GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

1
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• Paid work----there have always been some women
  in paid workeven before the Industrial
  revolution.
• Maids, nannies, teachers, seamstresses,
• prostitutes
• Marital status---always an issue for
  women---often lost job on marriage
• Industrial Revolution---women into factory work,
  separation of work and home

2
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• World War II---women into male jobs, return to
  home duties after war
• Management levelusually low or mid-level and in
  soft jobs, self-employed, consultancy work

3
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• Power---all organisations in all sectors of
  society are influenced by external and internal
  power relations
• Overt and covert power and/or a mixture of the
  two
• Power is conditioned by gender, race/ethnicity
  and class/SES
• Reluctance to admit having, exercising, analysing
  power

4
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• Definitions of power and influence
• Influence informal power, reliant on personal
  rather than positional power
• Power the ability to control the actions of
  others even against their will
• Sexuality and gender are also forms of power
• Sources of Power---positional, reward, coercion,
  expertise, information, relationships, charisma

5
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• High labour-force participation of women but few
  in CEO positions---Why?
• Women have babies and men make rules
• Dominance of male world and culture makes women
  immigrants in organisations
• Women have background roles, nurturing etc.not
  assertive enough to be leaders

6
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• Perceptions of female roles
• Mother emotional specialistnot a leader
• Seductress advances via high status male
• Pet token female, mascot or cheer leader
• Iron maiden tough womens libber who hates
  males
• Queen Bee keeps her hard-earned privileges to
  herself

7
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• Common Assumptions
• Men are intellectually superior to women
• Men value achievements and meaningful work more
  than women
• Men are inherently more assertive than women
• Women dont work for money

8
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• Barriers to womens advancement
• Glass ceiling
• Sticky stairs syndrome
• Glue chair situation
• Glass walls
• Primitive unease about women generally
• Assumed deficiencies of women
• Good women are wives and mothersnot CEOs

9
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• Successful Executive Women are
• Strong---determined, makes the hard decisions
• Smart---intelligent, politically savvy
• Straight---has strong principles, is confident
• eSprit de Corps---committed, practical, good at
  team work

10
GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• Unsuccessful Women
• Try to be like men
• Are too differenttoo caring etc. also they tend
  to have children
• Have been failed by the companysabotaged,
  neglected by male mentors/superiors

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GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER IN ORGANISATIONS

• Four stages/waves in Australias executive
  culture
• The lack of women CEOs is not a business issue
• If it is an issue it is a problem with women,
• i.e. the trouble with women is
• Companies seek solution by appointing a token
  Woman as a manager
• CEO driven change in the culture of the company