Sharon Mavin

Women’s career in theory and practice: time for change?

One result of domination of management as being male paradigm is that women managers are out of place, in foreign territory, “travellers in a male world”. The model of the successful manager has traditionally been masculine and while these stereotypes remain, they succeed in maintaining the dominant place for men in management. This is evident in both the theory underpinning and the actual experience of career in management. Indeed, the traditional working pattern of education, full‐time career and retirement is based on the typical working lives of men. There is no single typical working pattern for modern women. It is clear that, while male career models remain and women are the ones to step off the fast track to meet family responsibilities, they will continue to be at a competitive disadvantage in career advancement. Reviews the literature concerning women and career and argues that the importance of offering new conceptions of career based on an understanding that women’s experiences are different from men cannot be underestimated. Areas for further research and the implications for organisations are also highlighted.

Doing gender well and differently in management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to revisit theoretical positions on gender and the implications for gender in management by building upon current research on doing gender well (or appropriately in congruence with sex category) and re‐doing or undoing gender and argue that gender can be done well and differently through simultaneous, multiple enactments of femininity and masculinity.Design/methodology/approach – This is a theoretical paper.Findings – The authors argue that individuals can perform exaggerated expressions of femininity (or masculinity) while simultaneously performing alternative expressions of femininity or masculinity. The authors question claims that gender can be undone and incorporate sex category into their understanding of doing gender – it cannot be ignored in experiences of doing gender. The authors contend that the binary divide constrains and restricts how men and women do gender but it can be disrupted or unsettled.Research limitations/implications – This paper focuses upon...

Venus envy: problematizing solidarity behaviour and queen bees

Purpose – Aims to critique solidarity behaviour as a means of advancing women in management; questions the queen bee concept and raises negative relations between women.Design/methodology/approach – Conceptual paper which critiques extant research and approaches to advancing women in management identifying alternative perspectives.Findings – Assumptions of solidarity behaviour set expectations of senior women which cannot be fulfilled. Continued use of the unproblematized queen bee label, without acknowledgement of the embedded gendered context for women in senior management, perpetuates a “blame the woman” perspective as a “one‐woman responsibility”. Emerging from the gendered nature of organization, female misogyny may be a means of exploring negative relations between women to challenge existing gendered organizations which sustain the status quo.Research limitations/implications – Mediates recommendations of senior women as mentors and role models, whilst blaming them for being more male than men, by ...

Venus envy 2: Sisterhood, queen bees and female misogyny in management

Purpose – Using an alternative lens to challenge assumptions of solidarity behaviour and the queen bee label, the paper aims to analyse empirical data to explore negative relations between women in management and surface processes of female misogyny.Design/methodology/approach – Feminist standpoint epistemology; qualitative semi‐structured interviews; subjective narrative data from senior women and women academics of management in two UK organisations.Findings – Assumptions of solidarity behaviour are largely absent in the research and the queen bee label impacts pejoratively on women in management, perpetuating a “blame the woman” perspective. Senior women do recognise barriers facing women in management but they do not want to lead on the “women in management mantle.” This does not make them queen bees; the women recognise becoming “male” in order to “fit” senior management and acknowledge the impact of their gendered context. From this context, processes of female misogyny between women in management f...

What is managing diversity and why does it matter

In the UK, human resource practitioners and academics alike are becoming more aware of the emergence of managing diversity. But what does managing diversity actually mean, how does it translate into practice, and what does it matter? The following paper briefly debates the rhetoric of managing diversity and considers whether managing diversity is a distinct approach to managing people or a means of diluting equal opportunities in UK organizations. With respect to the realities of the concepts in UK organizations, empirical data from a survey of sixty UK human resource professionals and general line managers is presented. We pose a number of cautionary questions, including what does it matter and to whom? By doing so we intend to encourage further critique and challenges in respect to the concept of managing diversity in organizations.

Intersectionality, identity and identity work: Shared tenets and future research agendas for gender and identity studies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Special Issue developed from a joint research seminar of the Gender in Management and Identity Special Interest Groups of the British Academy of Management, entitled “Exploring the Intersectionality of Gender and Identity”. It also presents an introductory literature review of intersectionality for gender in management and identity/identity work researchers. The authors highlight the similarities and differences of intersectionality and identity approaches and introduce critiques of intersectional research. They then introduce the three papers in this Special Issue. Design/methodology/approach – The authors review the intersectionality literature within and outside management and organisation studies and focus their attention on three intersectionality Special Issues (Sex Roles, 2008, 2013 and the European Journal of Women’s Studies, 2006). Findings – The authors outline the ongoing debates relating to intersectionality research, including a framewor...

