First-line managers’ experience of their role and gender in elderly care

Abstract

The aim of the article is to examine first-line managers’ experiences of their managerial role and gender in elderly care. Forty qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with first-line managers (35 women and five men) from four different organisations in Sweden. The findings suggest that the role of first-line managers was formed in everyday managerial work in two communities of practice: the care work community and the first-line manager community. The managers’ navigation between these two communities of practice created dual memberships. These memberships differed depending on micropolitical processes which arose in relation to their position, expectations and gender stereotypes. A female norm ruled within the first-line manager community, providing middle-aged women with elderly care experience with a greater legitimacy to control the community, while men were not so easily accepted. On the other hand, the male norm was more prominent in the care work community in line with managerial ideals and male managers received more credit as being more capable as managers. The study contributes by demonstrating that the managerial role and gender manifested themselves in different ways within these two communities of practice and provided different conditions, giving women and men different benefits or unequal conditions for performing leadership.