María José Rodríguez-Jaume, María Concepción Torres Díaz, Carmen Carretón-Ballester, Diana Gil-González
{"title":"Underrepresentation of Women in Universities: Seeking Answers in the Bedrooms of Women Academics","authors":"María José Rodríguez-Jaume, María Concepción Torres Díaz, Carmen Carretón-Ballester, Diana Gil-González","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13241","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Three decades after the implementation of gender equality policies in Europe, women academics continue to languish in the <i>ivory basements</i> of higher education centers. A growing body of literature on the participation of women academics in universities has identified reproductive work as a factor that may explain their low levels of representation. Recent research on the effects of COVID-19 on academic work has shed light on the impact of this “private matter” on the lives and academic careers of women and on the scientific system. The central role of reproductive work, in which it is assumed that women and men participate unequally in the care and attention to children, excludes other “private matters” that may help explain the underrepresentation of women in higher education institutions. Here, through the narrative reflection of a female academic who, for over a decade, held a high position at her university, we share the “private matter” that ultimately led to her divorce. By introducing women's voices into the debate on their underrepresentation in universities, we provide a way to recognize ways in which culture “does gender” and to raise awareness about forms of gender that, although silenced, shape our lives (<i>gender in disguise</i>). This autobiographical story identifies four themes that challenge power structures through recognizing silenced stories and promoting honest discussion about the true barriers and failures that persist in universities: the maternal ideal, the retraditionalization of gender, postfeminist “we can have it all” rhetoric, and the shame and fear faced by female academics.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 4","pages":"1499-1510"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144256526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Diah Nova Anggraini, Rizal Galih Pradana, Fatimah Fatimah, Ika Hana Pertiwi
{"title":"Stress, Wellness, and Performance Optimization: Promoting Sustainable Performance in the Workplace. By Nilesh Thakre and B. Udaya Kumar Reddy (eds.), Florida: Apple Academic Press Inc., 2024. 282 pp. £111.60 (hardback). ISBN: 978-1774914069","authors":"Diah Nova Anggraini, Rizal Galih Pradana, Fatimah Fatimah, Ika Hana Pertiwi","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13243","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 4","pages":"1495-1498"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144256547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Role of Care Paradoxes in Maintaining Precariousness: A Case Study of Australia's Aged Care Work","authors":"Celina McEwen","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13240","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The paper examines why despite many inquiries and government reforms, the working conditions of aged care workers have remained precarious. The study draws on an analysis of Australian workforce survey data, government documents, and hearing transcripts from a recent Royal Commission into the sector's workforce and care practices. The results paint a complex and nuanced picture of how the government and providers rely on older or culturally and linguistically diverse women to carry out high standards of quality care with minimal worker benefits and protection while devaluing their work as unprofessional. The analysis also highlights the coexistence of four types of precariousness in aged care work: precariousness as a social category, a shared experience, a set of work practices, and management. Further, I find that a series of paradoxes rooted in cultural perceptions of care and older and/or diverse women maintain precariousness at work by constructing workers as the problem, entrenching disadvantage borne from intersectionality and shifting the burden of responsibility and part of the cost of caring for older people onto workers. I suggest that little improvement is possible until the systemic and sociocultural issues around care and the workers engaged in the transaction of care are tackled together as a whole.</p>","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 4","pages":"1482-1494"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gwao.13240","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144256239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Higher Education Leadership Agency in Mainstreaming Gender Equality: Insights From Universities in Kazakhstan","authors":"Zumrad Kataeva, Naureen Durrani, Aray Rakhimzhanova, Svetlana Shakirova","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13239","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This qualitative study explores the perspectives of senior leadership on gender equality within higher education institutions (HEIs) in Kazakhstan, addressing a gap in the literature on the agency of senior leaders in mainstreaming gender equality in post-Soviet contexts. Kazakhstan is a significant case due to its high ranking on gender indicators in Central Asia and its unique blend of modernization and traditional gender discourses. We interviewed 13 leaders across 10 universities to analyze how they perceive the relationship between gender and education and their potential role in advancing gender equality. Utilizing Butler's theory of performativity, our analysis reveals that senior leaders disregard structural or institutional gender-related concerns. They tend to uphold and embody traditional gender norms and attribute existing gender inequalities to cultural norms which limit their agency. While leaders acknowledge the role of higher education in promoting gender equality, they perceive gender issues as resistant to change, which creates obstacles to effective gender mainstreaming. The findings provide insights into reimagining gender mainstreaming strategies in HEIs in post-Soviet contexts and beyond.</p>","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 4","pages":"1470-1481"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gwao.13239","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144256496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Paula Cornejo-Abarca, Sebastian M. Ugarte, Angel Martin-Caballero