Gender on the agenda in management education

Business/management schools may be currently using an exclusive approach to the study and development of management; by ignoring gender in this arena they are reinforcing the notion that women in management are invisible. Previous research suggests that there is a masculine bias in management education, which disadvantages both female and male learners and which may discourage managers from capitalising on gender diversity in the workplace. Discusses experiences of women academics and students in a business/management school and is based on the premise that change in management education will facilitate change in organisations. Therefore, rather than reinforcing the premise that management knowledge contributes to the maginalisation of women in management, argues that business/management schools should move to an inclusive approach, where management incorporates the experience and abilities of both men and women. Concludes by suggesting a number of initiatives to place gender on the agenda in business/management schools.

Fed‐up with Blair's babes, Gordon's gals, Cameron's cuties, Nick's nymphets: Challenging gendered media representations of women political leaders

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight gendered media constructions which discourage womens acceptability as political leaders and trivialise or ignore their contribution.Design/methodology/approach – Media analysis of UK newspapers, government web sites, worldwide web relating to the UK 2010 government election, women MPs and in particular representations of Harriet Harman and Theresa May.Findings – Media constructions of UK women political leaders are gendered and powerful in messaging womens (un)acceptability as leaders against embedded stereotypes. Being invisible via tokenism and yet spotlighted on the basis of their gender, media constructions trivialize their contribution, thus detracting from their credibility as leaders.Research limitations/implications – UK‐based study grounded in opportune “snapshot” media analysis during election and resultant formation of UK coalition Government. Focus on two women political leaders, results may not be generalisable.Practical implications – Rai...

Occupational image, organizational image and identity in dirty work: Intersections of organizational efforts and media accounts

This article proposes that media representations of an occupational category may intersect with organizations’ efforts to construct a positive organizational identity and image. We fuse three streams of literature namely, organizational identity and image, media and the social construction of reality, and dirty work to extend extant literature on organizational identity and image. Attention is drawn to occupational image as the position of an occupational category in society. We contend that occupational image is likely to influence the decisions and actions taken by organizations and its members, in particular when the occupation is central to the organization’s mission. Occupational image is partly informed by the media. We analyse one year of media coverage of a dirty work occupation, specifically exotic dancing, and identify various ways in which the media portrays the exotic dancing occupation and the organizations providing these services. We focus upon two of these categories, namely Public (dis) Order and Art and Entertainment. We also draw upon a variety of data from one organization, For Your Eyes Only, to explore how organizational efforts to construct a positive organizational identity (based upon professionalism and legitimacy) and image (based upon fantasy, exclusivity and high quality service) intersect these media representations.

Learning and development experiences of self-initiated expatriate women in the United Arab Emirates

The article explores self-initiated expatriate womens experiences of working and learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Adlers (Adler, N. 1987. Pacific basin managers: A Gaijin, not a woman. Human Resource Management 26, no. 2: 169–91) seminal study and Tungs (Tung, R.L. 2004. Female expatriates: The model of the global manager. Organizational Dynamics 33: 243–53) research suggest that expatriate women operating in a foreign host culture are categorized as a ‘Third Gender’: host nationals would perceive them as ‘foreign’ first and ‘women’ second, consequently according them different privileged treatment inworkplaces than host national women colleagues. This qualitative study of self-initiated expatriate women highlights how the womens constructions of themselves as ‘foreign’ and ‘female’ in the UAE provide a lens through which they reflect upon their own experiences of learning and development. In the absence of support from their own organizations and/or driven by their own aspirations, the women embarked upon their professional development initiatives; networking, coaching and formal qualifications. Key themes of vulnerability in being a foreigner, gendered workplaces, informal learning and womens agency in their own learning and development emerge from the analysis. The womens experiences suggest that their ‘Third Gender’ identity frames both constraints and opportunities within their social and work environment. The research focus on self-initiated expatriate women developing their professional practice, without the organizational Human Resource Development (HRD) support normally provided for assigned expatriates, is a key contribution to HRD, expatriate and international management literature where gender has tended to be ignored.