Revisiting the Impact of Gender Equity Beliefs on Organizational Change Movements

• In Event: 18.064 - Waves of Change in Institutional Transformation: The Role of Feminism

Abstract

In 2008, Adrianna Kezar and I wrote an article on gender and generational differences to explain part of the reason why women on college campuses continue to struggle to find common ground in leadership and change. Sparked by anecdotal conversations in leadership development programs and in mentoring experiences, we sought to unravel how different experiences with feminism, discrimination, and perspectives on work-life balance – fault lines -- influence the ability for women of multiple generations to come together in leadership practices, specifically to promote institutional change. We concluded that cross-generational dialogues are necessary to attempt to reveal the fault lines and find common ground.

The purpose of the presentation in this symposium is to build on that earlier argument by focusing more specifically on the role of feminist generational divides on gender equity movements. Data on the position of women in higher education reveal a stalling of progress. In the last decade, the rates of women in presidential roles have only slightly increased (ACE, 2012; Dean, Bracken & Allen, 2009). Women continue to be underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields with declines in specific computer science programs (Xie & Shauman, 2005), despite efforts from NSF and others. In addition, women tend to be overrepresented in contingent faculty roles (NEA, 2007). While these are just a few statistics, references to change movements similar to the late 1990 women’s commissions at MIT and other universities are rare in the national higher education news. Little attention is paid to how individuals can organize to call attention to significant areas of institutional transformation.

The premise of the presentation is that fault lines developed by ideological and lived experiences with gender equity actively shape individual perspectives on 1) the actual presence of gender discrimination in organizations and 2) the tactics required and level initiated (top-down or bottom-up) to promote institutional transformation. To support the argument, I will outline the relationship related to the ideological differences between the generations or waves of feminism, the literature on gender and organizations to situate the organizational context of women in the workplace, and the historical and sociological role of women in the family. This interdisciplinary argument will attempt to spark conversation with the audience and to brainstorm how we can continue to find common ground and seek organizational change to promote gender equity.

Author

• Jaime R. Lester, George Mason University