{"title":"Raising Their Voices Against Patriarchy: The Dynamic Use of Women's Leadership Styles for Progressing Gender Equality in Unions","authors":"Paula Cornejo-Abarca, Sebastian M. Ugarte, Angel Martin-Caballero","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13236","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study delves into the nuances of women's leadership skills and tactics within Chilean unions, assessing their progress in gender equality bargaining following the 2017 quota reform for women union leaders. Focusing on banking, retail, and mining industries, it tackles internal and external equality dimensions, challenged by an evident power asymmetry between men and women and the foundations of a patriarchal system. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews with unionist women and experts, the research unveils the dynamic and instrumental use of leadership styles (“heroic” and “post-heroic”) employed by women to navigate these challenges. Activism, empowerment, knowledge acquisition, confrontation, and collaboration emerge as crucial components. The paper advocates for a holistic approach beyond quotas, emphasizing the need for sustained gender progress in Chilean unions. The comparative analysis enriches academic discourse, amplifying diverse women's leadership experiences and their impactful roles in challenging gender injustices and reshaping organizational culture.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 4","pages":"1457-1469"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144256400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gendering “The Hidden Injuries of Class”: In-Work Poverty, Precarity, and Working Women Using Food Banks in Britain","authors":"Cat Spellman, Jo McBride","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13237","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper presents the lived experience of white working-class women in the UK experiencing in-work poverty and dependent on food banks to survive. Although the precarious labor market emerges as a significant driver in the women's need for food charity, in-depth investigations into the lives that precarity produces and reinforces remain scarce. Contributing to this gap, our paper uses an ethnographic qualitative approach drawing on feminist research methods to identify women's experiences of in-work poverty and being in precarious work. Across 2 food banks, 10 women and 6 volunteers were interviewed, complemented by 24 months of comprehensive field notes where the lead author was a regular volunteer with the charities. The paper revisits “The Hidden Injuries of Class” from Sennett and Cobb's (1972) classic study to use as a theoretical lens to draw out the internalized impacts that the participants experienced. We complement the theoretical framing with an intersectional sensitivity, finding that both gender and class were prevailing identities that influenced the women's lived experiences of the explored themes. The combination of these frameworks helped us to discover how the women face a complex internalized struggle in accessing food banks whilst being employed, heavily characterized by classed and gendered constraints associated with precarious work and other external structural disadvantages. The women experienced guilt, shame, the suppression of emotion, and a struggle for self-validation. Interactions at the food bank were additionally found to be intersubjectively negotiated between the women and the present volunteers. The intersection of both classed and gendered identities exposes these women to ever greater inequalities both within and beyond the workplace.</p>","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 4","pages":"1421-1431"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gwao.13237","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144256061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Not Ready yet: Why Accelerators May Not Close the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship as Expected","authors":"Lakni Galmangodage, Ai Yu, Laura Costanzo","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13238","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While existing research shows that accelerators play an important role in closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship, our study aims to critically assess the role of accelerators in relation to gender-related structural inequalities, rather than individual-level barriers, that women entrepreneurs face in the neoliberal entrepreneurial ecosystem. Drawing on Butler's (1990) work on gender performativity in which performativity is understood as citational practices, we examine the everyday discourses of six highly regarded Swedish accelerators on the entrepreneurial projects they support and the entrepreneurs they work with. Our Critical Discourse Analysis indicates that even in countries where gender equality policies are promoted, such as Sweden, accelerators' communicative acts “cite” and “reiterate” the gender and cultural norms of the Swedish entrepreneurial system, which is characterized by long-standing disparities in gender-based sectoral segregation and rooted in a strong individualistic culture under the influence of neoliberal policies and practices. In doing so, we question the readiness of accelerators to facilitate women entrepreneurship and suggest that they should instead work with key stakeholders, including feminist activists and policymakers, to confront and mediate systemic and structural gender inequalities.