This paper provides new theoretical insights into the interconnections and relationships between women, management and globalization in the Middle East (ME). The discussion is positioned within broader globalization debates about women's social status in ME economies. Based on case study evidence and the UN datasets, the article critiques social, cultural and economic reasons for women's limited advancement in the public sphere. These include the prevalence of the patriarchal work contract within public and private institutions, as well as cultural and ethical values which create strongly defined gender roles. The discussion examines the complexities of conceptualizing women's equality and empowerment in Islamic states. The paper reveals that there have been significant achievements in advancing women in leadership and political roles, but that there are still institutional and cultural barriers embedded in business systems. Linking feminist, development and management theoretical strands a development framework is proposed which is sensitive to the Islamic Shar'ia encompassing government, organization and individual level strategies. It is suggested that scholars should integrate literatures from gender and management, development and Middle East studies, and in particular that critical scholars of gender and organization should consider the interrelations of the national and transnational in critiques of contemporary global capitalism to understand the complexity of women and social change in the ME.

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There is increasing recognition in management and organization studies of the importance of materiality as an aspect of discourse, while the neglect of materiality in post-structuralist management and organization theory is currently the subject of much discussion. This paper argues that this turn to materiality may further embed gender discrimination. We draw on Luce Irigaray's work to highlight the dangers inherent in masculine discourses of materiality.We discuss Irigaray's identification of how language and discourse elevate the masculine over the feminine so as to offer insights into ways of changing organizational language and discourses so that more beneficial, ethically-founded identities, relationships and practices can emerge. We thus stress a political intent that aims to liberate women and men from phallogocentrism. We finally take forward Irigaray's ideas to develop a feminist écriture of/for organization studies that points towards ways of writing from the body. The paper thus not only discusses how inequalities may be embedded within the material turn but it also provides a strategy that enriches the possibilities of overcoming them from within. IntroductionThe neglect of materiality in post-structuralist management and organization theory is currently the subject of much discussion, notably in an important recent review article by Phillips and Oswick (2012), and Ashcraft, Kuhn and Cooren's (2009) excellent summary of approaches to exploring materiality. There is therefore recognition of the need to return to a continental philosophical tradition that attempts to transcend the subject-object dualism undergirding much of modernist knowledge production, and thus to avoid 'the bifurcation of the material and discursive' that is too often present in the texts of the proponents of discourse (Mumby, 2011). Academics are included in this turn: they are not disembodied subjectivities but sexuated subjects that are implicated in the accounts they produce. The material bodies that sit pounding keyboards will have different musculatures and organs; they may be perceived as leaky or hard; and they may also experience pains peculiar to one or other sex. While such bodies themselves can only be understood through and indeed as constituted within discourse, at the same time discourse is material and cannot be separated from such (academic) bodies (Butler, 1990(Butler, , 1993. Furthermore, academics are gendered embodied subjects, and as such are not only subject to forms of gender domination and subordination; they also may (albeit unwittingly) reproduce those forms. In other words, we argue that when bodies enter then so does gender and gender discrimination. To take forward the material turn through introducing methodological plurality and combining discourse with non-discursive approaches, as suggested by Phillips and Oswick (2012), without awareness and understanding of gender could therefore perpetuate inequalities. To avoid this danger, we propose that the turn to materiality requires fundamental...

Executive SummaryThis study analyzes the experiences of female professionals working in three case study countries in the Middle East: Bahrain, Jordan, and Oman. Data were gleaned while conducting management and cultural training for female managers. Results highlight the importance of women to economic development and the complexity of the interrelations between gender, organization, and Islamic values. The study reveals that women have advanced in management in the Middle East but have career and development constraints due to strong gender roles in Islamic culture. The study suggests strategies for HR and for gender and development to support international business.

Though women remain under-represented amongst expatriate managers due to a range of organisational and cultural barriers in selection and individual relocation concerns, they have begun to pursue alternative routes toward a global career such as frequent travel and undertaking domestic positions with international development and community development responsibilities. In this paper we explore the perceptions that Middle Eastern and North American women have of traditional and new trajectories in global work and careers and conclude that increased flexibility allows women to pursue global development opportunities differently throughout their lifetime careers; permitting them to adapt to work-life circumstances. Thus, our research provides new insights into the nature and dynamic of the nature of women's global work and careers.