Creating and recreating gender order in organizations

Successful female expatriates as agents: Positioning oneself through gender, hierarchy, and culture

“…Considering female expatriates as agents, we further proposed two types of processes through which female expatriates produce their own successful identity: interpreting (Gergen & Davis, 1985) and positioning (Davies & Harré, 1990;Gherardi & Poggio, 2001). Our data also tends to confirm this analytical distinction.…”

“…Davies and Harré (1990) see 'positioning' as a linguistic practice producing the self in encounters. Positioning has been used by Gherardi and Poggio (2001) to investigate how women 'do gender,' by taking specific positions (cf. Gherardi's (1995) archetypes) within the social practices that define them as women in their relationship with men.…”

“…Female expatriates may use what they consider women's unique qualities such as interpersonal skills (Adler, 2002) or their 'femininity' (Napier & Taylor, 2002), to position themselves. Gherardi and Poggio's (2001) study identifies an additional positioning strategy, taking a 'one down position' to avoid direct competition with male colleagues, showing humility towards the male hierarchy to safeguard a broader playfield within the organization. We would argue that, in these cases, the positioning process draws on the identity discourse of gender.…”

“…She accentuates her femininity by using 'female skills' to make her boss feel comfortable around her and avoid being perceived as a competitor. Using the positioning tactic that Gherardi and Poggio (2001) call the 'one-down position,' Sabien is able to safeguard her position and even broaden her playfield by playing the feminine identity card. This positioning process reassures her boss of his higher position but at the same time enables her to obtain more from him.…”

How Can We Define Mastery? Reflections on Learning, Embodiment and Professional Identity

“…The issues of identity related to the body have especially emerged in gender and diversity studies (Christie, 2006;Gherardi & Poggio, 2001;Martin, 2001Martin, , 2003 and in studies that seek to analyze disciplinary power relations within organizational dynamics (Collinson, 2003;Fleming & Spicer, 2003;Flores-Pereira, Davel, & Cavedon, 2008;Hodgson, 2005). Albeit these are invaluable contributions to the study of body BAR, Rio de Janeiro, v. 12, n. 4, art.…”