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Mats Alvessonl1,2
The paper explores gender relations and gender identity, based upon an ethnography of a Swedish advertising agency. The organization is of special interest as it has a strong gender division of labor, where men hold all senior posts, at the same time as creative advertising work seems to have much more similarity with what gender studies describe as "femininity" rather than with forms of "masculinity." The paper discusses how gender is constructed in an organizational context. Emphasis on workplace sexuality is related to identity work of men in response to the highly ambiguous and contested context of advertising work. Tendencies toward the "femininization" of the work and client relationships put some strain on (gender) identity for men, triggering a structuring of gender relations and interaction at the workplace to restore feelings of masculinity. The paper problematizes ideas of masculinities and femininities and argues for a rethinking of their roles in nonbureaucratic organizations. Also assumptions about a close connection between domination of masculinity and of males are critically discussed.
KEY WORDS: advertising agencies, gender; femininity; masculinity; organization; sexuality; work.
INTRODUCTION
Research on gender and organization has only recently been established as an important research field. Against traditionally genderblind-alleged gender-neutral-ways of understanding organizations and organizational behavior, gender relations have been presented as a central aspect of the functioning of businesses and workplaces. The gender division of labor-including the tendency for men to monopolize higher, privileged posts, while women are frequently overrepresented on lower organizational levels-has become apparent as the gender dimension is increasingly seen as an important part of organizational life (Calas & Smircich, 1991, 1992a, 1996; Cockburn, 1991; Ferguson, 1984; Gherardi, 1995; Hearn & Parkin, 1983; Kanter, 1977; Marshall, 1984 Mills & Tancred, 1992).
Conceptions about the historically situated social construction of gender have partially replaced previous dominant ideas about the men and women as being more or less ready produced and thus unitary and fixed-by early socialization, biology, or uniform macro structural forces-and as being in possession of more or less distinct forms of subjectivity (values, self-understanding, ways of thinking, and feeling). Social constructivist ideas point toward the need for graded studies of the processes which create gender, including gendered forms of subjectivity. From the point of view of organization...