Women Managers: The Construction of Gender in the Workplace1

Abstract

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.