Considerable attention has been paid recently to the gendering of organizations and occupations. Unfortunately, the gendered-organizations approach remains theoretically and empirically underdeveloped, as there have as yet been few clear answers to the question central to the perspective: What does it really mean to say that an organization itself, or a policy, practice, or slot in the hierarchy, is “gendered”? Reviewing literature in the gendered-organizations tradition, the author discusses three of the most common ways the perspective has been applied and argues that all of these definitions pose potential problems for the project of meaningful social and organizational change. The article concludes with some suggestions about how a more useful conception of the gendered organization might be built.

In this paper, we explore the context for the emergence of a theory of gendered organizations and define the basic features of the approach, noting the explosion of scholarship in the area and the now firmly established trend toward understanding gender, race, class, and sexuality as aspects of social structures. We focus on three of the most important emerging areas in research on gendered organizations: the study of intersectionality, the increasing emphasis on the importance of organizational context, and the exploration of mechanisms for organizational change. We conclude by briefly noting prospects for the further development of research on gendered organizations.

This article examines the relationship between race and sex and perceptions of the work environment among correctional officers. It addresses four central questions: (1) Are there race and sex differences among correctional officers in their perceptions of the work environment? (2) Do characteristics of the job and the institutions in which officers work account for these differences? (3) Do these differences attenuate over time? (4) Are there factors that mediate the relationship between race and sex and perceptions of the work environment? These issues are explored using data drawn from the correctional officer sub‐sample (N= 2,979) of the 1992 administration of the Prison Social Climate Survey. Findings indicate that race and sex do play a role in shaping officers’ perceptions of the work environment, that these differences between groups are not completely accounted for by job or institutional characteristics and do not attenuate over time, and that there are factors that mediate the relationship between race and sex and workplace perceptions. Among minority male officers, greater efficacy in working with inmates appears to be an important factor in creating lower levels of job stress, while white female officers’ higher levels of overall job satisfaction are accounted for largely by a more positive evaluation of the quality of supervision.

During the past twenty-five years, the number of prison programs in which inmates train dogs has increased rapidly. There are no comprehensive data on the prevalence of such programs, but they are in existence in at least twenty U.S. states, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy. Though extremely popular among both administrators and inmates, we have only anecdotal accounts to assess the effects of dog training by inmates. Such programs appear to have the potential to break down barriers of fear and mistrust between staff and inmates; and there is also some evidence, again anecdotal, that they reduce recidivism and behavioral infractions among inmates. Literally no systematic studies exist, Dana M. Britton is Associate Professor, and Andrea Button is an MA candidate,

The prevailing metaphor for understanding the persistence of gender inequalities in universities is the "chilly climate." Women faculty sometimes resist descriptions of their workplaces as "chilly" and deny that gender matters even in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary. I draw on interviews with women academics (N=102) to explore this apparent paradox, and I offer a theoretical synthesis that may help explain it. I build on insights from Ridgeway and Acker to demonstrate that women do experience gender at work, but the contexts in which they experience it have implications for how they understand gender's importance and whether to respond. Specifically, I find that women are likely to minimize or deny gender's importance in interactions. When it becomes salient in structures and cultures, women understand it differently. Placing gender in organizational contexts can better inform our understanding of gender inequality at work and can help in crafting more effective efforts to foster gender equity.