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In recent decades different constructionist approaches, frequently gathered under the label of ‘doing gender’, have become influential in Scandinavian gender research (Widerberg 2007). In this text we focus on just what ‘doing gender’ in organisations is seen to be. What is gender and how can it be looked at with doing gender as the point of departure? Our initial inquiry involves taking a look at what the suggested definition of doing gender is in research on gender in organisations. We look at the criticism directed towards doing gender and how this has been treated. After going through the research on doing gender, we then outline our view of gender in organisations. We argue in favour of keeping a “divided eye” on how actors do gender via an analytical look at ‘where they have been’ and ‘where they are heading’, in relation to context and practices, and in this way being able to focus on the process of how gender is done. Following this we present some methodological implications arising from our view on gender with regard to two ongoing research projects on gender and leadership in two different organisational contexts. Finally, we give a summary of our ways of reasoning along with one or two observations on our view of gender and approaches to studying organisations. 

This study focuses on women managers in women-dominated organisations. They are leaders in organisations where the majority of the managers as well as the employees are women. In Sweden today most women and men of working age carry out paid work. Women’s salaried employment in Sweden, along with other Nordic countries, is well above the EU-average. The labour market is however divided both horizontally and vertically according to gender. Men and women tend to work in different sectors and industries, perform different tasks and hold different positions. In the public sector, 64 per cent of all managers are women. This means that quite a large proportion of women managers in Sweden work in the public sector.

The empirical material consists of interviews with managers, employed in the public sector, working with care for the elderly and disabled. The results were also based on observations of the managers’ places of work as well as written material.

The overall aim of the thesis is to: understand how gender power relations are produced, reproduced and changed through describing and analysing the working conditions of women managers, their room for manoeuvre, and how this (re)produces and changes in organisations dominated by women.

The studied organizations are large organisations that supply a vast number of care services. The managers describe their job as compelling and stimulating and they enjoy having the power to shape the organization. Results of the analysis suggest that being in majority opens up for various ways of challenging male constructions of management. The managers do not have to relate to pre-existing notions of management. They are comfortable in the power position. They constitute the norm for management in the sense that it is what they do at work that defines management. Moreover, they do not perceive themselves as part of a gendered category as managers.

The manager’s working conditions are characterized by large areas of responsibility. They are responsible for budget, staff, organizational development and day-to-day operations. Despite this, managers in woman-dominated operations are paid lower salaries than managers in both male-dominated municipality activities and in the private sector.

How can it be that such highly qualified and challenging managerial practice is not rewarded high status and high salaries? In the analysis a misogyny discourse is identified which exists at the level of society and is passed on to the organisations studied. The misogyny discourse contributes to devaluing and making women’s work invisible. In parallel with misogyny, there is also a discourse glorifying men. The glorification of men gives men in minority a dominant status above the women in majority. Power relations are nevertheless not only reproduced. The results show that the women managers apply both individual and collective resistance strategies to alter subordination. The prevailing unequal conditions are thus both reproduced and challenged.

Kvinnor som är chefer i organisationer med en majoritet kvinnor både bland cheferna och samtliga anställda är i fokus i den här studien. Feministisk forskning om kvinnor på ledande positioner har i stor utsträckning studerat kvinnors villkor i mansdominerade organisationer. Flera studier undersöker hur minoritetssituationen påverkar kvinnors erfarenheter. Kanter (1977) visar hur kvinnliga chefers handlingsutrymme kringskärs av synlighet, stereotypa föreställningar om kvinnor, och informell isolering. Kvinnor i minoritetssituationer tenderar även att konstrueras som mindre kompetenta än sina manliga kollegor (Ely 1995, Wahl 1996, Holgersson 2003).

Det här pappret undersöker kvinnors handlingsutrymme och möjlighet att utgöra norm i organisationen när de befinner sig i majoritet på maktpositioner. Hur konstrueras ledarskap och kön av cheferna? Kan kvinnor utgöra norm för ledarskap? 

Forsknings.versikten har genomförts p. uppdrag av Jämställdhetsmyndigheten. Bakgrundentill uppdraget är den långsamma ökningen av kvinnor på ledande poster i svenskt näringsliv.

Uppdraget har bestått i att sammanställa en forskningsöversikt över:

- Forskning kring vad som behövs för ett framgångsrikt förändringsarbete för ökad

jämställdhet i näringslivet i ett internationellt perspektiv.

- Empirisk forskning om hur f.öetag arbetar med jämställdhet i Sverige.

Feminist organizational research on women in leadership positions has largely focused on women managers, and their terms in male dominated work environments. The gender structuring in these organizations correspond with the gender order in society with male domination on positions of power and the majority of women in positions with less power. This study explores how the majority position affects women leaders workplace experiences and sense of belongingness in organizations. It also examines how women managers negotiate meanings of gender and leadership when they find themselves in majority at positions of power. Results suggest that the majority position opens up various ways of challenging and transforming prevailing male constructions of leadership. The managers do not have to relate to pre existing notions of leadership. Women constitute the norm in the organization in the sense that it is the things they do at work that constitutes leadership. They enjoy having power to shape the organization and they are constructed as competent managers. Moreover, they do not perceive themselves as part of a gendered category as managers. At the same time however, women’s subordination in gender power relations in society affects the social constructions of gender identity. Men in the organization are highly valued and the women managers strive to increase their numbers. 

