338-342. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-11-2012-0106

The Handbook of Gender, Work & Organization provides a well written and accessible examination of the individual and organizational elements that shape and are shaped by gendered behaviors, attitudes, discourses and understandings. The handbook offers researchers signposts for emerging questions and future research directions through a compilation of 24 well written, decidedly accessible but nonetheless challenging essays written by established and emerging scholars in the field. Starting with foundational chapters that provide an overview of the epistemological, ontological and methodological histories of studies on gender, work and organizations, the handbook offers chapters grouped into five sections each prefaced by an editorial introduction.

Prior to providing an overview of the book, some general comments about this publication are warranted. First, the editors have provided constructive section summaries at the start of each section. These summaries help position the chapters by identifying the focus, method and implications of the researcher(s) findings which help build an understanding of the complex intersection of gender research and organizational analysis. Second, the papers provide a diverse yet well‐integrated consideration of each of the section themes. Third, the author(s) of each chapter provide a clear rationale for why the issue merits examination, their perspective on the current thinking about the issue, why the issue is both important generally and how it relates to issues of gender, work or organizations. In addition, the chapters provide a foundation for the development of future research projects by offering a range of methodological approaches – both qualitative and quantitative methods – for exploring gender issues as well as explicitly noting future questions for consideration. Finally, because the book tackles issues and topics which can often be theoretically challenging, even potentially inaccessible to a broader audience, one of this book's strength is in its accessibility – an accessibility that informs and inspires readers to research action. This Handbook serves as a complementary publication to Konrad et al.'s (2006) Handbook of Diversity. While the Konrad et al.'s book focusses on diversity issues, rather than the broader work‐related considerations covered by Jeanes, Knights and Yancey Martin, taken together the publications provide researchers, managers and organizational leaders with a broad and innovative set of methodologies and lenses for studying and bringing these related and critical issues to the forefront of awareness, discussion and action.

Section 1 – Histories and philosophies of gender, work and organization

As the editors note, “In laying out such fundamental ontological, epistemological and methodological groundings of gender, work and organizational research, this section provides theoretical underpinnings for many of the subsequent chapters” (p. 2). The initial papers Section 1 adopt a postmodernist and critical theory orientations. Tyler's chapter (Postmodern feminism and organization studies: a marriage of inconvenience?) brings a postmodern perspective to the study of gender in organizations to illustrate how that perspective can surface and challenge taken‐for‐granted assumptions. Höpfl's paper (Women's writing) identifies way to “disrupt” norms and taken‐for‐granted assumptions through an examination of discursive practices. She highlights the importance of textual analysis as a means to reveal dominant discourses and opportunities for change as evident in text. Including a personalized reflection on gendered, political practices and a link to Kristeva's work, as one example, she persuasively makes the case for textual analysis as a means for examining existing traditionally accepted “male normative” practices of writing and research. Höpfl suggests that through the process of analyzing text the roots of why “so little has happened” is both made evident and in need of ongoing critical analysis. Gherardi's chapter (Ways of knowing: gender as a politics of knowledge) builds on theoretical perspectives discussed by Tyler (postmodernism) and textual analysis approaches (Höpfl) to examine the linkage of gender, power, and knowledge. Gherardi's work draws on a consideration of the ways in which the narrative of Plato's Thracian servant girl, as a metaphor for positions of power, powerlessness, subject positions and knowledge, can be deconstructed and revised to formulate an alternate empowered narrative and conceptualization of individual action. Pullen and Rhodes (Gender, work, and organization in popular culture) examine the text and subtext of storytelling in popular culture as a means to surface the ways in which gender, masculinity and patriarchy, for example, have been represented and constructed in popular western film and television. Pullen and Rhodes specifically consider the ways in which stereotypical and superficial representations of women and men in popular western culture are themselves prime opportunities for critique and parody that problematize and unpack the stereotypical gender representations, structures and processes. Moving to a more theoretical lens, Acker (Theorizing gender, race and class in organization) makes the case for the interinfluential and intertwining nature of gender, race and class – or to use Acker's term “intersectionality.” Acker refers to the term “inequality regimes” which she see as “systematic disparities between groups of organizational participants in control over organizational goals and outcomes, work processes and decisions, in opportunities to enter and advance in particular job areas, in security of position and levels of pay, in intrinsic pleasures of the work, and in respect and freedom from harassment” (p. 70). Acker identifies some of the root causes, mechanisms of inequalities and the ways in which inequalities are normalized in organizations. While recognizing some of the challenges in engaging research into “equality regimes” she nonetheless provides a platform from which researchers can embark on detailed studies of gender situated as part of a more contextually enmeshed web including gender, race and class. Finally, Czarniawska's work (How to study gender inequality in organizations?) provides the reader with various methods for pursuing research in this domain ranging from the including traditional (more or less distal) experimental designs, case studies, document and text analysis, through to the more researcher‐present approaches such as interviews and participant observation. Czarniawska's chapter provides rich examples illustrating how the various methods can be used to provide insight into gender and work issues.

