Heroic Career Changers? Gendered Identity Work in Career Transitions

LaPointe, Kirsi

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2012.00601.x

Cited by 35 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 71 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The interview method is familiar, flexible and ideally suited for exploring everyday, subtle identity work (LaPointe, ). It encourages openness and sharing, especially as many people enjoy talking about their work, but often do not have the opportunity to do so with interested outsiders (King, 2004).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing Intersectional Dynamics in Organizations: Introducing ‘Intersectional Identity Work’

Atewologun

Sealy²,

Vinnicombe³

2015

Gender Work & Organization

109

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Little consensus exists regarding conducting intersectional studies. We introduce 'intersectional identity work' as an approach for examining individuals' experiences at the nexus of multiple identities. Incorporating identity work as a theoretical and analytical framework, we use journals and interviews to examine identity-heightening episodes that trigger meaning-making of intersecting senior, gender and ethnic identities among British Asian and black women and men. Our analysis reveals how intersecting identities are leveraged in encounters with subordinates, superiors and clients. Intersectional locations provide resources and cues for claiming or restricting privileged and disadvantaged status in asymmetric power positions. Intersectional identity work expands and restricts identification at juxtaposed locations. It offers a prospect for elucidating intersectional dynamics present in a range of identity configurations and addresses critiques that individual-level intersectional analyses at intersections are mere narrative. We encourage further research that examines other socially salient identities using our approach to develop theory on how multiple identities play out in everyday experience.Keywords: intersectionality, identity work, methodology, ethnicity, gender Introduction C onducting intersectional studies is a primary focus of debate in feminist scholarship across legal, political, sociological and psychological disciplines. Yet there is minimal consensus regarding exactly how one conducts such research. Explicit methodological guidelines are elusive (Nash, 2008), conducting it challenging (Browne and Misra, 2003), complicated and 'fraught with dangers ' (Healy et al., 2010, p. 4). We contribute to the conversation regarding developing a new approach befitting this influential framework conceptualizing the complexity of simultaneous identity and subject positions. We propose incorporating identity work as a theoretical lens and analytical framework into intersectionality research, due to its focus on explicating everyday experiences of self-identification. Adopting an individual constructivist perspective, we utilize identity work -the effort engaged in personal meaning-making -as an orienting device for analysing/making sense of intersecting identities. We conduct intersectional analyses of identity-heightening experiences of senior black and Asian male and female professionals in Britain. Using an identity work lens, we contribute to the debate on elucidating intersectional dynamics by revealing how intersecting identities are engaged as cues and resources, expanding and restricting power positions in asymmetrical interactions with clients, subordinates and superiors.We provide an overview of approaches to conducting intersectional research, including critiques regarding descriptive approaches of individual-level treatments of intersectionality. We

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing Intersectional Dynamics in Organizations: Introducing ‘Intersectional Identity Work’

Atewologun

Sealy²,

Vinnicombe³

2015

Gender Work & Organization

109

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While these new models were initially welcomed as breaking with the dominant view of careers as continuous, unbroken and organizational, the idea of the boundaryless career has increasingly attracted criticism, accused of being too loosely defined, inaccurately labelled and with little empirical support for its ubiquity (Inkson et al ., ; Tams and Arthur, ). An overemphasis on individual agency is also problematic, in that most studies of boundaryless careers fail to recognize constraints imposed by cultural, economic and other contextual factors (LaPointe, ; Tams and Arthur, ), and this is therefore of particular concern when analysing women's careers. Moreover, the precariousness of non‐typical careers has differently gendered implications, and ‘marginalizes lower‐skilled workers, women and minorities for whom boundarylessness simply means unemployment, insecurity and anxiety’ (Inkson et al ., , p. 328).…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectives On Women's Careersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rebooting and Rerouting: Women's Articulations of Frayed Careers in Science, Engineering and Technology Professions

Herman

2015

Gender Work & Organization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper expands on previous work about women's non-linear and frayed careers by examining the experiences of women who have attempted to return to science, engineering and technology (SET) professions in the UK and Republic of Ireland after taking a career break. These women potentially offer an important perspective on gender and career, because of the deep rooted gendered associations of science and technology with masculinity. Drawing on qualitative interviews with women SET professionals, the paper identifies three narratives -Rebooting, Rerouting and Retreating -which women use to talk about their careers. Some of these women present themselves as career changers having often made compromises and trade-offs, while others who have returned to their substantive professions, focus on continuity in their career narratives. The precarious nature of their careers is also apparent and in some cases leads to opting out or Retreating. The paper concludes by exploring how women's scientist and technical identities persist, even among those who had not returned to work, and are drawn on in narratives of return and career change.

show abstract

“…Bron (2000) has embarked on this task, but she has had no followers yet. In the field of career counselling, there is an emerging body of research that uses different concepts of narrative and narrative analysis (Cohen & Mallon, 2001;Del Corso & Rehfuss, 2011;LaPointe, 2010LaPointe, , 2013Reid & West, 2011;Savickas, et al, 2009) but they use the concept of biographical learning only occasionally. Besides issues related to disruptions and changes in people's professional career, it would be fruitful to address questions about transitions into and within the criminal career, including people's efforts to leave a criminal career and make the transition in to a non-criminal life-style.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biographical learning: two decades of research and discussion

Hallqvist

2013

Educational Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biographical learning: Two decades of research and discussion AbstractThe article discusses the concept of biographical learning and reviews previous research on the subject. Several tensions between different versions of the concept are recognized, and a wide range of research areas in which the concept has been used are identified and presented.The general idea in the biographical learning tradition regarding the occurrence of general conceptions of one's biography, as well as the idea of narrative coherence, is discussed critically. New areas of research are suggested.3

show abstract

Heroic Career Changers? Gendered Identity Work in Career Transitions

Cited by 35 publications

References 71 publications

Revealing Intersectional Dynamics in Organizations: Introducing ‘Intersectional Identity Work’

Revealing Intersectional Dynamics in Organizations: Introducing ‘Intersectional Identity Work’

Rebooting and Rerouting: Women's Articulations of Frayed Careers in Science, Engineering and Technology Professions

Biographical learning: two decades of research and discussion

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About