Women as Managers in Shadowed Hierarchies: Examples of the Logic of Inequality Regimes

• In Event: 397 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Race, Gender, Solidarity and the Changing Conditions of Work

Abstract

In this research, 48 face-to-face interviews were conducted with nurse managers in two hospitals and office managers in one university. The findings revealed that a logic of inequality forms the basis upon which bureaucratic hierarchies emerge and that this logic helps us to understand how women in management positions experience their work. Women as managers serve as buffers between elite professionals—mostly white men--and lower status, yet highly skilled positions dominated by ethnically diverse women. Responsibilities of women as managers are assumed to be associated with operational functions, regardless of whether their scope of responsibility extends beyond that. An understanding of the logic of inequality that structures bureaucratic hierarchies will help women as managers reverse the trends of segregation entrenchment and give them the analytical resources in their struggle to realize increased wages and status.

Author

• Marcia Marx, California State University-San Bernardino