Section 2 – Embodying organizations, organizing bodies and regulating identities

In the first chapter of Section 2, Sinclair (Leading with body) identifies the inherent relationship between the physical body and its representation and embodiment in leadership identity and practices. Sinclair notes how this relationship has been studied in the gender research but is largely absent in the leadership literature. Using an example of photographic analysis of leaders, including a personal case analysis of a photographic portrait of the author, Sinclair identifies the taken‐for‐granted assumptions about the “embodied” aspect of leadership and questions why the role of the body as defining, shaping and reinforcing leadership traits has not been, but should be, systematically and critically explored. In the next chapter Hope (The body: a review and theoretical perspective) situates the body at the center of analysis. Hope's approach is in contrast to the disembodied philosophical lens that gives rise to an ethic based on logic, rules and procedures. Like Sinclair in the previous chapter, Hope moves the study of the body/organization intersection from theoretical and the abstract to its very real and central position within the everyday functioning of organizations including the Catholic Church and the US military. She also considers the flip side – the impact of the organization and its very real labor demands on the body. Brewis (New intimacy, new motherhood, the same old work?) extends the consideration of the ongoing challenges of work/gender issues to work‐life balance issues facing primarily (but not exclusively) women in the workplace with a consideration of survey, interview and personal reflection data. The complex relationship among decisions to have children (or not), workplace expectations and opportunities, domestic partner expectations and the relationship to workplace/career and motherhood decisions are explored. Brewis concludes the chapter with a comment that foreshadows a future situation – gender, life and work issues for an aging population. Brewis refers to the situation of women moving into their fifth decade of life and how, for many, this becomes an even more complex and overloaded time with adult offspring on the one hand, aging relatives on the other, and organizations that choose to trim staff and look to “older” workers as a downsizing opportunity. Kenny and Bell's work (Representing the successful managerial body) reminds the reader that the old axiom “Think Manager, Think Male” is still evident in the workplace and frequently women are provided with inherently masculine “directives” on how to act in order to succeed in organizations by a range of popular press texts. Kenny and Bell's work provides a distressing reminder that the “dress for success” ideology of a generation past is still firmly in place. Wolkowitz (The organisational contours of “body work”) explores the effects of the kinds of service or “body” work that employees perform, both on the recipient as well as the employee doing the work. Wolkowitz points out that work involving some type of activities on others’ bodies (e.g. nursing, physiotherapy, etc.) is highly gendered, with more women than men typically engaged in this kind of work. It could be argued, however, that this gender segregation depends on the type of work – surgeons, for instance, do “work” on others but there is still significant sex segregation in this domain. Wolkowitz, like those in early chapters, also raises the consideration of the racialized aspect of body work. Finally, Thanem (Engendering transgender in studies of gender, work, and organization) makes the clarion call for bringing transgender issues into the discussion of gender and work. Thanem highlights the ways in which the body is central to transgender identity construction, development, adoption and disruption of gender norms.

