Reciprocal positions of female partners: constructing your gender identity in relation to ‘Others’

Women’s intra-gender peer relationships has been an under developed area within the literature, although a growing body of research is contributing to this field. This paper aims to develop this area further by examining the reciprocal positions of female partners within an accountancy firm. It examines eight in-depth, semi-structured interviews that were analysed using Davis and Harre’s positioning theory as a theoretical framework. Five reciprocal positions were identified through asking the female partners about their networks and relationships with other female partners. In this way women were constructing and reconstructing their identities, taking up a position through discourse and then describing their reality from this position. These five positions reflect the way in which the women are ‘doing gender’ and constructing their professional identities at work by reflecting on similarities and differences they associate with the other female partners

Gendered organizational cultures: an analysis of the websites of investment banks

Women are still failing to reach the senior levels of management. A number of studies have addressed potential reasons for this and one area of research has examined the influence of gendered cultures on women. Researchers argue that women are excluded from male-dominated cultures through a complex dynamic of discourse and gendered practices. This study seeks to understand one aspect of this, using a qualitative content analysis of the websites of sixteen investment banks. Investments banks are chosen as an industry which has poor representation of women at senior levels and demonstrates characteristics of gendered cultures. The websites are examined to understand the gendered messages given through the espoused organisational culture and values. It is suggested that these espoused cultural values are in contradiction with the organisational reality and furthermore, they offer the image of a ‘contribution culture’ based on masculine images of organisational success

Mobilising femininities in the workplace: offering intra-gender support as a way to make work ‘work’

Recent research has highlighted the negative intra-gender relations that occur between women in organisations, focusing on aspects such as micro-violence (Mavin & Williams, 2013), the queen bee syndrome (Derks, van Laar, Ellemars, & de Groot, 2011; Camussi & Leccardi 2005), negative intra-gender relations (Mavin et. al, 2014), and competition and distance between women (Mavin et. al, 2013; Cooper, 1997; Duguid, 2011). These studies have suggested that women’s intra-gender relationships are based on competition rather than co-operation, and argue that gendered organisational cultures exacerbate these negative intra gender relationships (Mavin, Williams & Grandy, 2014). However van den Brink & Benschop (2014) expand this conceptualisation by framing both the positive and negative aspects of women’s relationships within the context of ‘mobilising femininities’. They suggest that women mobilise femininities in both a contested and affiliated way. However affiliation presents risks to the individual as this affiliative behaviour is scrutinised in a way which their male colleagues is not. This growing body of research both overlooks the positive aspects of women’s relationships and ignores the impact that conservative feminists such as Sheryl Sandberg are having on discourse within organisations. Although Sandberg’s book has created lots of debate in the media, there has been little discussion in the academic community about the impact this conservative feminism has made (GWO 2016 Call for Abstracts, Exploring the Rise of Moderate Feminism in Contemporary Organizations) The aim of this paper is to further develop our understanding of women’s peer relationships and the way in which women mobilise femininities in the context of conservative feminism. This article draws upon empirical data from interviews with sixteen women asked to consider their intra-gender relationships at work. Eleven of the interviews were conducted with women who worked at a corporate bank and five were members of a women’s network and predominantly worked in small to medium sized enterprises. The interviews lasted between 40 and 70 minutes, they were recorded and transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The material shows that affiliation and mobilising femininities at work is an important part of the way women make work ‘work’ for them by providing a buffer from the dominant masculinities that prevailed. Women talked about the support and positive relationships they have being based on four themes. Firstly, ‘seeing the whole you’, this focussed on the importance of relationships that went beyond work, of being ‘tight’ and having conversations that were not work based. Secondly, a ‘mum’s network’, this involved a bond that came from being a mother or providing advice to those who were thinking about having children. The third involved ‘feedback’, the importance of using other women as a sounding board, giving each other feedback and helping each other to advance their careers. Finally, ‘I’ve got your back’, a conscious recognition of the need to support each other and defend each other against men and masculinities at work. However, there is a fine line between supportive relationships and the point at which women seek to create distance from each other. A critical engagement existed within the relationships as the women need to enact femininity in an appropriate way or they are penalised. Behaviour that prompted distancing from other women involved ‘over-mothering and smothering’, women who are over-feminised and smother people therefore holding them back and ‘not a real women’, women who were too polished or too closed off, described as corporate ‘cut outs’. The paper argues that women’s relationships can be conceptualised as a protection from the dominant masculinity that prevailed in their organisations and as a way to bring femininity to the workplace. Furthermore, it is argued that women emphasised the importance of fostering affiliative relationships. The paper thereby makes a contribution to understanding how women’s affiliation can be seen in the context of a growing acceptability of moderate feminism within the media and corporate world

