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How do workers who encounter violence by deviating from organizational norms make sense of their experiences? Our article engages with Judith Butler's work on vulnerability and troubling to address this. Inspired by these concepts while analyzing empirical data gathered from whistleblowers in financial services, we propose a framing termed "aggression‐troubling". Aggression‐troubling encompasses an awareness of: the vulnerability and relationality attending scenes of organizational violence; how imposing ideals of what is "normal" come into play as part of that violence; and how these structures might be destabilized and disrupted—or troubled. Our second contribution is analytic: we find that the singular and immediate presence of the individual other‐in‐relation—the "you" responsible for exerting violence—is a critical part of how people make sense of the scene of violence. We adopt a methodological approach focused on how individuals' retrospective accounts of experiences of violence, and we analyze cases of whistleblowing in financial services to develop our arguments. Aggression‐troubling by no means downplays the injury and pain that normative organizational violence can cause, nor does it suggest that power relations can easily be overturned. This framing does however offer a deeper exploration of experiences of normative violence. It provides insights into how it can be survived and potentially overcome, with contributions for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship remains principally constructed as a masculine activity performed by men, suggesting that women entrepreneurs continue to experience contradictory gendered expectations whereby they are both evaluated against male norms and expected to display culturally acceptable forms of femininity. While there is a growing body of critical literature on gender and entrepreneurship, limited work explores the audio‐visual modalities of how gender performances reinforce and/or subvert gendered expectations in women's entrepreneurial activities. Considering this gap, we follow the feminist tradition of elaborating gender theory through film as an important medium of cultural production and transmission. By drawing on Butler's theory of gender performativity, we explore how a successful woman entrepreneur is represented in the semi‐fictionalized film, Joy. Using a critical social semiotic approach, we analyze how the audio‐visual aspects of the gender performances in Joy unfold across time and space to construct expectations of women's entrepreneurship. From our analysis, we make two principal contributions. First, we examine how the medium of film simultaneously reinforces and subverts the gendering of entrepreneurial activity. Second, we propose three sub‐genres of gender performance—exaggerated femininities, instrumental masculinities, and situational gender (in)congruity—that can serve to subvert stereotypical expectations about women's entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the uncertain outcomes of diversity work in organizations by showing that diversity management does not let itself be reduced to a matter of success and failure. Drawing upon theories of ambiguities in organizations and 2.5 years of longitudinal fieldwork in a Swedish municipality, we show that ambiguities characterize diversity work, including what diversity encompasses, the goals of diversity management, and its outcomes. To account for these ambiguities, we suggest approaching diversity management in terms of trying rather than outcomes. First, focusing on trying emphasizes that working with diversity entails a shifting, relative, and tension‐filled notion. Second, it brings forth the tentative performativity of diversity management. Third, it opens up ways of looking at diversity in the workplace beyond a reductionist dichotomy between success and failure. Diversity work has no clear end, but this lack of an endpoint does not call into question its raison d'être. On the contrary, it makes it a reason to insist on trying to strive for enhancing diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity management efforts often turn diversity issues into a business case, thereby depoliticizing these issues and shying away from more political concerns of inequality and discriminating norms of difference. In this study, we explore the performative potential of activist practices to promote the repoliticization of organizational diversity work. To do so, we draw on interviews with three explicitly norm‐critical activists, discussing how insigths from their practices can inspire diversity work in formal organizational contexts. The three activists are (1) a twerk dancer, psychologist, radio host, and co‐founder of a popular fourth‐wave feminist group; (2) a project manager and co‐founder of a non‐governmental organization for minority ethnic lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender + people; and (3) an anarchist activist, gender educator, and founder of a gender network for educators. Showing how their norm‐critical practices work through discursive tensions of personal↔public issues, safe↔unsafe spaces, and creative↔conventional methods, we discuss how these practices may perform in organizational settings, enabling the repoliticization of diversity work in and as the constant negotiation and recognition of norms of difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist solidarity, after early and idealistic conceptions of an all‐encompassing sisterhood, has become preoccupied with understanding and theorizing differences between women. This study develops an account of solidarity as embodied