Changing Gender: The Discursive Construction of Equal Opportunities

This article provides a discursive perspective on the dilemmas of sameness and difference feminisms and their consequences for change projects. It explores how equal opportunity officers dealing with gender issues and introducing equality legislation in practice construct the meaning of equal opport...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Gender, work, and organization work, and organization, 2006-11, Vol.13 (6), p.499-521
Main Author: Nentwich, Julia C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
change
Equal opportunities
Equal Opportunity
Feminism
Feminist theory
Gender
Gender differentiation
Gender studies
ideological dilemma
Ideological influences
interpretative repertoires
Interviews
Labour relations
Organization theory
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Summary:This article provides a discursive perspective on the dilemmas of sameness and difference feminisms and their consequences for change projects. It explores how equal opportunity officers dealing with gender issues and introducing equality legislation in practice construct the meaning of equal opportunities. The analysis of the interpretative repertoires and ideological dilemmas drawn upon in ten interviews shows the highly context‐specific use of four different repertoires constructing gender equality: the sameness, difference, bandwidth and deconstructive repertoire. Interpreting the shifts between repertoires from the perspective of the ideological dilemma, new avenues for change are explored. The article concludes that the simultaneous use of all possible theoretical perspectives might be a worthwhile objective.
ISSN:0968-6673
1468-0432
DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2006.00320.x