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Reproducing Gendered Hierarchies in Everyday Work: Contradictions in an Employment Office
Author(s) -
Korvajärvi Päivi
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
gender, work and organization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.159
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0432
pISSN - 0968-6673
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0432.00043
Subject(s) - invisibility , sociology , gender studies , harmony (color) , opposition (politics) , inequality , visibility , dynamics (music) , political science , politics , law , geography , computer science , art , mathematical analysis , pedagogy , mathematics , artificial intelligence , meteorology , visual arts
This paper is concerned with the dynamics of producing gendered hierarchies in the workplace. While the focus is on the present day, developments over the past ten years are also examined. The term ‘doing gender’ is adopted as a method of outlining these dynamics within seemingly static gendered hierarchies. Within the case study organization, a Finnish employment office, the ways of doing gender have shifted from maintaining gendered hierarchic harmony towards women?s and men's separate but invisible cultures. However, men's practices are linked in a more direct way to the textual and official goals of the organization, whereas women's working methods show some implicit opposition to the organizational logic. Throughout gendered contradictions are emphasized: between inequality and equal opportunities; informal sociability and formal rules; and the invisibility and visibility of gender.