Gender, Symbolism and Organizational Cultures

The symbolic order of gender in organizations - how gender relations are culturally and discursively produced and reproduced, and how they might be 'done' differently, are explored in this book.

Silvia Gherardi focuses on the relationship between gender, power and culture in organizations and on the need to come to grips with the pervasive, elusive and ambiguous nature of gender in work settings. She introduces two key metaphors. The first is of the sexual contract, which centres on the sexuality of organizations and 'static' gender difference. The second, of the alchemic wedding, highlights a plurality of cultural models of femaleness and of women//work relationships, and processes of dynamic difference, transformation an