Student Experience: Hands on the Balkans, a 10-day Conference in Serbia & Kosovo

While many postgraduate students were busy working on their dissertations, two LSE International Development students recently returned to London after undertaking a 10-day professional development conference in Serbia and Kosovo

Palanquin (norimono) with Tokugawa and Ichijo Crests

This elaborate palanquin, or onna norimono (“ride for a woman”), transported a bride of high social standing to the groom’s residence on their wedding day. The exterior is constructed in wood and embellished with black lacquer, gold paint, and metal fittings. Two repeated crests serve as decoration and signify that the groom descended from Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), the first military ruler, or shogun, of the Edo Period. The compact interior is embellished with an armrest and scenes from The Tale of Genji, an 11th-century masterpiece of Japanese literature, written by a noblewoman about court life. On the back wall is a celebratory depiction of a pine tree, crane, tortoise, and bamboo, all of which are auspicious symbols related to Hōraisan, the island of immortality. The wisteria crest of the Ichijō family, of which the bride was a member, appears on the coffered ceiling, alternating with the three-lobed crest of the Tokugawa family. The slatted windows, covered with silk gauze, allowed the bride to look out without being seen. The long pole threaded through the top brasses was she means by which two or more strong men lifted and carried the palanquin. One of only a few palanquins in the United States, this example was perhaps the first to enter the country. In 1878 it was presented to Brown University’s museum of natural history by Philadelphia minister Elias R. Beadle. When Brown dissolved the museum in 1915, the university lent the palanquin to the RISD Museum, eventually gifting it in 2004. The interior paintings as well as the exterior lacquer and brasses were conserved by a team of specialists in 2010 with the assistance of the Sumitomo Foundation of Japan. ca. 18th-19th Centuryhttps://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_channel/1033/thumbnail.jp

Femininities at Work: How Women Support Other Women in the Workplace

Recent research has highlighted the negative intra-gender relations that occur between women in organisations, focusing on aspects such as micro-violence, the queen bee syndrome, negative intra-gender relations, and competition and distance between women. Through a thematic analysis of interviews with 16 women, we draw on material where women were asked to consider their intra-gender relationships at work. We suggest that women are actively supporting each other and aligning themselves with each other; they are ‘mobilising femininities’ to help negotiate dominant hegemonic masculinity. However, the women also demonstrate contested femininities, creating distance from women who are not displaying an appropriate femininity. The article thereby examines the affiliated and contested femininities that women bring to bear in the workplace. It makes a contribution towards understanding mobilising femininities, the extent to which this is a conscious or liminal process for women and how, through mobilising femininities, gender as a social practice is demonstrated

Femininities at work: How women support other women in the workplace

Recent research has highlighted the negative intra-gender relations that occur between women in organisations, focusing on aspects such as micro-violence, the queen bee syndrome, negative intra-gender relations, and competition and distance between women. Through a thematic analysis of interviews with 16 women, we draw on material where women were asked to consider their intra-gender relationships at work. We suggest that women are actively supporting each other and aligning themselves with each other; they are ‘mobilising femininities’ to help negotiate dominant hegemonic masculinity. However, the women also demonstrate contested femininities, creating distance from women who are not displaying an appropriate femininity. The article thereby examines the affiliated and contested femininities that women bring to bear in the workplace. It makes a contribution towards understanding mobilising femininities, the extent to which this is a conscious or liminal process for women and how, through mobilising femininities, gender as a social practice is demonstrated

