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Gendered Organizational Cultures: Narratives of Women Travellers in a Male World
Author(s) -
Gherardi Silvia
Publication year - 1996
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/j.1468-0432.1996.tb00059.x
Subject(s) - liminality , narrative , gender studies , subject (documents) , sociology , field (mathematics) , identity (music) , social identity theory , set (abstract data type) , social psychology , social group , aesthetics , psychology , social science , anthropology , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , library science , computer science , pure mathematics , programming language
The paper will present various self‐identity narratives of women pioneers in male occupations who ‘take their place’ in a male gendered organizational culture. These narratives belong to a single discourse of what may be called ‘travellers in a male world’. This discourse presumes the existence of a territory marked out as male which is trespassed upon by females who are formally members of the same occupational community, but who, in actual practice, must stake out their positions in the field. Social structures coerce discourse positions and set up a series of expectations and social obligations, although several subject positions can be taken up for oneself, and for the ‘other’. This process has been labelled ‘positioning gender relations within an organizational culture’ and has been described as liminal work, performed discursively and in transitional spaces. Gender relations can therefore be viewed as cultural performances learned and enacted on appropriate occasions both by men and women.