Coping with Career Boundaries in Masculine Professions: Career Politics of Female Professionals in theICTand Energy Supplier Industries inSwitzerland

Abstract

This article investigates the mid-career realities of female professionals in male-dominated industrial sectors by way of two explorative company case studies, located in the IT and energy supplier industry in Switzerland. Based on preliminary results taken from qualitative interviews, we analyze career politics of female professionals trying to cope with career boundaries in the context of male-affected management cultures. Career politics, such as pursuing calculated relationships with organizational gatekeepers, are part of a more or less conscious game, with the male order trying to compensate disadvantages in gaining access to career-relevant resources. But as an unintended side effect, they contribute to the reproduction of gendered stereotypes and career boundaries in 'male professions'. Ceci n'est pas une carrière or: The difficult reconciliation of career and female professionals in part-time positions I n 1987, the Swiss university lecturers Peter Noll and Hans-Rudolf Bachmann published a short, but successful satirical self-help manual of Machiavellian strategies for career advancement (Noll and Bachmann, 2004). Their most important commandment was very simple: if you want to advance in your career, don't be a woman! Looking at the make-up of top management circles of many Swiss companies today, 30 years later, most managers seem to have followed their suggestion: they still aren't women. However, the continued under-representation of women in upper management positions should not hide the fact that opportunities for them to pursue qualified careers have improved considerably over the period (cf. Baumgartner, 2008, p. 125). The reasons for the increasing presence of women in salaried employment are, among others, the tertiarization and intensification of knowledge in the workplace, coupled with increasing levels of education and qualification among women and a pressing lack of specialists and academically trained personnel in many industries. Swiss women are comparatively well-represented in the working population: about 62 per cent of the female population above the age of 15 is in salaried employment (BFS, 2010). Sixty per cent of them work in part-time positions searching for financial independence, 'enjoyment' and self-fulfilment in their work; in short, fulfilment in both their work and private lives (Baumgartner, 2008, p. 292). Even a majority of working mothers perceive their multiple roles and responsibilities rather as expansion and enrichment, than as an additional burden (Baumgartner, 2008, p. 229).

Gender and Disability: Feminizing Male Employees with Visible Impairments in Danish Work Organizations

“…Furthermore, the analysis of the present study show that the stereotypical gender perceptions of employees with impairments is not related to the norms and culture of the particular industry as found in other studies (e.g., Bryant and Garnham, 2014;Buschmeyer, 2013;Clerc and Kels, 2013), for instance how stereotypically masculine perceptions create a particular work environment that causes female workers to compensate for their 'wrong' biological sex, typically through strategies of over-performance or neutralization (Butler and Charles, 2012;Claringbould and Knoppers, 2008;Herman et al, 2013;Irvine and Vermilya, 2010;Miller, 2004). Rather, the current study offers an alternative way of researching how stereotypical gender perceptions organize how managers and colleagues think about and perceive their colleague with impairments.…”

“…Gender is a relational, symbol-based interactive phenomenon that organizes both organizational work and human interaction (Mumby and Ashcraft, 2004). Studies show, for instance, how stereotypical male norms in work organizations lead to strategies of over-performance amongst female workers in a number of different industries (Butler and Charles, 2012;Casey et al, 2011;Clerc and Kels, 2013;Powell et al, 2009) such as the 'patriarchal' wine industry (Bryant and Garnham, 2014), the engineering industry (Hatmaker, 2013;Miller, 2004) and the fields of law and accounting (Haynes, 2012). Often, these studies examine how female employees must compensate for their biological sex when working in an industry dominated by stereotypical male norms in order to gain acceptance, etc., in the workplace.…”

We are strong and we are resilient: Career experiences of women engineers

“…It may seem like an easier strategy but Miller's () study indicates women undergo immense learning and reframing to arrive at this strategy. Other studies discuss additional strategies such as relying on spousal support, developing extensive networks, finding mentors and developing a communication style that makes others feel comfortable (Bowden, ; Clerc & Kels, ; Herman et al, ; Ibarra, ; McGregor & Tweed, ). Broadly speaking, these studies provide evidence of the proactive way and relentless determination in which women engage with their careers, and individual choices they make.…”

“…Collectively, recent gender research offers a glimpse of professional women as agentic who, despite gendered organizations, actively employ progressive and empowering strategies to navigate work (Clerc & Kels, ; Hamel, ; Wirth, ). This description sharply contrasts dominant assumptions of women as passive and submissive in mainstream organizational and management literature (Bendl, ; Ely & Padavac, ; Martin, ).…”

Marx and Digital Machines: Alienation, Technology, Capitalism

“…A significant exception is the research undertaken by Xiang into the practice of 'body shopping' where he carried out extensive interviews with IT professionals in India (Xiang 2007). Interestingly, where the focus is on the experience of women working in ICT, the research methodology tends to include extensive use of in-depth interviews (Clerc and Kels 2013).…”