This study focuses on women managers in women-dominated organisations. They are leaders in organisations where the majority of the managers as well as the employees are women. In Sweden today most women and men of working age carry out paid work. Women’s salaried employment in Sweden, along with other Nordic countries, is well above the EU-average. The labour market is however divided both horizontally and vertically according to gender. Men and women tend to work in different sectors and industries, perform different tasks and hold different positions. In the public sector, 64 per cent of all managers are women. This means that quite a large proportion of women managers in Sweden work in the public sector. The empirical material consists of interviews with managers, employed in the public sector, working with care for the elderly and disabled. The results were also based on observations of the managers’ places of work as well as written material. The overall aim of the thesis is to: understand how gender power relations are produced, reproduced and changed through describing and analysing the working conditions of women managers, their room for manoeuvre, and how this (re)produces and changes in organisations dominated by women. The studied organizations are large organisations that supply a vast number of care services. The managers describe their job as compelling and stimulating and they enjoy having the power to shape the organization. Results of the analysis suggest that being in majority opens up for various ways of challenging male constructions of management. The managers do not have to relate to pre-existing notions of management. They are comfortable in the power position. They constitute the norm for management in the sense that it is what they do at work that defines management. Moreover, they do not perceive themselves as part of a gendered category as managers. The manager’s working conditions are characterized by large areas of responsibility. They are responsible for budget, staff, organizational development and day-to-day operations. Despite this, managers in woman-dominated operations are paid lower salaries than managers in both male-dominated municipality activities and in the private sector. How can it be that such highly qualified and challenging managerial practice is not rewarded high status and high salaries? In the analysis a misogyny discourse is identified which exists at the level of society and is passed on to the organisations studied. The misogyny discourse contributes to devaluing and making women’s work invisible. In parallel with misogyny, there is also a discourse glorifying men. The glorification of men gives men in minority a dominant status above the women in majority. Power relations are nevertheless not only reproduced. The results show that the women managers apply both individual and collective resistance strategies to alter subordination. The prevailing unequal conditions are thus both reproduced and challenged. / <p>QC 20131125</p>

The younger generation is often expected to be part of changes in management gender distribution, concepts of leadership and gender power relations. Parallel with this, there are ongoing gender segregation processes within the organisations resulting in the dominance of men among managers. The aim of this thesis is to describe and understand the transition from staff to management, and in particular how gender is done in this process. The perspective on organisation and gender adopted is social constructionist. Thestudy was carried out in a large Swedish banking company between 2000 and 2005. Analysis was drawn up in order to successively answer four research questions: 1) in what way is the management sourcing process designed and how are candidates for management evaluated?, 2) how do management candidates look upon their career opportunities?, 3) how is gender done in the sourcing of new managers?, and 4) how is gender done in the careers of future managers? The empirical material consists of observations of a management development programme for potential managers, statements on management sourcing and careers, and document material. The statements come from interviews with 11 staff members, six women and five men, identified as potential managers, as well as seven people working with HR at the bank. The 11 management candidates were interviewed three times during a two-year period. The thesis develops knowledge on how gender and management are done in situations characterised by a balanced gender distribution and simultaneous male dominance. The management development programme serves as a hub for those working with sourcing new managers through its importance in identifying, developing and evaluating candidates for management. The evaluation of women and men among management candidates shows that potential is linked to women and men in different ways and that women and men are evaluated on the basis of different expectations on them as managers. Career is almost exclusively conceived as linear hierarchical movements. Nevertheless, the hierarchical view of career is confirmed almost entirely in the way men orient themselves. The career themes of the men express expectations on having a career. The experiences of the women are diverse. But even among those who have experienced encouragement to develop, this is not reflected in expectations on the future. Instead, the hope expressed is one of being allowed to continue a career. The different empowerment of the women and men express the gender power relations in the organisation and the norm of men as managers, which both men and women relate to. Two aspects are involved in the doing of gender in management sourcing and careers: construction of gender and gender ordering. Firstly, gender is constructed and ordered in the sourcing of new managers through the gendering of potential, resulting in different opportunities for women and men in organisations. Secondly, gender is constructed and ordered in careers, where careers may be understood as gendered, i.e. where expectations are created in men and hopes in women. The result is different empowerment in women and men. And thirdly, the results point to a complexity in relation to change. Gender equality initiatives and radical practices in combination with individualism and gender neutrality both put gender hierarchy into question and preserve it. Management sourcing involves several practices where the doing of gender is integrated in different ways, both conscious through gender equality initiatives, and sub-conscious through individualised and gender-neutral ideology. Thus, change requires greater consciousness and new practice. / <p>QC 20100728</p>