agonism, where difference and contest are experienced and negotiated through the body. Difference and contest are reframed within feminist solidarity projects as resources for, rather than inhibitors to, generating collective agency. This is done through an ethnography of a protest movement in Montenegro, which drew together diverse groups of women, and bring our data into conversation with theories of agonistic democratic practice and embodied performativity. Embodied agonistic solidarity is theorized as a participative and inclusive endeavour driven by conflictual encounters, constituted through the bodies, language and visual imagery of assembling and articulating subjects. Our account of solidarity is presented as constituted through three dimensions, each of which represents a different emphasis on sensory experience: exposing, which is to make one's body open to the hardship of others, enabling alliances between unlikely allies to emerge; citing, which is to draw on others' symbolic resources and to publicly affirm them; inhabiting, which is to embody the deprivations of others, enabling alliances to grow and persist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores performative enactments of gender at work in a UK‐based Search and Rescue voluntary organization, QuakeRescue. Based on ethnographic research, we analyze how gender is performatively constituted in this male‐dominated setting, focusing in particular on how hegemonic masculinity is enacted through bodies, physicality, and technical competence. Our findings show how performative acts, predicated on essentialist understandings of superior masculine bodies, constructed femininity as limited, deficient, and Other, legitimizing the assigning of mundane, routine tasks to women volunteers. By endorsing women's presence, albeit as low‐status team members, there was sufficient recognition to ensure that sedimented practices of "doing gender" at QuakeRescue remained largely unquestioned. We conclude that hegemonic masculinity predicated on bodily practices in male‐dominated workspaces is oppressive in its effects, and until this is recognized and acknowledged, transformative potential is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several methods of calculation may be used to quantify the gender pay gap. The sociology of quantification shows how the construction of indicators may be employed to define certain notions. Literature on the performativity of quantification also highlights the effect that acts of calculation can have upon reality. This article combines these fields as it examines the illocutionary performative power of the 'equal pay index', which was developed by the French government in 2018, and which companies are legally obliged to publish on an annual basis. The article therefore draws on different types of documents: leaflets explaining the construction of the index, government‐issued communications, statements given by members of the government and companies' own communications. With the aid of this index, the government can provide more precise definitions of the notion of equal pay and the field of action of companies. The novelty and benefits of the current case lie in the pairing of a relatively classic tool for commensuration and a subject — equal pay — that has suffered from a vague definition for decades. Furthermore, this article offers a conjoint study of the mode of calculation of the index and the emerging discourse around it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to an understanding of the geographies of masculinities, by demonstrating how black South African male nurses negotiate hegemonic masculinity through citing masculine gendered acts. The research draws on qualitative data gathered from interviews with 15 black male nurses aged between 26 and 50 years who have worked in the paediatric, trauma, orthopaedic, oncology and midwifery fields for a period of not less than two years. It is argued that the colonially imposed hierarchies of race, gender and occupation merge with culturally specific pre‐existing African masculinities, and that this informed how the black male nurses experienced their gender identity in the occupation. The study demonstrates how, because of their career choice, the gender identities of the male nurses were positioned as marginalized and subordinate to the modes of a hegemonic masculinity, a gender identity only available to them momentarily. In this context, it was found that the modes of gender performativity in which the nurses negotiated and subverted their subordinate and marginal status was with the complicity of patients and other healthcare workers. This upheld the more generally assumed hegemony of masculinity in the hospital workplace. The study traces these experiences to the discourses of black masculinities during South Africa's pre‐colonial, colonial and apartheid eras and in the present day. In doing so, this study contributes to an understanding of the geographies of masculinities by demonstrating the locally specific modes of masculine performativity through which black male nurses negotiate their gender in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing largely on a high‐profile case of unequal pay at the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) as an illustrative example, this conceptual article considers differences and interrelationships between merit and deservingness, where the latter captures how, through appropriate performances, merit is given recognition and value. We propose a performative understanding of deservingness that highlights its gendered and embodied dimensions. Informed by Judith Butler's account of gender performativity, we show