The politics of experience: A discursive psychology approach to understanding different accounts of sexism in the workplace

an article by Penny Dick (University of Sheffield, UK) published in Human Relations Volume 66 Number 5 (May 2013)

Abstract

Researching sexism is not only a controversial undertaking, but one that is rendered problematic due to the fact that many individuals are reluctant to name certain experiences or practices as ‘sexist’.

In this article, I use a discursive psychology approach to transcend arguments as to whether certain experiences and practices should be understood as sexist, focusing instead on how, in the context of a research ‘conversation’, participants attempt to warrant their own interpretations of these processes.

Using data from research conversations held with two policewomen, who present very different accounts of sexism, I argue that social facts, like sexism, possess an inherent interpretive duality: they can be understood, simultaneously, to be both objective and subjective experiences. The study illustrates that the resolution of competing reality claims (e.g. is sexism a ‘fact’ or is it ‘in the eye of the beholder’) depends upon the processes through which particular versions of reality acquire authority.

This essentially political process is, I argue, critical for understanding the reproduction, resilience and endurance of social facts such as sexism.

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“Free as in sexist?” Free culture and the gender gap

an article by Joseph Reagle (Northeastern University and Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard) published in First Monday Volume 18 Number 1 (January 2013)

Abstract

Despite the values of freedom and openness, the free culture movement’s gender balance is as skewed (or more so) as that of the computing culture from which it arose. Based on the collection and analysis of discourse on gender and sexism within this movement over a six–year period, I suggest three possible causes:

1. some geek identities can be narrow and unappealing;
2. open communities are especially susceptible to difficult people; and,
3. the ideas of freedom and openness can be used to dismiss concerns and rationalize the gender gap as a matter of preference and choice.

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Benevolent Sexism at Work: Gender Differences in the Distribution of Challenging Developmental Experiences

an article by Eden B. King (George Mason University), Whitney Botsford (University of Houston–Downtown), Michelle R. Hebl, Stephanie Kazama and Andrew Perkins (Rice University) and Jeremy F. Dawson (Aston University) published in Journal of Management Volume 38 Number 6 (November 2012)

Abstract

The current research draws from ambivalent sexism theory to examine potential gender differences in the quantity and quality of developmental work experiences.

In a sample of managers in the energy industry, men and women reported participating in a similar number of developmental experiences (with comparable levels of support), but men rated these experiences as more challenging and received more negative feedback than did women.

Similarly, a sample of female managers in the health care industry reported comparable amounts, but less challenging types, of developmental experiences than their male counterparts’.

The results of three complementary experiments suggest that benevolent sexism is negatively related to men’s assignment of challenging experiences to female targets but that men and women were equally likely to express interest in challenging experiences.

Taken together, these results suggest that stereotype-based beliefs that women should be protected may limit women’s exposure to challenging assignments, which in turn may partially explain the underrepresentation of women at the highest levels of organizations.

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