Section 3 – Organizing work and the gendered organization

The overarching theme of this section centers on the persistence of inequalities and the general debate: does the woman or the organization need to change? Joanne Martin (Does gender inequality ever disappear?) presents research examining gender inequality at the organizational, national and cross‐national levels drawing on a range of approaches including numerical, categorical and social constructionist perspectives. Considering national and organizational comparisons of gender differences and inequalities leaves Martin with the interesting and incisive question of “What would a gender equal work environment look like?”(p. 224) and provides some directions for consideration. In the next chapter, Korvajärvi (Practicing gender neutrality in organizations) highlights the disjunctures between Finland's image as a country marked by gender equality and the “everyday work practices [that] belie this assumption” (p. 230). Referring to the works of Acker and Martin, Korvajärvi assesses the contradictory gender neutral scenario encountered in Finland. The transnational nature of gendered assumptions, practices and outcomes point to the global and systemic nature of the challenges facing individuals, organizations and society. This theme is continued by Bird and Rhoton (Women professionals’ gender strategies: negotiating gendered organizational barriers) who explore the pervasive gendered actions evident in organizations. Specifically, they review understandings about how men and women “should” act in organizations and the persistence of traditional hegemonic assumptions about what it takes to succeed in organizations and the ways in which these elements drive individual actions in organizations. Wajcman (Gender and work: a technofeminist analysis) discusses the ways in which the promise of gender equality in the face of technology is a promise unfulfilled. She highlights how women still lag in representation in careers in science, engineering and technology. Wajcman also highlights the ongoing issues with sexual harassment in these domains, and women's voluntary departure from this sector in response to organizational values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that are incompatible with personal views. Noting the ways in which technology can be liberating and can create opportunities for women, Wajcman calls for the engagement and involvement of women in shaping (and not just being shaped by) technology. Finally, Benschop and Verloo (Gender change, organizational change, and gender equality strategies) examine the complicated and multiple organizational and gender elements that make change in the direction of gender equity a challenge. They propose a GenderXchange strategy that would involve both gender equity experts and organizational change management experts working in a collaborative fashion to develop innovative strategies to help realize gender equity.

Section 4 – Diversity in/and management and organizations

As with Acker's chapter, Hearn (Sexualities, work, organizations and managements: Empirical, policy and theoretical challenges) raises the theme of intersectionality and identifies the range and intersectionality of a number of variables including “age, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, generation, “race,” religion and violence, in analyzing organizations and sexuality” (p. 299). Hearn states that organizations can be thought of as “structured, gendered/sexualized, sexually encoded (re)productions, both for organizational members and organizational analysis” (p. 310). Supporting his position through case studies as well as empirical academic studies, Hearn concludes with implications for the individual, the organization, policy makers and future research. In the second paper in Section 4, Omanović (Diversity in organizations: a critical examination of assumptions about diversity and organization in twenty‐first century management literature) provides a systematic examination of diversity representation in the management and organizational literature by considering that representation from positivist, interpretivist (critical), discursive and critical‐dialectic perspectives. Costea (Diversity, uniqueness, and images of human resourcefulness) examines organizational texts from a cultural historical perspective to explore how organizational discursive constructions of the term diversity have evolved and continues to evolve.

Section 5 – Globalization and gender in/and management and organizations

Woodward's chapter (International organizations and the organization of gender) considers the history of intergovernmental organizations and brings an “inside/outside” lens to considering how these organizations produce/reproduce/challenge gender orders internally and externally in the environments in which they operate. Casey (Toward gender equality in European Union labour markets: achievements and contemporary challenges) identifies the factors that help sustain the persistence of gender inequalities and challenge initiatives toward gender mainstreaming within the broader European labor market. Sasson‐Levy (The military in a globalized environment: perpetuating an “Extremely gendered” organization) explores the perpetuation of gendered rules, processes, understandings in a very traditionally masculine context – a context that from Sasson‐Levy's perspective shows little promise of real and meaningful change. Finally, Calás and Smircich (In the back and forth of transmigration: rethinking organization studies in a transnational key) critically examine international entrepreneurship, diversity and expatriation and explore ways in which the “global is in the local and the local is in the global” (p. 413).

This book successfully serves as a springboard for the development of future research projects into gender, work and organizations whether at the micro or macro levels, from a qualitative or quantitative perspective, or from a case study or much broader lens. Suitable for academic researchers, graduate level and senior undergraduate students, as well as practitioners, the chapters in this handbook are structured with an eye to expanding the body of knowledge on gender and organizational issues for researchers, organizational decision makers and those in policy development.