that, while merit is conventionally conceptualized as a relatively fixed set of attributes (qualifications, skill) 'attached' to the individual, deservingness captures how, in gendered terms, value and recognition are both claimed and conferred. As we argue, a gendered, deserving subject does not pre‐exist but is performatively constituted through embodied practices and performances of what is seen as worthy in a particular time and place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apart from a few paragraphs reminiscing on how, in response to a publisher contacting us, Jill, Marilyn and I founded Gender, Work and Organization combined with a few comments on its evolution as a leading journal in our field, this article largely summarizes and seeks to develop my lifelong interests in discourses and practices of masculinity. It pays tribute to my doctoral students and/or research colleagues with whom many of these ideas concerning masculinities were shaped. The article then surveys the literature on discourses and practices of masculinities through the three waves: the unitarist, the pluralist and, finally, the performativist approach to discourses and practices of masculinity. A central argument of the article is that although each wave has contributed something of importance to the critical examination of masculinities, none of them fully interrogate identity to theorize how our attachment to the security that it promises is illusory. Posthumanist feminists come closest to realizing this and seeking an alternative embodied and ethical engagement with, rather than a competitive elevation of self over, the other. In the conclusion, there is a brief comment on how the global backlash from the political right has made struggles against dominant masculinities all the more urgent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strong emphasis on individual choice is considered to represent a particular neoliberal culture, and choice is claimed to substitute feminism. This article argues that the vocabulary of choice should not be seen only as a representation of a double entanglement of neoliberalism and postfeminism, but rather as a site for entanglement, and further explored as a performative concept. The argument is developed though empirical analysis of media texts on women combining career and motherhood. The metaphor of work-life balance is argued to function as a gendering frame as the particular combination of motherhood and career commitment is construed as conflicting dimensions of a feminine subjectivity. Within the gendered work-life balance framing the vocabulary of choice is performative, producing dichotomies and differences by the looks of individual agency. Thus, choice is not merely 'covering up power structures': the vocabulary of choice performs structuring power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discuss how changes to gender equality in organizing can be made sustainable. Numerous studies have reported on projects which have not succeeded in their efforts to implement gender equality. In this paper, we analyse the results from two programmes which aimed to increase equal opportunities among private and public sector organizations. Theoretically, the study is based on the framework of doing gender, which is combined with insights from studies using the translation model of organizational change. The translation model of organizational change enables investigation of formal and informal processes within an institutionalized setting. By studying those aspects that were stabilized into an institution within these two programmes, as well as those which were not, the approaches that had become sustainable for the programmes in the long term could be discerned. When comparing the two programmes, it became apparent that complications arose at the point at which the theoretical aims of gender equality were translated into actions. The analysis of the outcomes of these programmes indicates, however, that, even though the formal goals were not reached, equal opportunities within the participating organizations did benefit from these programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of gender, work, and organization have long been concerned with developing explanations to occupational segregation; that is, the segregation of work by socially significant forms of difference such as sex and race. In this article, I argue that extant occupational segregation research is limited by its reliance upon binary thinking, as well as its neglect of forms of difference other than sex and race. In order to rethink this line of research, I develop a new approach to occupational segregation that is rooted in queer theory. The queer approach to occupational segregation research that I develop entails: (1) examining occupational segregation beyond the multiple binaries upon which extant occupational segregation research is premised; (2) conceptualizing and operationalizing difference as being performatively accomplished in everyday occupational and organizational life; (3) articulating a politics of occupational segregation that challenges dominant notions of group identity and exposes within-group inequalities and marginalization; and (4) expanding the repertoire of methods through which we conduct occupational segregation research. I conclude this article by discussing how queer theory can enable us to rethink not only occupational segregation research, but also the study of gender, work and organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authenticity has been a focus of much leadership research in recent years. Despite this interest, there has been a dearth of studies that explore the role of