Elisabeth K. Kelan

TOOLS AND TOYS : Communicating gendered positions towards technology

With the rising importance of technology in the information and knowledge society, the gender–technology relationship is ever more important when thinking about gender equality. Gender researchers have shown not only that the use and design of technologies is gendered, but that people also position themselves in relation to technology, based on certain gendered assumptions about technology in societies. This article looks at how people working in quintessential information and knowledge society professions, namely information communication technology (ICT) work, position themselves in relation to technology. Using a social constructivist framework and a discourse analysis, it shows how gender differences are achieved in communication: men tend to describe technology as a toy, while women tend to describe technology as a tool. In some instances this pattern is broken, which opens up the opportunity to rethink the gender binary. This article argues that the way in which people position themselves in relation to technology continues to be gendered, which may threaten gender equality in the information and knowledge society, and it also indicates that there is the possibility of change.

The becoming of business bodies: Gender, appearance, and leadership development

The article uses media images of businesswomen to explore how Master of Business Administration students position themselves in relation to the businesswomen. Following feminist media studies, the article argues that subjects are “becoming” through media images. In order to explore subject formation processes through images, a business school setting, as a place that develops future leaders and that is dominated by men and masculinity, was chosen. The analysis of the interviews indicates that Master of Business Administration students position themselves in relation to the images of businesswomen by commenting on the appropriateness of dress based on the industry and by discussing that being sexually attractive is deemed unprofessional for women. While the subject positions that the Master of Business Administration students occupied were rather normative in nature, the article argues that images can be used as a helpful tool to allow reflection on normativity in relation to gender in leadership development. It is thereby possible to think about a displacement of norms by facilitating the use of alternative subject positions.

From Biological Clocks to Unspeakable Inequalities: The Intersectional Positioning of Young Professionals

The article examines how gender and age influence the experience of being a professional by drawing on intersectionality as an act of positioning for which different discursive resources are employed. Through interviews with employees at two professional services firms, it is shown how younger men and women make sense of professional experiences. First, the biological clock is used to explain the divergence of career patterns of men and women while ignoring that all women, regardless of actual maternal status, suffer a maternity penalty. Second, individual strategies for overcoming being in a minority are suggested that indicate that the individual rather than societal structures shape chances of success. Finally, generational change is used to argue that gender inequality belongs to a previous generation, which indicates that inequality is becoming unspeakable. The article shows that young professionals position themselves in unique ways with regard to age and gender, which entails emphasizing individual agency over systemic inequalities.

Reinventing the MBA as a rite of passage for a boundaryless era

Purpose – This paper aims to explore whether the rite of passage is still a useful model with which to conceptualise the MBA in the era of the boundaryless career.Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the formative experiences of full‐time MBA students at an elite business school, using in‐depth qualitative interviews. Through a discourse analysis, the paper shows how MBA students draw on concepts resembling the anthropological model of the rite of passage when making sense of their experience.Findings – The resources MBA students have available to talk about their MBA experience mirror the three‐step rite of passage model. The first step involves separation from a previous career, either because of limited opportunities for advancement or in order to explore alternative career paths. In the transition or liminoid stage, identities are in flux and a strong sense of community is developed among the students and they play with different identities. In the third stage, the incorporation, students ...

Bound by stereotypes

Elisabeth Kelan shows that many organizations make sweeping assumptions about working women - and men. Do you?

The quality of equality: thinking differently about gender inclusion in organizations

Purpose: This article suggests a shift in thinking about how to improve gender inclusion in organisations, as well as offering a number of practical action points. Design/methodology/approach: This article takes a perspective based on the authors’ own ongoing research as well as synthesis of existing insights into gender inclusion in organisations. Findings: In order to retain top talent and improve organisational climate, we need to re-think how we measure the success of organisational inclusion policies. Specifically, the article suggests moving from numbers and targets to looking at the quality of gender inclusion in the workplace. The article explains why this shift in thinking is important, and how to approach it. Practical implications: The article provides strategic insights into and practical thinking about ways in which progressive organisations can continue to improve gender equality. Originality/value: The article makes a provocative call for a change of perspective on gender inclusion in organisations based on cutting-edge research, and puts forward action points in an accessible format.

