'Now you see me, now you don't': The visibility paradox for women in a male-dominated profession

Women working in professional construction roles are required to negotiate a range of cultural constraints to their presence in the industry arising from the heavily male-dominated ethos of the sector. As managers their authority is questioned, particularly in the setting of the construction site where they are rendered invisible by a culture within which they have no history. This is contrasted with their high visibility both on site and in the office that places them as physical spectacle or distraction to the main business in hand – men transacting the ‘live’ building of structures. The additional performance pressures associated with being ‘different’ from the main cohort are experienced as stressful adding the dimension of acceptance labour for women, many of whom report feeling ‘under surveillance’ by male colleagues. Drawing on a feminist interpretive lens this paper explores the nature of the visibility paradox and the ways in which women have to adjust their work styles to accommodate the challenges they face arising from the visibility continuum (Cohn, 2000). The ideas of both Walby (1986, 1990) and Cockburn (1991) are used to interrogate how women respond to particular problems such as unfair chartering processes, sexual harassment and their use as tokens to close out the deal. The discussion will reveal that women do not identify as a group within the industry and adopt individual strategies to address these issues. The possibility of women forming a separate network was thought to be both unrealistic and unhelpful, only positioning them further from arenas of power. With no collective voice they are unable to establish a community of interest within which to support each other and often feel isolated at work

Subtle resistance to normative management ideas in a masculine-gendered corporate culture

This study examines resistance by the managers of large Finnish metal corporations to management ideas that do not conform to the prevailing corporate culture and managers' understanding of corporation traditions. The data consist of the personnel magazines of the corporations and interviews of their current and former top managers. The findings suggest that management ideas focusing on social relations within workplaces were deemed foreign and therefore unrealistic and inefficient. Resistance was particularly strong against the management ideas that were labelled 'soft', as they were perceived to be imposed on the organization and in juxtaposition with the prevailing corporate culture and its traditional values. Resistance seemed to serve as a means of maintaining and restoring a historically prominent masculine corporate culture that was represented as culturally rooted and authentic. The article reveals that it is essential to take corporate history and corporate culture into account when studying the adoption of management ideas on an organizational level

Paving the way and passing the torch: mentors' motivation and experience of supporting women in optical engineering

The phenomenon of women's underrepresentation in engineering is well known. However, the slow progress in achieving better gender equality here compared with other domains has accentuated the 'numbers' issue, while the quality aspects have been largely ignored. This study aims to shed light on both these aspects via the lens of mentors, who are at the coalface of guiding female engineers through their education and subsequent careers. Based on data collected from 25 mentors (8 men and 17 women from 8 countries), the paper explores their experiences of being mentors, as well as their views on recommended actions for nurturing female engineers. The findings reveal that the primary motivation for becoming a mentor was personal for men and women. Many mentors from countries with relatively lower female labour participation rates perceive their roles as guarantors of their mentees' successful future career paths, and a similar trend can be found in mentors in academia. The study underscores the need for invigorating mentors’ roles in order to secure a more equitable future for engineering education.******Requires RMSID: 385455064AD 31/03/201