A theory of gender must include an analysis of the interweaving of personal life and social structure. It is in this context that the complex relationship between women and work can be explored. This study integrates a number of different theoretical perspectives — primarily sociological and psychological — in an effort to describe and understand the dynamic interaction of forces in the careers and lives of women managers and professionals. It traces the ways in which the structuring of identity interacts with the sexual division of labour and the structures of power in these women's lives. The study analyses the experiences of 92 mid-career mid-life women in management and professional positions in a range of organisations. The data were gathered through both in-depth interviews and questionnaires. The major conclusions which are drawn suggest that gender in the workplace can be seen to be dynamic; it is constantly being defined and redefined, constructed and reconstructed, reproduced and resisted in the interwoven gendered regimes of workplaces and home.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alcoff, L. (1988), 'Cultural Feminism versus Post-Structuralism' , Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 13, 405-436.
2.
Alban-Metcalfe, B. and M.A. West, (1991), 'Women Managers' in J. Firth-Cozens and M.A. West (eds) Women at Work: Psychological and Organizational Perspectives , 154-171, Milton Keyes, Open University Press.
3.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1991), Labour Statistics Australia, Catalogue No. 6101.0, Canberra , Australian Government Printer.
4.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1989), Distribution and Composition of Employee Earnings and Hours, May, Catalogue No. 6306.0, Canberra, Australian Government Printer.
5.
Bacharach, S.B. and E.J. Lawler, (1980), Power and Politics in Organisations, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
6.
Baxter, J., D. Gibson and M. Lynch-Blosse , (1990), Double Take: The Links between Paid and Unpaid Work, Canberra, Australian Government Printer.
7.
Bittman, M. (1991), Juggling Time: How Australian Families Use Time , Canberra, CPN Publications.
8.
Burbules, N.C. (1986), 'A Theory of Power in Education', Educational Theory, 36, 2, pp. 95-114.
9.
Breakwell, G. (1986), Coping with Threatened Identities, London, Methuen.
10.
Burton, C. (1991), The Promise and the Price: The Struggle for Equal Opportunity in Women's Employment, Sydney, Allen & Unwin.
11.
Chodorow, N. (1978), The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and Sociology of Gender, Berkeley, University of California Press.
12.
Clegg, S.R.C. (1989), Frameworks of Power, London , Sage.
13.
Connell, R.W. (1987), Cender and Power, Sydney, Allen and Unwin.
14.
Dinnerstein, D. (1977), The Mermaid and the Minotaur: Sexual Arrangements and Human Malaise, New York, Harper and Row.
15.
Directory of Women (1988), 2nd ed. 'How to Locate a Woman in a Business, Profession or Management in Australia', Melbourne, The Directory of Women.
16.
Erikson, E. (1963), Childhood and Society, New York, Norton.
17.
Erikson, E. (1968), Identity: Youth and Crises, New York, Norton.
18.
Ferguson, K.E. (1984), The Feminist Case Against Bureaucracy, Philadelphia, Temple University Press.
19.
Flax, J. (1990), Thinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and Postmodernism in the Contemporary WestBerkeley, University of California Press.
20.
Game, A. and R. Pringle, (1983), Gender at Work, Sydney, Allen & Unwin.
21.
Gilligan, C., N.P. Lyons and T.J. Hanmer (eds) (1990), Making Connections, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
22.
Glizner, H. (1991), 'Juggling Work and Family Commitments', Family Matters, 20, April, pp. 6-10.
23.
Goodnow, J. and J.M. Bowes, (1992), Men, Women and Household Work: New Views, New Ways (Deaft)Sydney, Macquarie University.
24.
Grant, J. (1988), 'Women Managers: What Can They Offer to Organisations?'Organisational Dynamics, 16, pp. 56-64.
25.
Grant, J. (1993), 'The Construction of Gender in the Workplace: The Structuring of Identity in Women Managers and Professionals', Unpublished Ph.d. Thesis, Murdoch, Murdoch University.
