Moving Out of the ‘Armchair’: Developing a Framework to Bridge the Gap Between Feminist Theory and Practice

Abstract

Over the past decade, feminist theorists have made significant contributions to the study of organizations by offering critiques of accepted management principles and articulating the ways in which organization theory and practice are systematically biased against women (e.g., ). There is little research or theory, however, on how to use this work to change organizations in ways that will make them more gender equitable. In an effort to move out of 'armchair' theorizing, our research team 2 set about the task of developing an approach to organizational change, based in critical feminist perspectives on organizations, that we could then use collaboratively with partners inside organizations to advance gender equity.As one of our first tasks, we contracted with the chief executive of a global manufacturing and retail company, who shared our interest in achieving greater gender equity and who offered her company as a site for engaging with us in a collaborative, interactive process of critique, experimentation, and change. In this paper, we describe what we have learned about translating feminist organization theory into interventions that organization change agents might carry out in practice. Specifically, we discuss: 1) what we initially thought most relevant from feminist theories of gender and organizations and how we attempted to introduce these ideas to the company; 2) what we learned from these initial encounters with our change agent partners inside the company, and 3) the framework we eventually developed to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Agents for Change and Changed Agents: The Micro‐politics of Change and Feminism in the Academy

“…Gender inequalities in the workplace have been studied from various disciplinary backgrounds and from several perspectives, however most scholars agree on the fact that gender inequalities persist due to culture, processes and practices that constitute the structural systems of contemporary organisations and therefore are taken for granted and mostly left unchallenged (Meyerson and Kolb, 2000;Gherardi and Poggio 2007;Meyerson and Tompkins, 2007). In addition, as Hearn (2000) observes, little is known about the gendered nature of organizational change and intervention processes.…”

Gendered Identities in Self-Descriptions of Electoral Candidates in a French National Sport Federation

“…The study adopted an approach advocated in the literature by poststructuralist thought which emphasizes the ongoing social construction of gendered roles. Although other researchers such as Acker (1990), Ely and Meyerson (2000), Meyerson and Kolb (2000), and Rao, Stuart, and Kelleher (1999) have conduct research in this area, the present study extends the understanding of the processes of construction of gendered roles which is essential to the diversity policies. The two stages process is not however a matter of convenience but is under pinned by an essentially different ontological set of assumptions from that which informs the dominantly post-structuralist methodologies evident in the literature.…”

Silences and Disappearing Acts: The Politics of Gendering Organizational Practice

“…Under this framework, interventions aim to assert the value of diversity to the organization and to empower women and men to challenge cultures and practices that devalue their ways of leading and managing. Meyerson and Kolb (2000) suggest that while each of these three frameworks has achieved results, none have addressed the practices or the institutional mechanisms through which gender differences are reproduced. They propose a fourth framework in which gender is an axis of power, not located in identity or in discriminatory practices but an organizing principle that shapes apparently gender neutral discourse and organizational practice.…”

“…From this perspective, organizations are sites for the reproduction and performance of gendered relations, and do not simply reflect gender relations in their external social environments (Gherardi 1995;Meyerson and Kolb 2000). Gendered organizational analysis thus offers a framework for critical research and practice, exploring how management and organization practices in any specific context may reproduce or break patterns of gendered power (Acker, 2000;Ely and Meyerson 2000;Fletcher 1998).…”

“…In my analysis I will use a critical framework that offers four frameworks for understanding gender inequality in organizations, each linked to specific change interventions (Meyerson and Kolb 2000). The first two frameworks identify unequal access to opportunities as the cause of women's inequality to men.…”