Anne Witz

Anamnesis and amnesis in Bourdieu's work: The case for a feminist anamnesis

Feminists tend on the whole to ‘selectively appropriate’ (Moi, 1999) elements of the Bourdieun conceptual armoury in order to inform an analysis of gender and of its relationship to class. These elements most commonly comprise the concepts of capitals (Reay, 1998; Skeggs, 1997), symbolic violence (Krais, 1995; McNay, 2000; Moi, 1999), habitus (Krais, 1995; Lovell, 2000, 2003) and field (McNay, 2000). There is something approaching an emerging consensus amongst some feminist commentators that the Bourdieun concept of gender habitus is a potentially fertile one for feminist theory (Krais, 1995; Lovell, 2000, 2003; McNay, 2000; Moi, 1999). Rarely, however, do feminists buy into Bourdieu’s own analysis of masculine domination (Bourdieu, 1990b, 2001), preferring instead to distance themselves from this work (see for example Krais, 1995; Lovell, 2000). Whilst there is nothing necessarily reprehensible about this strategic use of Bourdieun theory by feminists, Bourdieu’s own analysis of masculine domination deserves more scrutiny. In his sustained, book length study of Masculine Domination (2001) Bourdieu aims to effect an anamnesis of the hidden constants of androcentrism, particularly what he terms the androcentric unconscious. Effecting such an anamnesis entails using his Kabyle fieldwork from the 1950s and 1960s as the means of accessing traces and fragments of an androcentric unconscious, thereby reappropriating ‘a knowledge (connaisance) both possessed and lost from the beginning’ (2001:55). In The Logic of Practice (1990a), written 20 years earlier, he similarly returned to his Kabyle material, but this time to effect an anamnesis of the hidden constants of his own intellectual labour since his Algerian days because, as he acknowledged, this labour tends ‘to remove its own traces’ (Bourdieu, 1990a:1). Here I shall argue that, before we can selectively appropriate and put elements of Bourdieu’s conceptual armoury safely to use within feminist analysis, we similarly need to effect a feminist anamnesis of the hidden constants of Bourdieu’s own thinking on the gender habitus. Such a feminist anamnesis involves the recovery of traces and fragments of Bourdieu’s own hidden anthro-

Organized Bodies: Gender, Sexuality and Embodiment in Contemporary Organizations

A defining feature of the Weberian ideal-type is that bureaucracies are governed by a formal set of rules and procedures which ensure that operations and activities are carried out in a predictable, uniform and impersonal manner. Within this rational-legal model ‘personal’ (i.e. non-bureaucratic) relationships are excluded from organizational life, and only bureaucratically legitimated forms of power can operate. The model has been widely debated since its first appearance (see Albrow, 1970; Jackson, 1982, for reviews) but in recent years two particularly stringent critiques have emerged.

Women at Work

In what ways is waged work gendered? Why has waged work become gendered? To what extent is women’s oppression in the home and in the workplace interrelated? These questions have preoccupied feminists and are the central concerns of this chapter. The study of women’s employment has been and continues to be of crucial importance to feminists, because they are concerned not only to identify the processes and structures which generate gender inequalities and gender segregation, but also to devise appropriate strategies for equalising the position of women and men in paid work. The study of paid work also provides feminists with the opportunity to understand better how gender divisions intersect with class and ‘race’ inequalities, for the fortunes and fates of working-class women in employment differ from those of middle-class women, just as those of Black working-class women differ in turn from those of white working-class women. The labour market, then, is a site of complex and interrelated inequalities. In addition, gender inequalities in the labour market are linked to and reinforced by those in other areas, such as, for example, women’s and girls’ unequal access to education and training which, in turn, has important ramifications for the terms on which women participate in paid employment, affecting their choice of jobs and their opportunities for advancement.