gender in the social construction of authenticity. To date, authentic leadership theories have tended to be either gender neutral or, where gender has been considered, it is argued that women as 'outsiders' are less likely to be accepted by their followers as authentic leaders. In this study we examine the media representations of the CEOs - one male, one female - of two major Australian retail banks during the global financial crisis. Our approach enables us to show that authenticity is something leaders 'do' rather than something they 'have' or 'are', and that being constructed as authentic depends on the leader performing authenticity in line with gender norms deemed appropriate for the socially constructed context in which they are expected to lead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Doing gender' is a much used term in research on gender, work and organizations. However, translating theoretical insight into empirical research is often a challenging endeavour. A lack of clarity with regard to the conceptualization and operationalization of key terms in turn often limits the theoretical and empirical purchase of a concept. The aim of this article is therefore to provide a systematization of empirical approaches to 'doing gender'. This systematization leads to a topology of five themes that is derived from empirical research in the field. The five themes identified are structures, hierarchies, identity, flexibility and context specificity, and gradual relevance/subversion. Each theme explores a different facet of 'doing gender'. This topology helps empirical researchers to be more specific about which aspects of 'doing gender' they are referring to. This in turn can help to unfold the theoretical potential of the concept of 'doing gender'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the representation of women small business owners in three contemporary novels; Chocolat, The Shipping News and Back When We Were Grownups. The primary contribution is to demonstrate how fiction can both challenge and collude in dominant constructions of entrepreneurship, which is more generally gendered as male and masculine. Judith Butler's thinking on performativity with regard to gender and sexual desire is applied to women's identities and extended to include their behaviour as entrepreneurs. The article demonstrates that these novels both 'do' and 'undo' gender and business ownership. They portray women who are successful in business while displaying culturally accepted norms of femininity but who are set apart from other female characters. However, their partial and conflictual identification with norms of gender and entrepreneurship could lead a reader to question those norms and through the undoing of the protagonists, the novels offer alternative performances and performativities of doing gender and of doing business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of the so-called ‘expressive organization’ and the ‘aesthetic economy’, for an organization to compete in the global marketplace it would appear that it must perform. This does not refer simply to economic performance, but rather to the idea of performance as a means of affecting both people's impressions and definitions of reality. In this article we argue that such performativity is achieved, in part, through the power of symbolism and aesthetics, as well as the capacity to bring oneself into being in an environment in which successful management of the aesthetic has increasingly become a prerequisite for the conferment of recognition. Central to this process are the ways in which the aesthetics of gender are mobilized and indeed simultaneously ‘done’ and ‘undone’ in order to affirm particular, but often unstable, regimes of managerially desired meaning. Drawing on the work of Judith Butler, and informed by a critical or hermeneutic structuralism, we are concerned here to think through the relationship between performativity and the gendered organization of the desire for recognition as it is materialized in, and mediated by, the landscaping of corporate artefacts and organizationally compelled ways of un/doing gender. With this in mind, we consider a series of images taken from a sample of recruitment documents that, as cultural configurations that organize and compel particular versions of gender, we argue, are concerned with the production of organizationally legible and therefore viable gendered subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional literature and research on entrepreneurship relies on a model of economic rationality alleged to be universal and agendered. This article presents a description of the processes that position people as ‘men’ and ‘women’ within entrepreneurial practices and as ‘entrepreneurs’ within gender practices, relying on an ethnographic study carried out in small enterprises in Italy. Our analysis shows how gender and entrepreneurship are enacted as situated practices and how the codes of a gendered identity are kept, changed and transgressed by constantly sliding between different symbolic spaces. In particular we highlight five processes of the symbolic construction of gender and entrepreneurship: managing the dual presence, doing ceremonial and remedial work, boundary-keeping, footing and gender commodification. We then propose a final metaphor which conveys a summary image of these processes. In concluding, we link our analysis to the original purpose of our investigation, highlighting not only how entrepreneurship is equated with the masculine, but also how alternative and possible forms of entrepreneurship exist, in the same way as different forms of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]