Workplace Interactions in Male-Dominated Organisations

Abstract

Following from the exploration in Chap. 4 of how women experience and construct their gender, sexuality and other identities in the context of male-dominated work, this chapter turns to the interactional level of identification by analysing workplace interactions, and how these are differentiated by sexual orientation and occupational group. Joan Acker (2006a, b) identified that one of the components of ‘inequality regimes’ that produce and sustain gender inequality within organisations are the organising processes that produce gender, class and racial inequalities. Organising processes include work patterns, organisational hierarchies and recruitment practices, as well as informal interactions while ‘doing the work’. This might cover exclusion from conversations, social events and decisions, as well as sexual harassment. The evidence from interviewees in this chapter will show that informal workplace interactions that foreground gender and sexuality remain one of the key mechanisms through which women are obstructed in their efforts to succeed in male-dominated work.