Shadows and Silences: How Women's Positioning and Unspoken Friendship Rules in Organizational Settings Cultivate Difficulties Among Some Women at Work

Abstract

This study sheds light on the difficulties some women report in their work relationships, what we call the shadow side. We argue that both our findings and speculation about structural issues suggest that women's role performance and individual behavior mix with masculine organizational norms in ways that may create a disjunction between feminine friendship expectations and gender roles and masculine organizational norms, and this disjunction leads to tension between some women in the workplace.

Keywords:

• shadow side
• feminist standpoint theory
• organizational settings
• feminine friendship roles
• gender roles