Invisible or Clichéd: How Are Women Represented in Business Cases?

Abstract

Women represent just under 50% of undergraduate business graduates and 36% of MBA graduates. Despite their strong presence in management education programs, women are noticeably absent from business case studies-a key pedagogical tool for instruction within management education programs worldwide. While case studies inform students about business processes, decision making, strategy, and leadership and management challenges, they also promote unintentional learning about gender. We argue that case studies contain a "hidden curriculum" that presents and reinforces implicit assumptions and stereotypes about women's fitness to lead. Using NVivo 11 software to analyze the content of written cases, we examine the presence, absence, and representation of female and male protagonists in a sample of business cases published by a large business school case publisher. The findings offer comparative insights into the proportion of cases featuring female protagonists, the representation of women and men in leadership roles, and the characterizations of the female and male protagonists.Women protagonists were absent in over 80% of cases, and when present, were portrayed as less visionary, risk-taking, agentic, certain, and more emotional, cautious, quality and detail oriented than men.

The State of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Business School Case Studies

“…The authors found other stereotypes reinforced in cases related to race, national origin and age as well. Similar findings were identified in study by Sharen & McGowan (2018), which found that 20% of business school case studies among their sample had female protagonists and those females were represented as emotional, cautious, overwhelmed and less visionary, action-oriented, and innovative than men. In addition, female protagonists' credentials were mentioned more frequently as opposed to their male colleagues.…”

The Mirror and the Window: Making Implicit Perceptions of Leadership Explicit

“…By doing a reveal in real time and asking students to reflect on how their perceptions shape the language they use and the world they construct, we nudge our students toward more inclusive action. We can also follow the lead of Sharen and McGowan (2019) who argue for providing positive female role models in the written cases we ask our students to read—and, we would add, in the guest speakers we ask them to see in our auditoriums and lecture halls—because “as educators, we consciously and unconsciously shape our students’ identities as managers and leaders through what we teach, how we teach it, our choices as role models, the discussions we entertain in the classroom, and the materials we select” (p. 159).…”

Gender Nonconforming Individuals and Business Education: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Business schools primarily assume and teach from cisgender and heteronormative perspectives throughout the curriculum and delivery of the program . The assignment of gender roles based on traditional gender expectations and norms is pervasive in business education, ranging from vernacular (chairman, businessman); representation (the overwhelming focus on male protagonists in business cases, to the near exclusion of women or complete exclusion of nongender conforming individuals in business education materials); or stereotypes (males as business leaders, females as support personnel; Sharen & McGowan, 2019, Symons & Ibarra, 2014. Critiques of this persistent imbalance are fueling change within the field, but the focus has largely been on greater representation of females rather than on the inclusion of gender nonconforming individuals.…”

“…This study confirms a gap in the existing literature that would aid business educators in the development of curriculum, the identification and development of teaching/learning resources, and the training of faculty in the delivery and implementation of gender inclusive concepts and materials. Much of the existing business education materials lack equal or balanced representation of heterosexual cisgender women (Sharen & McGowan, 2019;Symons & Ibarra, 2014), and according to the articles found in this study, representation of nonheteronormative individuals and perspectives is limited (Sanchez, 2019). Two options for inclusion of gender nonconforming individuals are (a) to start including more gender nonconforming individuals and perspectives (including language) in business education materials such as textbooks, cases, readings, and so on (Harris et al, 2017) and (b) to explicitly include gender nonconforming topics in the content of business education courses .…”