</p>","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 4","pages":"1432-1456"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gwao.13238","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144256226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, Aylin Kunter, Kayleigh Woods Harley, Isobel Edwards, Sarah Molyneaux, Holly Nicholas, Isabelle Habib, Janet Sheath
{"title":"“I know I'm not going to have to heal from this”: Women university workers' collective writing on “office housework” as a space for building collective care, healing, and hope","authors":"Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, Aylin Kunter, Kayleigh Woods Harley, Isobel Edwards, Sarah Molyneaux, Holly Nicholas, Isabelle Habib, Janet Sheath","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13211","url":null,"abstract":"<p>How can we, as women university workers, assert collective writing as a form of resistance to embody our collective and individual struggles and convert them into words? We are a collective of five professional service and three academic women workers who came together to answer this question through writing about our performance of office housework and the gendered invisibility we experienced. We share our collective writing practices as a methodology to create connections and healing between workers divided along neoliberal and patriarchal university structures. Our work offers feminist epistemic resistance through the intentional joining of women university workers as co-producers of knowledge, following the tradition of feminist consciousness-raising groups. Our analysis problematizes the individualization of office housework. It illustrates how saying “no” individualistically is often elusive, because doing so displaces the work onto colleagues with less structural power; nor enough if we are to advance the goal of collectively reimagining how this crucial, yet invisible work can be redistributed more equally amongst all workers. Our collective writing affirms the need for office housework to be recognized and revalued as important and indispensable work that sustains the functioning of our higher education institutions, especially in times of uncertainty and crisis.</p>","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 3","pages":"1366-1384"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gwao.13211","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143831225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Work, affection, and moral economy among Albanian domestic workers in Greece","authors":"Armela Xhaho, Erka Çaro, Ajay Bailey","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13203","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The moral economy framework sheds light on how economic activities and workplace practices are influenced and structured by moral sentiments, norms, and social relations. The concept of the moral economy is particularly applicable to domestic laboring spheres, where employee-employer exchanges and relations are not merely contractual, but are embedded in moral and cultural values. This article builds on moral economy theory to analyze informal relations and workplace practices among 19 Albanian domestic workers in Greece and their employers. The study reveals how social and economic relations are constructed and shaped through the emotional and intimate nature of domestic work, as well as through moral/ethical sentiments, norms, and behaviors. The everyday working practices and emotional attachments between the employers and the employees seemed to reproduce, construct, and rebuild home-like settings, kin relations, and feelings. While such emotional affection impacted some women positively, other women considered it a burden because of their inability to claim their rights.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 3","pages":"1289-1306"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gwao.13203","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143831286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Joyful encounters: Dance, touch, and embodied ethics in times of COVID-19","authors":"Sara Biglieri","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13210","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores the practice of Contact Improvisation during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on how dance serves as a means of repair. Drawing on Erin Manning's posthumanist philosophy, woven into both the theoretical and embodied practice of dance, it envisions touch as a social-relational bond capable of opening pathways to affective intensities, particularly the experience of joy. Employing and experimenting with affective ethnography, I explore the ethico-political aspects of touch, extending ongoing discussions of ethics as deeply embodied. Specifically, I show how this exploration could lead to theorizing an “embodied ethic of repair”, enabling future-oriented response-ability and reclaiming joy as an affective force for navigating forthcoming bio-political, social, and environmental challenges in and for organizations.</p>","PeriodicalId":48128,"journal":{"name":"Gender Work and Organization","volume":"32 3","pages":"1349-1365"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143831136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}