25 Years On: Reflecting on the Past and Looking to the Future in Gender and Management Research

Abstract

This paper celebrates the progress that has been made in gender and management research over the last 25 years and outlines some current challenges faced. The British Journal of Management has disseminated many of the key debates, from empirical and theoretical work, that have helped to both frame and reflect developments in the fieldand this paper charts some of this diverse terrain. Challenges include current conceptualizations that gender issues have been 'solved' with a tendency towards 'gender denial' in understandings of work based disadvantage. Future areas of research are identified including the need to continue to monitor and publicize gender difference; to clarify and conceptualize emerging gendered hierarchies and new forms of gendered power; and to reveal hidden, gendered practices and processes currently concealed within norms, customs and values.

Introduction to Special Issue on Gender and Leadership and a Future Research Agenda

“…Burkinshaw et al [12] focus on gendered regimes in a UK higher education context, describing these as the 'interlocked practices and processes that result in continuing gender inequalities in all work organisations'. They build on earlier work [18] and present a conceptual framework. They highlight the 'blatant disregard of plurality' in HE institutions and are ambivalent about the role played by sponsorship as reflected in 'taps on the shoulder' in perpetuating male dominance in masculinist organisations (a similar ambivalence emerges in Harford [11]).…”

Is there gender bias when creative directors judge advertising? Name cue effect in ad evaluation

“…The purpose of this study was to evaluate one factor of gender bias through an experiment, where 87 creative directors assessed print ads for a student's portfolio with different gender authorships. Thus, it is the first time this topic is investigated with this methodology with advertising creative directors, and contributes to the progress in gender and management research (see Broadbridge & Simpson 2011).…”

Seeing herself as a leader: an examination of gender-leadership Frames in women’s leader identity development

“…Other work, categorized by Broadbridge & Simpson (2011) as the "women's voice literature", attends more directly to women's subjectivity and inner experiences of management and leadership by studying "women's accounts of their gendered experiences in management and the processes that facilitate and limit their career opportunities" (Broadbridge & Sampson, 2011: p.473;see, for example Billing, 2011;Corby & Stanworth, 2009;Priola & Brannen, 2009), yet such studies primarily report descriptive themes from women's experiences, without taking the next step to develop an understanding of the meaning of these experiences. In so doing, we are left with little theorizing to understand how professional women on the path to leadership in their organization experience their gender in concert with their developing leader identities -a focus which is important if we are going to truly appreciate and understand the choices women make along the leadership path.…”