Back to the future for diversity: A manifesto for less modesty, more bravado!
Susan Harwood, Curtin University
The journey from old to new paradigms is like that in ‘Star Trek’, a 5 year voyage into vast uncharted outer space where our species has not been. Few guidelines exist for getting us there, although we now have a long list of practices that won’t (Weisbord, 1987: 368).
The majority of the female of the species has not experienced gender equity [at least, not in recent centuries] and the signs for the future are not promising. In this paper I draw on some key findings from my doctoral research to explore the possibilities for gendering sustainable change in the context of the hierarchically-defined, ‘densely masculinist’1 workplaces that women still experience. In so doing, I posit a uniquely feminist interventionist approach to gendering change in contemporary workplaces. My research findings, based on a forensic examination of the gendered practices of a policing organisation, demonstrate the need for a radical, “big wins” change management initiative to challenge and overcome the “situational construction of gender” (Messerschmidt, 1995: 171). I argue that conservative, incremental and modest approaches to redressing gendered workplace cultures have had limited success in challenging the demographic profile and the progress of women in the workplace.
My research methodology canvassed insights from a range of disciplines, including participatory action research, Quality Management, a gender lens interventionist approach and feminist ethnography. I provide an overview of how this combination of feminist goals and action research techniques drew men and women into insider teams for the purpose of conducting a thorough examination of the gendered organization of their workplace. The goal was to develop recommendations for change, linked to a framework for successful implementation. The research methodology produced not only useful and credible data but also new institutional practices that offered better supports to women.
In assessing the role played by the feminist methodology I analyse what people can learn to see and say about organisational practices, how they participate in or seek to undermine various forms of teamwork, as well as how individual team members display their new understandings and behaviours. I place this discussion within the context of Collinson and Hearn’s (2003) examination of the power-building, masculinist and exclusionary practices that can prevail among men in their workplaces.
There are undoubted perils and pitfalls for leaders wanting to embark on a journey to the new world of gender equity; despite these risks, I conclude that the techniques for supporting women in authoritarian, densely masculinist workplaces should include some bold and highly visible ‘critical acts’, based on commitment from the top coupled to strongly motivated and highly informed teamwork. Referring to the work of Acker (1990), Meyerson and Fletcher (2000), my call is for less modesty, more bravado as I outline how leaders can and must excoriate the highly institutionalised, entrenched masculinist practices that prevail within their organisations.
References
Acker, J. (1990) Hierarchy, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations. Gender and Society, 4, 139-158.
Acker, J. (2000a) Gendered Contradictions in Organizational Equity Projects. Organization Symposium, 7, 625-632.
Collinson, D. L. & Hearn, J. (2003) Breaking the Silence: On Men, Masculinities and Managements, in Ely, R. & Foldy, E. G., et al (Eds.) Reader in Gender, Work and Organization. Malden, MA, Blackwell.
Messerschmidt, J. W. (1995) From patriarchy to gender: feminist theory, criminology and the challenge of diversity, in Rafter, T. & Heidensohn, F. (Eds.) International Perspectives in Criminology. Philadelphia, Sage Open University Press.
Meyerson, D. E. & Fletcher, J. K. (2000) A Modest Manifesto for Shattering the Glass Ceiling. Harvard Business Review, January-February, 127-136.
Sinclair, A. (1998) Doing Leadership Differently. Gender, Power and Sexuality in a Changing Business Culture, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press.
Weisbord, M. R. (1987) Productive Workplaces. Organizing and Managing for Dignity, Meaning and Community, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
1 Dr Sue Lewis, Swinburne University, Victoria (Australia), has coined the term “dense masculinity” to describe the gendered work practices at her research site at a fire and emergency services organisation. There, the excess of men, comparative to women, results in practices, policies and behaviours that are imbued with masculinist characteristics. Personal communication, September 2005.