Abstract
This article contributes to understanding transformational change towards gender equality by examining the transformational change potential of a mentoring programme for women, a type of gender equality intervention both criticized and praised for its ability to bring about change. Drawing upon an empirical case study of a mentoring programme for women academics in a Dutch university, we explore three dimensions of transformational change: organizational members (i) discussing and reflecting upon gendered organizational norms and work practices; (ii) creating new narratives; and (iii) experimenting with new work practices. Our findings indicate five specific conditions that enable transformational change: cross‐mentoring, questioning what is taken for granted, repeating participation and individual stories, facilitating peer support networks and addressing and equipping all participants as change agents. We suggest that these conditions should be taken into account when (re)designing effective organizational gender equality interventions.
Highlights
We further explore the potential for transformational change by examining if and how a mentoring programme enables the different dimensions of transformational change: (i) facilitating critical discussions among both mentees and mentors on organizational norms and work practices; (ii) enabling both mentors’ and mentees’ individual learning and creating new narratives; and (iii) encouraging and equipping both mentees and mentors to experiment with and change gendered organizational norms and work practices during or after the mentoring programme
We present our findings by showing how the three dimensions in the process of transformational change evolve and which and how gendered norms and work practices in academia are challenged and changed
This article aims to further our understanding of organizational gender equality interventions and how they contribute to transformational change (De Vries & Van den Brink, 2016; Ely & Meyerson, 2000b)
Summary
Despite a growing body of scholarly work on organizational change towards gender equality (e.g., Coleman & Rippin, 2000; De Vries & Van den Brink, 2016; Ely & Meyerson, 2000a; Eriksson-Zetterquist & Renemark, 2016; Van den Brink & Benschop, 2012), little is still known about the process of transformational change and what type of gender equality interventions are effective (Benschop, Holgersson, Van den Brink, & Wahl, 2015; Benschop, Mills, Mills, & Tienari, 2012; Dobbin & Kalev, 2016; Kalev, Dobbin, & Kelly, 2006; Vinkenburg, 2017). Ely and Meyerson (2000b) and Meyerson and Kolb (2000) criticize traditional gender equality interventions for being slow, partial and/or superficial (e.g., Benschop & Verloo, 2006; Eriksson-Zetterquist & Styhre, 2008) and argue that transformational change requires interventions that involve a continuous discussion and revision on the (gendered) norms that underlie work practices in organizations. Ely and Meyerson (2000b) and Meyerson and Kolb (2000) criticize traditional gender equality interventions for being slow, partial and/or superficial (e.g., Benschop & Verloo, 2006; Eriksson-Zetterquist & Styhre, 2008) and argue that transformational change requires interventions that involve a continuous discussion and revision on the (gendered) norms that underlie work practices in organizations. Their theoretical approach is largely untested as yet. We first elaborate on the concepts of transformational change towards gender equality and mentoring programmes as a particular type of gender equality intervention, before we present our case and methodological approach
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