Male Managers Challenging and Reinforcing the Male Norm in Management

Abstract

This paper explores the possibilities of male executives challenging the masculine norm in management through greater gender awareness in organizations. The impact of presence of women managers and a gender equality discourse in a large male-dominated company in Sweden is in focus in this empirical study. Results demonstrate how constructions of management change when awareness of gender inequality increases. Men challenge the norm when questioning the ideology that justifies men's domination in management. At the same time, constructions of masculinity expand to include new equality ideals and consequently add on possibilities for male managers, thus reinforcing the male norm in management. Constructions of women change, as individual women managers are described as superior, but women managers are still seen as deficient and less suitable for management, as belonging to a gendered category. The implications for organizational analysis and organizational work for change are greater awareness of how gender equality (GE), can simultaneously challenge and reinforce the masculine norm in management. The positive construction of women in management does not necessarily challenge the masculine norm in management, unless GE work is linked to challenging the masculine norm as part of the dominant organizational culture.

Acknowledgements

This article is part of the project “Gendered conditions of management” (Chefskapets könsmärkta villkor) funded by VINNOVA. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for valuable comments. A special thanks to San Michele stiftelsen, Capri, that gave me the opportunity to write this in October 2012.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Wahl

Anna Wahl, is Professor in Gender, Organization and Management, at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm and guest professor at Tema Genus, Linköping University. Current research interests are the gendering of management, methods of working for change, and the impact of gender equality in organizations. She leads the research group Fosfor, which has published several books, e.g. Det ordnar sig. Teorier om organisation och kön (2011). She is involved in research and development projects in academic organizations and in the film and manufacturing industry.