an article by Yvonne Benschop, Marieke van den Brink, Hans Doorewaard and Joke Leenders (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands) published in Human Relations Volume 66 Number 5 (May 2013)
Abstract
The aim of this article is to unravel the gendered practices in ambition and challenge the hegemonic masculinity within it.
Our findings are based on a qualitative study using focus groups in which Dutch men and women, full-timers and part-timers, constructed different meanings of ambition. The men and women in our study used three manifest discourses of ambition in the workplace, regarding individual development, mastery of the task, and upward career mobility.
A critical analysis of these three discourses indicates how cultural and organisational norms on gender and working hours affect these constructions of ambition. We argue that a fourth discourse, ‘ambition as a resource’, is a major driving force of inequality.
‘Ambition as a resource’ is the dominant hegemonic discourse in organisations, and its power effects mitigate the impact of other discourses on ambition, revealing the potential for change when different discourses of ambition are valued.
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