Gender subtext revisited

Abstract

Purpose -This paper aims to examine if the notion of gender subtext is still a useful concept to study the implicit processes of gender distinctions in organizations. It also aims to confront the authors' earlier elaboration of the concept of gender subtext with recently developed insights on how organizational processes produce gender at work. Design/methodology/approach -The paper reviews the literature that was used to develop the notion of gender subtext. Then it turns to the new insights, concepts and theories that should be included in the update of the notion of gender subtext. The discussion focuses on three elements in particular: the entrance of intersectionality, the disappearance of the layered processes and the prevailing persistency of power. Findings -The paper concludes that the original concept of gender subtext as a power-based set of arrangements that reproduce gender distinctions can benefit from the recent theorizing on gender in organizations. The new notion gender plus subtext takes the interference of multiple inequalities into account. Gender is one important part, but not the only, or even the most important, form of inequality at work. To understand the dynamic process of (re)production of these inequalities, the paper points to the interplay between structural, cultural, interaction and identity processes in organizations, and to the hybrid power processes of compliance, accommodation, resistance and counter-resistance. Practical implications -The authors hope that this updated version may trigger more debate about the reproduction and, more importantly, about change of gender inequalities in organizations. Originality/value -The paper reconceptualizes gender subtext, bringing a new perspective to the understanding of the power processes that produce or alter complex inequalities in organizations.

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Applying Intersectionality in Organizations: Inequality Markers, Cultural Scripts and Advancement Practices in a Professional Service Firm

“…This highlights one advantage of qualitative research for intersectional studies as it may be possible to re‐analyse empirical data to generate new insights about advancement practices (and other dimensions of inequality regimes) using an intersectional sensibility, even when the original analysis was not an intersectional one. This augurs well for re‐visioning prior studies focused only on gender through an intersectional lens so as to enrich our understanding of inequality in organizations (Benschop and Doorewaard, ).…”

Gender (in)equality contested: externalising employment in the construction industry

“…Certain rules, codes and norms that prescribe workplace behaviour are inherent in all organisations. These rules and codes are based on the ‘abstraction of the disembodied worker’, which is an ideological image of the proper worker or manager (Benshop and Doorewaard, :227). Benshop and Doorewaard (), as well as Acker (), describe the characteristics of the abstract worker as highly qualified, available to work on a full‐time basis, and work‐oriented as well as commonly presented in organisational texts as (gender) neutral.…”

“…These rules and codes are based on the ‘abstraction of the disembodied worker’, which is an ideological image of the proper worker or manager (Benshop and Doorewaard, :227). Benshop and Doorewaard (), as well as Acker (), describe the characteristics of the abstract worker as highly qualified, available to work on a full‐time basis, and work‐oriented as well as commonly presented in organisational texts as (gender) neutral. However, these characteristics are more likely to correspond to the way male workers are conceptualised than female workers (Sappleton and Takruri‐Rizk, ).…”