Collective Biography as a Feminist Methodology

Gannon, Susanne; Gonick, Marnina

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04852-5_12

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

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“…In this paper, we were inspired by collective biography (Gannon and Gonick, 2019) and memory work (Haug, 1999a(Haug, , 1999b(Haug, , 2008 and use our intersectional bodies, experiences and memories to discuss leadership. Women's collective writing efforts highlight commonalities in their diverse experiences and create knowledge that emerges from the encounter between theory and the lived experience.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feminist futures in gender-in-leadership research: self-reflexive approximations to intersectional situatedness

Rodríguez

Guenther²,

Faiz³

2022

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Purpose This paper introduces intersectional situatedness to develop inclusive analyses of leadership. Intersectional situatedness recognises the contextual and situated nature of experiences and their interaction with socially constructed categories of difference. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on memory work by three feminist academics who situate their understandings and experiences of leadership as part of socio-historical contexts. Findings Understandings and experiences of leadership are multifaceted and benefit from being examined in their intersectional situatedness. This way, the simultaneity of visible and invisible disadvantage and privilege, which accumulate, shift and get reconfigured across the life course and are based on particular intersectional identity invocations, can be integrated into narratives about leadership. Research limitations/implications Interrogating gender-in-leadership adopting an intersectional situatedness helps to advance the field by embedding the recognition, problematisation and theorisation of situated difference as critical to understand leadership, its meaning and its practice in management and organisations. Practical implications In embedding intersectional situatedness in the analysis of leadership, more inclusive understandings of leadership are qualified that recognise differences positively and support changing the narratives around the meaning of “leader” and “good leadership”. Social implications Intersectional situatedness helps to identify tangible ways to see how inequalities impact women’s career progression to leadership and enable more nuanced conversations about privilege and disadvantage to advance feminist social justice agendas. Originality/value The paper reveals the narrow and restricted understandings of leadership and how this influences who is regarded as a legitimate leader. In addition, it adopts a methodology that is not commonly used in gender-in-leadership research.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feminist futures in gender-in-leadership research: self-reflexive approximations to intersectional situatedness

Rodríguez

Guenther²,

Faiz³

2022

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Imposter Agony Aunts: Ambivalent Feminist Advice

Breeze

Taylor

Addison

2022

The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education

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(Re) Stor(y)ing Class: Working-Class Women, Smartness, and Higher Education

Tomlinson

Gonick

2022

Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies

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For Canadian-born working-class women, university is often characterized through the axioms of “expanding one’s mind,” “bettering one’s life,” and “saving oneself from a life of hardship.” Associated with these adages is “smartness,” a signature orientation of the academy and a designation that has often excluded the working-class. Our article asks: What does it mean to be a working-class woman in higher education in Canada? How do working-class women negotiate competing notions of “smartness” existing between the university and their home communities? In what ways do these women resist their exclusions from “smartness” and the university project? We answer these questions by drawing on memory stories written by six working-class women who attended or were attending university. The memory stories were written at a series of workshops that one of the authors organized employing the feminist research methodology of Collective Biography. Our analysis illustrates some strategies that working-class and racialized women may use in their encounter with the university including downplaying the value of their working-class backgrounds to make way for the new knowledge to be gained in university, drawing on the strength of community for support, and positioning working-class common sense knowledge as superior to the book knowledge privileged in university. Each story involves the necessity of navigating competing notions of smartness that marks belonging within the university, family, and community.

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Collective Biography as a Feminist Methodology

Cited by 4 publications

References 20 publications

Feminist futures in gender-in-leadership research: self-reflexive approximations to intersectional situatedness

Feminist futures in gender-in-leadership research: self-reflexive approximations to intersectional situatedness

Imposter Agony Aunts: Ambivalent Feminist Advice

(Re) Stor(y)ing Class: Working-Class Women, Smartness, and Higher Education

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