1. Gender and Management-An Overview
Gender Matters in IB
Nila Wiese, Ph.D.

2. History of Women in Management
Biases have historical roots:
Pre-Industrial America (colonial times)
American Revolution and its aftermath (1750s-1850s)
Late 1800s and early 1900s (1860s-1910)
World War I
1920s-30s and the aftermath (Great Depression and the New Deal)
World War II and its aftermath
1960s-70s
1980s-Present
Examples of political, legal, social/demographic, economic or technological factors or events that have impacted women’s roles in the workforce and organizations over time?
How have the interactions of gender, race and social class shaped the roles of women in the labor force, organizations and management?

3. The Concept of Power Four types of power: Other frameworks (Max Weber)
Traditional: Power over
Empowerment: Mutual empowerment focused on given power to others or enhancing others’ power
Personal Authority: Power to be self-determining and make independent choices based on knowledge
Reciprocal Empowerment: Combination of personal authority and empowerment
Other frameworks (Max Weber)
Authority is power accepted as legitimate by those subjected to it.
Sources of legitimate authority: Charismatic, Traditional,
Legal

4. The Concept of Power – Cont.
Question: Extent, sources, and impact of power differentials between men and women in the context of organizations
‘Interventions’ (personal or organizational) related to leveling the playing field for the exercise or power in organizations depend on our definition of power
Some key areas of organizational intervention:
Recruitment & Selection
Training & Development (including overseas assignments)
Promotion
Performance Evaluation
Compensation

5. Gender and Definitions of Power
Different theoretical approaches point to different roads to enable change.
Liberal Feminism: Men and women are equal, should have same individual rights (level playing field) so that differences don’t matter.
Focus is on Personal Power—ability of women to be self determining.
Interventions: Overcoming barriers to individual advancement and ‘acting powerfully’ (i.e., like men).
Socialist Feminism: Focus is on structural and societal power inequalities as determined by access to and control of valuable and needed resources. Empowerment.
Interventions: Remove barriers to access to resources; articulate resource needs as essential to fulfilling role/meeting objectives of position of authority within organizational hierarchy.

6. Gender and Definitions of Power
Cultural Feminism: Differences between men and women are deemed as positive.
(e.g., Power over vs. Power with/to; women as relational leaders). Mutual empowerment.
Interventions: Need to shift organizational views on leadership and power (e.g., from heroic / individualistic to relational / interdependent).
Effectiveness of this theoretical view is challenged by the ‘disappearance’ of these behaviors.
Disappearance of Relational Practices:
Identify the various relational practices in the reading and the specific acts of ‘disappearing’ discussed.

7. Disappearing Acts…
Define/explain these four practices and how they are of experienced and perceived by men and women:
Preserving
Mutual Empowering
Self-achieving
Creating team
Explain/Summarize these 3 disappearing acts:
Misattribution of motives/intentions
Limits of language
Social construction of gender

8. Gender and Definitions of Power
Poststructuralist Feminism: Focus is on discourse, language, rules, practices, symbolism that produce and reproduce unequal power relations in organizations.
How do these practices become legitimate? Informal structures that support these practices and norms?
Example: Use of anger, loud voice, short answers, interruptions to convey ‘power’ or ‘authority.’
Interventions: Questioning gendered definitions of ‘effective leadership;’ deconstructing assumptions & interpretations of leadership behavior based on binary and oppositional discourses of power (masc. v fem.).

9. Gender and Definitions of Power
Transnational and Third World Feminism
Acknowledges:
The role of the state on the lives and struggles of women.
The complex nexus of power and domination that is gendered, patriarchal, racialized, (hetero)sexualized, and global in context (ex. child care and migration).
Consider the agency of those less powerful, facing more/different challenges
Can we learn from and adopt initiatives and approaches ‘tried’ in other countries or by foreign organizations?

10. Does Manager Equal Male?

11. Perceptions of an “Ideal” Manager

12. Based on these descriptions, which manager would you hire. Promote
Based on these descriptions, which manager would you hire? Promote? Fire?
This study found no gender-based differences in objective measures of performance
(e.g., grades, fitness scores, class standing).
Dataset: 81,000 evaluations of 4,000 individuals in a military setting.

13. A Classification of Barriers
Macro-Environmental/Structural/Institutional:
Economic, Political, Legal, Socio-Cultural, Technological
Organizational Factors: Culture, Talent Mgmt. Practices, Leadership
Individual: Needs, Motivations, Aspirations, Beliefs, Values
Real vs. Perceived Barriers?
Visible vs. Invisible Barriers?
What is the ‘double bind’?
Are there moderating factors that impact our ‘think manager/think male’ paradigm?