Abstract
AbstractFeminism, gender and women’s issues have been side-lined within business and management studies in the United Kingdom, evidenced by the inclusion of only one highly ranked gender journal in the recent ABS journal quality list. While there have been some efforts to critique gendered research norms within business and management schools, less is known about the experiences of those engaged in designing and delivering curricula. This article begins by examining the extant literature on the experiences of feminist academics, leading to a discussion of the limited research on business and management schools. It then moves to a description of the methods adopted, namely, qualitative interviews with academics engaged in feminist teaching, and reflections from the authoring team. The findings are presented, highlighting how participants conceptualize feminism, the use of feminism in curricula development, and how the academic community responds to the teaching of feminism. The article concludes with a consideration of areas for future research. The study contributes to the understanding of the experiences of working within the contemporary business school, specifically for academics engaged in a social justice approach to teaching. It identifies that experiences are not universal, with feminism creating space for excitement for both staff and students, but potentially increasingly vulnerability for isolation and marginalization. This article is published as part of a thematic collection on gender studies.
Highlights
Feminism, gender and women’s issues have been side-lined within business and management studies in the United Kingdom, evidenced by the inclusion of only one highly ranked gender journal in the recent ABS journal quality list
Recent critiques have drawn attention to the persistent domination of white Western feminism, and the consequences for the maintenance of racism and colonialism in theorising women’s lives (Bhattacharya, 2015; Jonsson, 2016). The experiences of those engaged in feminist research and teaching or those academics engaged in feminist activism remains relatively scarce
Feminist academics in leadership or management positions may find their ideals are in conflict with the division of labour and the politics of knowledge production (Mauthner and Edwards, 2010), the increased use of metrics may reduce gender bias and enhance women’s career opportunities (Deem, 2003)
Summary
Gender and women’s issues have been side-lined within business and management studies in the United Kingdom, evidenced by the inclusion of only one highly ranked gender journal in the recent ABS journal quality list. Teaching feminism may be more problematic in increasingly managerial and metric driven higher education contexts (Knights and Clarke, 2013) Those engaged in critical education, particular feminist curricula development and delivery, may be more vulnerable to increasing tensions between staff and the student body (Lee, 2005). The contemporary business school is somewhat different with its focus on producing knowledge and graduates which are ready for the business world (Paton et al, 2014) This is reflected in recent efforts to understand the usefulness of management education, where usefulness is equated to congruence between the teaching of management theory and the practice of managers (Wright et al, 2013). This usefulness may be determined by senior business practitioners (Muff, 2012)
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