The ABC’s of Mentoring for New Teachers

A mixed methods research design was used in this study to explore how mentoring learning teams in the Coquitlam School District affect the self-efficacy and professional growth of new teachers. This was of high importance to the researchers as new teachers are expected to be capable of assuming the same full-time teaching responsibilities as their senior colleagues, meet the demands of multiple learning abilities and face an uncertain future with regards to their career path without the necessary supports in place to assist and develop them as effective teachers in the profession (Fantilli & McDougall, 2009). Thereby, the study was chosen for its ability to examine the level of significance new teachers place on themes such as professional growth, stress management, sense of belonging, networking, collaboration and instructional strategies. By analyzing these themes the researchers were able to gain insight into how mentoring learning teams influenced the self-efficacy of new teachers over the course of 8 months.   Information was collected and analyzed from an initial and a final questionnaire, with 48 and 34 participants respectively, and from 9 additional interviews. Results from the questions were analyzed and compared using a two tail t-test of unequal variance, while the remainder of the questions were grouped according to their themes and ranked by their order of importance. Professional growth was ranked number one, followed by teacher culture, mentoring supports, and instructional strategies. The data strongly indicated that mentoring was beneficial for the participants and that they valued networking, not feeling alone and sharing stories/experiences. Participants also reported higher feelings of confidence, lower levels of stress and an increased commitment to the profession as a result of belonging to a mentoring learning team

Discord in the gender harmony: Mobilising femininities at work.

This article seeks to aid our understanding of gendered inclusion by looking at how femininities are mobilised at work. Whilst within the popular press there is a growing neo-liberal discourse about women supporting other women in organisations, little consideration has been given to men’s reactions to women aligning with each other, in other words, women mobilising femininities. Furthermore, whilst studies of doing gender have considered this from an individual viewpoint, we are unclear about how the collective doing gender differs from individuals doing gender. The aim of the article is therefore two-fold. First we consider how, for women, the individual aspects of doing gender differ from the collective aspects of doing gender and in what situations doing gender, or in this case doing femininities, differs from mobilising femininities. Secondly, we consider how men respond when women mobilise femininities as a way to resist the gender order and as a challenge to hegemonic masculinity. This has implications for understanding the conditions and bases of inclusion in contemporary organisations. The gendered order of organisations exists for men when; patriarchy is in place, men are enacting hegemonic masculinities, and women are in a subordinate position. We call this a ‘gender harmony’ and suggest that when women challenge this, the impact is ‘discord in the gender harmony’; a ripple in the still water of the gender balance which makes men aware of women’s presence and that something is occurring which is out of place or unusual. Drawing upon qualitative interviews with women managers in a corporate bank, we show how men react to this discord by becoming threatened by women’s behaviour and seeking to create conflict among women, in this way men have the power to include and exclude. However, when women are aligning and supporting each other in ways which offers no challenge to hegemonic masculinity, this behaviour goes unnoticed and is seen as ‘women being women’. The article makes the following contribution. First, we suggest that women draw on each other as a source of support, which adds protection from mobilised masculinity within organisations. Furthermore, our research suggests that women actively seek to promote and support other women succeeding within organisations and, in this way, they are doing femininities. Secondly, we extend the literature away from doing gender as an individual practice to consider how women collectively are doing gender. However, we found that men react to women mobilising femininities as they become aware of a disruption to gender harmony by seeking to create conflict among the women and becoming threatened by women’s affiliative behaviour. Finally, we make a contribution by conceptualising how mobilising femininities looks in practice and how this occurs in response to men mobilising masculinities. This has implications for women when they are seeking intra-gender support to challenge gender inequality and confirms men’s power to include and exclude