Edward Elgar Publishing Rethinking Gender Inequalities in Organizations (Rethinking Business and Management series)

In this thoughtful book, Penny Dick challenges orthodox views of gender inequality. Combining post-structuralist thinking with process ontology, the author presents a novel conceptual approach to rethinking gender inequalities in organizations and management settings. The author argues that current understandings of gender inequalities tend to focus too much on how to improve women’s access to higher value roles and occupations rather than questioning why some roles and occupations are seen to be so valuable in the first instance. Positing that organizations tend to value people and roles that are seen to visibly contribute to bottom line outcomes such as profit and reputation, the book argues that the undervaluation of particular forms of work is related to its perceived lack of centrality to such outcomes. While this problem is certainly more often prevalent in the types of work typically performed by women, it is also one that affects many men. This accessible and provocative account of the application of social constructionism and post-structuralist thinking to the study of gender inequalities will be an important resource for academics, researchers, and students interested in gender and social justice, business and management, diversity and management, gender and management, and gender equality studies.