Women and Work

The study of women’s employment has been and continues to be of crucial importance in the feminist agenda for change. The analysis and explanation of processes which generate gender divisions and inequality in work has always been linked to feminist campaigns to end sex discrimination and inequality in the work place and, more generally, has occupied a central place in feminist theorisations of patriarchy or ‘gender regimes’ in modern societies (cf. Walby, 1990, 1997). Indeed, the steadily increasing participation of women in paid employment during the latter half of the twentieth century is arguably one of the most significant aspects of the transformation of gender relations (Walby, 1997). This chapter focuses on the distinctive ways feminists analyse women’s paid work, as well as indicating some recent trends in women’s employment.1

Gender and Organisations: Theoretical Issues

The recent growth of interest in exploring the relationship between gender and organisations has generated a range of theoretical positions and encouraged a widening focus that draws new and exciting issues into the debate (see, for example, Cockburn, 1991; Mills and Tancred, 1992; Savage and Witz, 1992). In this chapter we aim to clarify the main perspectives on the relationship between gender and organisation, and also to explain the rationale that we have taken in carrying out our research and presenting our findings in this book. We take the view that theoretical elaboration takes place alongside, rather than just before, social research. Thus the arguments that we develop here were clarified through our empirical research rather than simply being illustrated by our research.

Restructuring Organisations, Changing People

One of the strongest impressions conveyed to us during the course of our research was that all employees felt they were living through a period of major restructuring and organisational change. This restructuring, we came to realise, is of fundamental importance for exploring the changing relationship between gender and organisation, and in this chapter we consider the ways in which restructuring itself is a gendered process.

Organised Bodies: Gender, Sexuality and Workplace Culture

In earlier parts of this book we drew attention to the way in which restructuring involved redefining the qualities of staff members. This frequently involved rethinking the gendered, familial and sexualised properties of employees. In this chapter we explore more systematically how sexualised discourses were invoked in our organisations, and we use this material to take further our analysis of the relationship between the ‘gender paradigm’ and the ‘sexuality paradigm’, which we alluded to in Chapter 1. The former, the ‘gender paradigm’, emphasises the notion of a corporate patriarchy or systemic sets of relations of male dominance and female subordination within organisations, whilst the latter, the ‘sexuality paradigm’, focuses on localised and strategic deployment of power and sexuality through organisational discourses. There is a legacy of tension between these two approaches. Analyses of sexuality and organisations have been strongly influenced by Foucault and, consequently, have tended to emphasise sexuality in a way that appears to sideline or even displace the category of gender. Furthermore, some feminist writers remain strongly critical of the diffuse conceptualisation of power in the ‘sexuality paradigm’ (Walby, 1990; Adkins and Lury, 1996; Adkins, 1995).

Organisational Change and Career Restructuring

In Chapter 3 we explored how restructuring was an embedded process which, amongst other things, involved changing the personal qualities valued by our organisations, and we discussed some of the tensions this gave rise to. The next two chapters turn to look directly at how restructuring is related to the gendering of careers. The present chapter concentrates on broad structural changes and aims to show how the nature of career mobility, specifically the gendered nature of career mobility, is changing in each of our three sectors. We examine how restructuring has impacted on the established trajectories of organisational positions through which people have carved out careers over time. Then, in Chapter 5 we concentrate directly on people s attitudes, focusing on individual career narratives that illuminate the reflexive ways in which people engage with their workplace organisations.

Gender, Strategy and Career Narratives

So far we have emphasised that organisational change cannot simply be understood as the product of the impersonal working out of rational economic processes. We have demonstrated the embodied character of current changes, emphasising that individuals within organisations are not passive in the (re)making of their workplaces. In the remainder of this book we seek to extend this analysis by focusing on the subjective dimensions of organisational membership, in order to show how the sorts of identity, value, aspiration and attitude that respondents hold towards their participation in their organisation help to clarify their actions within the organisation itself.

(Re)presentations of ‘Home’ and ‘Work’ in Organisational Life

So far in this book we have concentrated on individuals’ experience of organisational change and the factors shaping their careers. In Chapter 5 we saw how, for women especially, careers cannot be separated from other life events and responsibilities, in particular becoming a mother. In this chapter we continue to widen our focus by considering more fully individuals’ experience of the interplay between life at work, inside their organisations, and life outside work. Of course, and as we will show, these accounts shed further light on processes of organisational change, on career processes and on the gendered dynamics of both.