Katherine Sang

Gender in the UK architectural profession: (re)producing and challenging hegemonic masculinity

Architecture represents a creative, high profile and influential profession and yet remains under-theorized from a gender perspective. This article examines how gender is (re)produced in architecture, a profession that remains strangely under-researched given its status and position. The empirical work advances the theoretical concept of hegemonic masculinity via an analysis of gendered working practices and the agency of individuals through resistance and complicity with these norms. It reveals how architectural practice relies on long working hours, homosocial behaviour and creative control. However, whereas women perform their gender in ways which reproduce such gendered norms, white, heterosexual, middle class men can transgress them to challenge aspects of practice culture. This has significant implications for understanding the ways in which hegemonic masculinities are reproduced within creative workplaces.

The job satisfaction of UK architects and relationships with work‐life balance and turnover intentions

Purpose – There is evidence that those working within the construction industry are exposed to a number of stressors which potentially negatively impact well‐being, namely; long working hours, high workload, poor work‐life balance, low sense of professional worth and lack of job security. Additionally there is some evidence architects may also be vulnerable to an erosion of professional status, low pay and limited scope to use their creative skills. This paper aims to explore the job satisfaction of architects who are currently employed within the UK.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire is used to elicit data from 110 practising architects on their occupational well‐being and work‐life balance.Findings – The results reveal that between 20 and 40 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with their rate of pay, practice management, promotion prospects, working hours and opportunity to use their abilities. Additionally the majority of respondents report some work‐life balance difficulties and approxi...

Everyday Experiences of Sexism in Male-dominated Professions: A Bourdieusian Perspective

The under-representation of women in the UK engineering and construction sectors seems resolute. Using a Bourdieusian lens, this article examines the persistence of everyday sexism and gender inequality in male-dominated professions. Bringing together findings from three research projects with engineering and construction industry students and professionals, we find that women experience gendered treatment in everyday interactions with peers. Patterns of(mis)recognition and resistance are complex, with some women expressing views which reproduce and naturalise gender inequality. In contrast, other women recognise and resist such essentialism through a range of actions including gender equity campaigning. Through a Bourdieusian analysis of the everyday, this article calls into question existing policy recommendations that argue women have different skills that can be brought to the sector. Such recommendations reinforce the gendered nature of the engineering and construction sectors’ habitus and fail to recognise how the underlying structures and practices of the sector reproduce gendered working practices.

Participatory ergonomics: co-developing interventions to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal symptoms in business drivers

The participatory process within four case study organisations with a target population of high mileage business drivers is described. The aim was to work with drivers and their managers to co-develop intervention activities to raise awareness of musculoskeletal health in drivers, including use of the car as a mobile office and manual handling from the car. Train-the-trainer sessions were delivered in each organisation, along with the co-production of training materials. The effectiveness of these activities were evaluated using three sources of data: post-intervention questionnaires, interviews with organisation ‘champions’ and observations from the research teams diaries. The approach raised management awareness of the risks to drivers and was successful in affecting change, and as such, participatory research should consider the early stages of a project as part of any intervention activities. The research team also reflect on conducting applied longitudinal research in the field. Practitioner Summary: Raising awareness of the risks of musculoskeletal disorders in drivers who work from their vehicle is important. This paper reflects on research in the field and provides guidance on the participatory process and evaluating intervention activities. The participatory process was successful in affecting change at management level.

Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and the Value of Feminist Approaches to Understanding Them

Entrepreneurship research principally focuses on business growth. This focus valorizes the masculine and marginalizes other interpretations. Consequently, entrepreneurship is restricted to a phenomenon that is rare in the diverse business world. The leadership literature proposes that entrepreneurship may not be as masculine as we assume anyway. Our understanding of entrepreneurship needs development at the conceptual level. We argue that performativity, as described in feminist theory, can contribute to how we interpret entrepreneurship and that this might inform both the entrepreneurship and leadership literatures to afford us better understanding of what we might mean by “entrepreneurial leadership.”

Predicting MBA graduates' donation behaviour to their alma mater

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to examine factors influencing the inclination of MBA graduates to donate to their alma mater. Design/methodology/approach - The authors used a large data-base of 3,677 MBA graduates to evaluate individual factors, and external evaluation of organizational level factors. The authors constructed and tested the model, finding strong support for its validity. Findings - Satisfaction with the MBA, university prestige and salary were significant predictors of donating behavior. Engagement (operationalised volunteering) was a significant mediating factor between these factors and donating behaviour. Originality/value - The paper adds to both theoretical implication for understanding long-term relationships between graduates and their alma mater and to managerial implication for future financing of universities and business schools in particular.

Trade unions as employment facilitators for disabled employees

Can trade unions be effective representatives of disabled employees? The paper presents a qualitative case study of views and experiences of a range of trade union stakeholders related to a novel UK Union Learning Fund (ULF) project designed to represent neurological impaired employees employed in the UK rail/transport industry. The case study is the UK’s Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) Neurodiversity project that began in 2012. The findings are based on analysis of focus groups with TSSA members, interviews with neurologically impaired employees, Neurodiversity Champions and TSSA organisers. The findings suggest the Neurodiversity project attracted positive responses from TSSA members and neurologically impaired employees, with Neurodiversity Champions and TSSA organisers reporting successes with individual case work and shaping trade union-employer bargaining agendas. Despite examples of resistance from some employers, an increased number of employers took active steps as the project progressed to support neurologically impaired employees, and incorporate neurodiversity practices into organisational strategy. The study makes a unique contribution to wider debates, showing how trade unions can be effective representatives of disabled employees.

‘Being an academic is not a 9–5 job’: long working hours and the ‘ideal worker’ in UK academia

The deregulation of working time has been occurring over recent decades. Academia is one of the many industries that can be characterised by a long hours work culture and intensification of work. This is significant given the negative effects of such a work culture on the physical and mental health and well-being of workers. Using evidence from two UK-based qualitative studies, this paper begins to explore the causes and effects of academic long hours work culture further. It has a particular focus on the extent to which the long hours culture is a result of cultural and structural changes in higher education, which have led to an increased focus on performance and outcome measures. It queries whether this is also shaped by more personal factors, such as the desire to excel and blurred boundaries between work and leisure, whereby the pursuit of knowledge may be a source of leisure for academics. It finds that while individual factors contribute to the long hours culture, these factors are shaped by cultural norms and pressures to cultivate a perception of the ‘ideal academic’ within an increasingly target-driven and neoliberal environment.

Equality, diversity and inclusion in the construction industry

It has been eight years since Dainty and Bagilhole (2005) published their special issue on equality and diversity in Construction Management and Economics. One of the goals of their special issue w...

Gender, ethnicity and feminism: an intersectional analysis of the lived experiences feminist academic women in UK higher education

Abstract Studies have begun to explore how those women academics committed to social justice, namely feminist academics, are navigating the increasingly managerial Academy. To understand how these multiple social identities, including gender and ethnicity, interact and intersect, this paper adopts an intersectional approach to understanding the heterogeneity of women’s experiences in academia. Five focus groups with feminist academics (n = 6–10 in each focus group) reveal concerns of hampered career progression as a consequence of being female and openly feminist. Some ethnic minority academics felt that they were forced to choose between a feminist identity or that of their ethnic background. For some women, their feminist identity provided opportunities for challenging dominant practices. The paper concludes that the heterogeneity of feminist academics’ experiences within academia is under-researched and that the lens of intersectionality helps to illuminate this. This paper advances understanding of multiple identities at work, though demonstrating that intersectionality can lead to the accumulation of advantage as well as disadvantage in relation to social identities such as gender and ethnicity, and a political identity such as feminist.