26.
Grant, J. and P. Porter, 'Challenging Management: Women, Identity and Power', in progress.
27.
Grant, J. and S. Saggers, (1991), 'The Ideology of Mothering and Family Day Care', Paper presented to the The Australian Sociological Conference, Murdoch, Murdoch University.
28.
Grotevant, H.D. (1987), 'Toward a Process Model of Identity Formation ', Journal of Adolescent Research, 2, pp. 203-222.
29.
Grotevant, H.D. and W.L. Thorbecke, (1982), 'Sex Differences in Styles of Occupational Identity Formation in Late Adolescence', Developmental Psychology, 18, pp. 396-405.
30.
Hollway, W. (1984), 'Gender Difference and the Production of Subjectivity' , in J. Henrigoes, W. Hollway, K. Urwin.C. Venn and J. Walkerdine (eds), Changing the Subject, London and New York, Methuen, pp. 227-263.
31.
Kanter, R.M. (1977), Men and Women of the Corporation, New York, Basic Books.
32.
Lipman-Blumen, J. (1984), Gender Roles and Power, New York, Prentice-Hall.
33.
Marcia, J.E. (1987), 'The Identity Status Approach to the Study of Ego Identity Development', in T. Honess and K. Yardley (eds), Self and Identity: Perspectives Across the Lifespan, New York, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
34.
Marshall, J. (1984), Women Managers: Travellers in a Male World, Sussex, Wiley.
35.
Nicholson, L.J. (ed.), Feminism/Postmodernism , New York, Routledge.
36.
Nieva, V. and B. Gutek, (1981), Women and Work: A Psychological Perspective, New York, Praeger.
37.
Patton. M.Q. (1990), Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods, Newbury Park, California, Sage.
38.
Porter, P.H. (1991), 'The State-Family-Workplace Intersection: Hegemony, Contradictions and Counter-Hegemony in Education', in D. Dawkins (ed.), Power and Politics in Education, Melbourne. Falmer Press.
39.
Porter, P., M. Warry, and L. Apelt, (1992), 'The Gendered Profession of Teaching: Visible Women and Invisible Issues', in L. Logan and N. Dempster (eds), Teachers in Australian Schools: Issues for the 1990's, Canberra , Australian College of Education, pp. 43-57.
40.
Rosen, S. (1987), 'Identity and its Development in Adulthood', in T. Honess and K. Yardley (eds), Self and Identity: Perspectives Across the Lifespan, New York, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
41.
Saggers, S., J. Grant, M. Woodhead and V. Banham, 'The Professionalisation of Mothers: Family Day Care', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, forthcoming.
42.
Smith, D.E. (1990), The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge, Boston, Northeastern University Press.
43.
Still, L.V. (1986), 'Women in Management: The Case of Australian Business' , Human Resource Management Australia, 24, 1, pp. 32-37.
44.
Tharenou, P. and D.K. Conroy, (1988), 'Opportunities for and Barriers to Managerial Role Attainment: A Comparison of Male and Female Managers', in G. Palmer, (ed.), Readings in Australian Personnel Management, pp. 179-221, Sydney, Macmillan .
45.
Waring, M. (1988), Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women are Worth, Wellington, Allen & Unwin and Port Nicholson Press.
46.
Waterman, A.S. (1982), 'Identity Development from Adolescence to Adulthood: An Extension of Theory and a Review of Research', Developmental Psychology, 18, pp. 341-357.
47.
Whitbourne, S.K. (1984), The Me I Know: A Study of Adult Identity, New York, Springer-Verlag.
48.
Wilkinson, S. (ed.) (1986), Feminist Social Psychology: Developing Theory and Practice, Milton Keynes, Open University Press.
49.
Yeatman, A. (1990), Bureaucrats, Technocrats, FemocratsSydney, Allen & Unwin.