Employer Branding and Diversity: Foes or Friends?

In this chapter we explore whether employer branding and diversity are diametrically opposed to each other or whether they could support the same aims. We argue that employer branding aims at creating a coherent employment brand but in the process of achieving this it can introduce pressures that lead to a homogenization of the workforce. Employer branding is a relatively new idea that has received a flurry of interest in recent years (Martin, 2008; Edwards, 2005); interest which ranges from HR practitioner literature (CIPD, 2008; Martin and Beaumont, 2003) to literature more oriented towards the marketing field (Ind, 2006; Sartain and Schumann, 2006). Although employer branding can take a number of forms (see below), in general, programmes designed to strengthen an organization’s employer brand will tend to present a uniform set of organizational values that represent both the characteristics of the organization’s corporate brand and a set of beliefs that employees ostensibly share; often employees are actively encouraged to share these values. Employer branding aims at creating a coherent and recognizable brand which, it is argued here, can potentially lead to the introduction of pressures that encourage a homogenization of the workforce. Diversity, in contrast, aims to bring out and make use of the differences between employees. This chapter discusses the tension that exists between employer branding and diversity. To begin with, the growing interest in employer branding is examined, along with a discussion of the differing positions on employer branding that...

Post‐Heroic Leadership, Tempered Radicalism and Senior Leaders as Change Agents for Gender Equality

Micro change agents for gender equality in organisations are often considered to be tempered radicals who work within an existing structure to change the status quo. However for gender equality to happen, it is often claimed that heroic leadership of top leaders, or macro change agents, is required. The aim of this article is to show how CEOs as macro change agents for gender equality can be conceptualised. Drawing on interviews with 20 global CEOs and a literature review, the article develops a framework to conceptualise how CEOs are fostering gender equality around accountability, building ownership, communicating, leading by example, initiating and driving culture change. The article questions the conceptualisation of change agents of gender equality as either tempered radicals, for micro change agents, or heroic leaders, for macro change agents, and argues instead that to be macro change agents for gender equality, CEOs need to display post-heroic leadership and tempered radicalism to foster change in regard to gender relations.

‘Female Heroes’: Celebrity Executives as Postfeminist Role Models: Celebrity Executives as Postfeminist Role Models

This paper explores the significance of contemporary celebrity businesswomen as role models for women aspiring to leadership in business. We explore the kind of gendered ideals they model and promote to women through their autobiographical narratives, and analyse how these ideals map against a contemporary postfeminist sensibility to further understand the potential of these role models to redress the under‐representation of women in management and leadership. Our findings show that celebrity businesswomen present a role model that we call the ‘female hero’, a figure characterized by 3Cs: confidence to jump over gendered barriers; control in managing these barriers; and courage to push through them. We argue that the ‘female hero’ role model is deeply embedded in the contemporary postfeminist sensibility; it offers exclusively individualized solutions to inequality by calling on women to change themselves to succeed, and therefore has limited capacity to challenge the current gendered status quo in management and leadership. The paper contributes to current literature on role models by generating a more differentiated and socially situated understanding of distant female role models in business and extending our understanding of their potential to generate sustainable and long‐term change in advancing gendered change in management and leadership.

Splitting and blaming: The psychic life of neoliberal executive women:

The aim of the article is to explore the psychic life of executive women under neoliberalism using psychosocial approaches. The article shows how, despite enduring unfair treatment and access to opportunities, many executive women remain emotionally invested in upholding the neoliberal ideal that if one perseveres, one shall be successful, regardless of gender. Drawing on psychosocial approaches, we explore how the accounts given by some executive women of repudiation, as denying gender inequality, and individualization, as subjects completely agentic, are underpinned by the unconscious, intertwined processes of splitting and blaming. Women sometimes split off undesirable aspects of the workplace, which repudiates gender inequality, or blame other women, which individualizes failure and responsibility for change. We explain that splitting and blaming enable some executive women to manage the anxiety evoked from threats to the neoliberal ideal of the workplace. This article thereby makes a contribution to existing postfeminist scholarship by integrating psychosocial approaches to the study of the psychic life of neoliberal executive women, by exploring why they appear unable to engage directly with and redress instances of gender discrimination in the workplace.