In Sweden, as in many other countries, most managers are men. In 1993 the Swedish government commissioned an inquiry[1]in order to find out to what extent men dominated management positions in Swedish business life at the time. The study also focused on measures taken in order to increase the proportion of women at the top. The empirical material consisted of an extensive survey among organizations and interviews with people that worked with the issue of increasing women at executive levels (in the study referred to as change agents) (Höök 1995, Wahl 1995). Descriptions given by these agents supplemented the statistics from the survey and enhanced the picture of the work for change, which despite, or because of, men’s dominance at management level, still went on in many organizations. Nine years later a follow up inquiry[2]was commissioned in order to once again measure the distribution of women and men at different organizational levels and the existence of work for change (see Regnö 2003a, 2003b). Once again, the change agents were interviewed (see Höök & Wahl 2003) in order to receive up-to-date descriptions of the work for change carried out by them, and their reflections on how the work has developed since the previous inquiry was carried through. In both government inquiries, the empirical findings were interpreted and discussed in relation to existing research on organization and gender.

[1]SOU 1994:3 “Mäns föreställningar om kvinnor och chefskap” (published in English with the title “Men’s perceptions of women and management” (Wahl 1995)) included contributions by Anna Wahl and Pia Höök.

[2]SOU 2003:16 “Mansdominans i förändring” (Male dominance in transition)

In Sweden, as in many other countries, most managers are men. In 1993 the Swedish government commissioned an inquiry[1]in order to find out to what extent men dominated management positions in Swedish business life at the time. Nine years later a follow up inquiry[2]was commissioned in order to once again measure the distribution of women and men at different organizational levels and the existence of work for change (see Regnö 2003a, 2003b). This paper is based both on the findings from the 2003 inquiry “Male Dominance in Transition. On Management Teams and Boards” (SOU 2003:16) and also on the work process, namely the support and resistance which faced the research team in their work with the inquiry. In the first section of the paper, the empirical findings from the survey (Regnö 2003a, 2003b) and interviews with change agents (Höök & Wahl 2003) will be presented. Then, the more theoretical discussions following the themes of women executives in a historical perspective (Svanström 2003), women and corporate boards (Karlsson Stider 2003), management and gender (Holgersson 2003a), young managers (Linghag 2003), and work for change (Höök 2003) will be summarized. The paper ends with a discussion on the work process and how actors from different areas of society, media, politics and business, intervened.

[1]SOU 1994:3 “Mäns föreställningar om kvinnor och chefskap” (published in English with the title “Men’s perceptions of women and management” (Wahl 1995)) included contributions by Anna Wahl and Pia Höök.

[2]SOU 2003:16 “Mansdominans i förändring” (Male dominance in transition)

In Sweden, as in many other countries, most managers are men. In 1993 the Swedish government commissioned an inquiry2in order to find out to what extent men dominated management positions in Swedish business life at the time. The study also focused on measures taken in order to increase the proportion of women at the top. The empirical material consisted of an extensive survey among organizations and interviews with people that worked with the issue of increasing women at executive levels (in the study referred to as change agents) (Höök 1995, Wahl 1995). Descriptions given by these agents supplemented the statistics from the survey and enhanced the picture of the work for change, which despite, or because of, men’s dominance at management level, still went on in many organizations. Nine years later a follow up inquiry3was commissioned in order to once again measure the distribution of women and men at different organizational levels and the existence of work for change (see Regnö 2003a, 2003b). Once again, the change agents were interviewed (see Höök & Wahl 2003) in order to receive up-to-date descriptions of the work for change carried out by them, and their reflections on how the work has developed since the previous inquiry was carried through. In both government inquiries, the empirical findings were interpreted and discussed in relation to existing research on organization and gender. This paper is based on the findings from the 2003 inquiry “Male Dominance in Transition. On Management Teams and Boards” (SOU 2003:16). In the first section of the paper, the empirical findings from the survey (Regnö 2003a, 2003b) and interviews with change agents (Höök & Wahl 2003) will be presented. Then, the more theoretical discussions following the themes of women executives in a historical perspective (Svanström 2003), women and corporate boards (Karlsson Stider 2003), management and gender (Holgersson 2003a), young managers (Linghag 2003), and work for change (Höök 2003) will be summarized. The paper ends with a discussion drawing on the results of the different chapters.  

This paper presents two separate parts of a project aiming at integrating gender theory in organization and management courses; teambuilding and visual methods. Teambuilding theories lack descriptions and interpretations on gendered processes. Taking this identified problem as a point of departure, we developed an exercise about gender in teambuilding. The aim was to encourage students to develop their ability to understand and analyze group processes as gendered, i.e. with the help from theories on organization and gender. Visual methods informed by gender theory may contribute to a critical view on the visual landscape of our society and its organizations. Furthermore, through visual methods students may become photographic subjects themselves and thus present alternative ways of visual representation.