Dominant Class Culture and Legitimation: Female Volunteer Directors

Abstract

Female volunteer directors are largely drawn from affluent professional and corpo rate families. Their role in the reproduction of the upper class has been overlooked by studies of class culture and class legitimation. This study argues that women who take on community leadership roles (volunteer directorships in particular) are motivated to do so because of class cultural incentives: noblesse oblige, duty to community and prestige. These combine with incentives for personal achievement in ways which, at once, serve to reproduce upper class prerogatives for community leadership roles and maintain the volunteer board status quo.