Change and Divergence in Gendered Organizations: Explaining Women’s Under-Representation in Decision-Making

• In Event: 2168 - Gender and Work

Abstract

This paper seeks to explain women’s continued under-representation in decision-making and leadership positions in comparison with more base-level forms of organizational participation. It focuses on gendered organizational change, and asks: how does change come to unfold differently for distinct groups of women, depending on their location within an organization and in particular their proximity to decision-making power? To answer this question, I analyze women’s under-representation among sports leaders relative to athletes, with particular attention to the historical origins of this discrepancy. I focus on the case of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), using archival data representing the period 1967-1995, during which time gender equality emerged as an organizational priority. Three sources of gendered organizational change emerge from the analysis: bureaucracy, framing, and advocacy. I show how they differently impact these two forms of women’s participation: in the case of the IOC, women athletes and leaders were differently defined and impacted by organizational rules and procedures, differently framed, and advocated for by different groups and individuals. Women’s leadership was depoliticized relative to women’s athletic participation, with the latter addressed more explicitly through IOC rules and procedures, framed more strongly in terms of gender equality and anti-discrimination, and supported through both grassroots and top-down collective advocacy. I consider how the observed divergence along these three dimensions, and attention to change over time, can aid in understanding the contemporary under-representation of women in positions of organizational leadership and decision-making, within and beyond sport.

Author

• Madeleine Pape, University of Wisconsin-Madison