Abstract
Please submit papers before September 30, 2016.
The aim of this special issue is to examine gender and leadership from a critical perspective. In the last 20 years, there has been an increase in attention to issues of gender and leadership (Fletcher, 2004). While contemporary leadership theory has progressed from traditional masculine constructs to draw upon femininities (Fletcher, 2004), the male/female and masculine/feminine dichotomy is still evident, where the male/masculine is regarded as the universal, neutral subject against which the woman/female is judged. Such perspectives have failed to move beyond dualistic thinking that leaves leaders trapped within their sex role stereotype, reproducing the inequalities of the binary. We wish to challenge the dominant, masculinised frameworks and power structures underpinning leadership research, by considering critical debates on the role and impact of gender on and in leadership, adding to a growing tradition of critical leadership studies.
The critical turn in gender in leadership specifically challenges stereotypical views of male/female and masculinity/femininity and problematises gendered representations in leadership theory and discourse. Thus, this perspective raises issues of the extent to which gender is constructed through and by leadership activity and practice, leadership theory and research, and how it operates with other social conditions and practices to impact on the power and identity dynamics of leadership and followership relations. Conceiving gender as socially constructed does not deny the importance of how the gender binary may shape leaders’ behaviours and actions. Rather it encourages a shift of emphasis towards the “doing of gender” (West and Zimmerman, 1987). This shift of emphasis expands research to explore gendered practices, gendered norms and spaces, and alerts us to the relationship between the individual and the social. It therefore draws attention to; how gender is (re)produced through leadership activities, practices and processes; how gender is (re)created, negotiated and maintained in different social or organizational contexts; how gender shapes leadership discourse, and; how leaders are constructed, excluded, included, marginalised or denied through gendered norms.
This special issue, focused on gender and leadership, is intended to consolidate existing embryonic theory development, stimulate new conceptual thinking and provide a framework for path-breaking empirical explorations of the topic. Our expectation is that this issue will publish leading-edge research on gender and leadership. Papers from various disciplinary perspectives (including both those in management and other social sciences) as well as research conducted from a range of philosophical and methodological perspectives will be welcome. All units of analysis (individual, team and the organisation, and the dynamic interrelationships between them) are appropriate. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Gendered power relations – how are they constructed, how do they operate and what is their impact on leadership practice? Followership – how does gender shape leader/follower relations and their effects? Identity – how does gender affect the ways in which leaders negotiate and navigate their different markers of identity? Intersectionality –how does gender operate with class, race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality in the doing of leadership Intergenerational gendered tensions and dynamics – how do new generations of leaders (women and men) develop and represent themselves as leaders and manage their relationships with older/more established leaders? What are the ramifications of conceptual metaphors, e.g. glass ceilings, glass walls and glass cliffs for the accumulation of human and social capital and the career dynamics and progression of leaders? Gender and leadership in different contexts – what is the impact of different socio-economic, political, religious and cultural dynamics on the development of a gendered analysis of leadership? The relationship between global (specifically the imposition of western culture and perspectives) and local ways of doing gender in leadership The consequences of the recent debates of the evolution of late capitalism for gender and leadership The impact which gendered institutional and organisational structures, processes and routines have on the experiences of women and men leaders The relationship between visible/invisible gendered formal and informal practices and their implications for the construction and practice of leadership? The relationship between ethics, gender and leadership Gender and the role of aesthetics in leadership
Footnotes
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