Hidden in Plain Sight: Building Visibility for Critical Gender Perspectives Exploring Markets, Marketing and Society

Abstract

In this introduction to the special issue on gender and macromarketing, we explore how gender research within the journal has remained “hidden in plain sight”; and, offer concrete proposals to build visibility for critical gender perspectives which explore markets, marketing and society. This introduction is divided into four sections. First, we examine existing research in the journal which has focused on gender. Next, we provide a summary of the eight articles published in this special issue. We then examine systemic gender inequalities and injustices currently evidenced within macromarketing. Finally, we proffer suggestions for future gender research directions within the journal, alongside our reflections on addressing the problematic gendered dynamics that persist within the journal and the Macromarketing Society.

A Macromarketing Call to Action—Because Black Lives Matter!

“…The special issue of Macromarketing, in the African Context (Dadzie and Sheth 2020), builds on the tradition in macromarketing of researching non-western societies and highlights the value of theoretical insights from non-western market systems (Ingenbleek 2020). Likewise, the special issue on gender and macromarketing aims to make visible critical gender perspectives (Gurrieri et al 2020) including articles on systemic gender inequalities and injustices, including intersectional analysis that explicitly addresses the compounding and overlapping systems of oppression (Steinfield and Holt 2020). Is this the moment for a special issue on race/racism and macromarketing?…”

“…Passing references to “ethnic discourses” as “a new trend in the media…following the example of [B]lack feminism in the United States” certainly do not do justice to this literature (Ourahmoune, Binninger, and Robert 2014, p. 326). It should be noted that a more recent macromarketing contribution directly addresses this critique, and draws on Black feminist intersectionality theory (Gurrieri et al 2020).…”

Gender Equity in the Marketing Academy: From Performative to Institutional Allyship

“…Finally, we recommend an overall GEI research programme to coincide with calls for additional gender research in marketing more generally (Gurrieri et al, 2020; Peñaloza, 2021) and within the marketing academy more specifically (Fischer, 2019). ANZMAC and similar marketing academies are important hegemonic vehicles for the production and dissemination of marketing knowledge, occupying a unique position to progress gender scholarship.…”

“…Recruitment and promotion opportunities are negatively affected by homosociability (Shepherd, 2017); negative gender bias in student evaluations of teaching (Heffernan, 2021); gendered networking practices (van Den Brink & Benschop, 2014); gendered workload allocations (Dobele & Rundle-Theile, 2015; Santos & Dang Van Phu, 2019) and differentiated pay – as particularly noted within Australian business schools (Strachan et al, 2016). Female marketing academics have described such multifaceted constraints as a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ (Gurrieri et al, 2020). It is thus unsurprising that female marketing academics feel less valued and less satisfied when compared to their male colleagues (Galak & Kahn, 2021 1 ), unsupported by their academic institutions (Gurrieri et al, 2017) and ‘experience an unfavourable organizational climate’ (Keller et al, 2021, p. 325).…”

‘It’s hard to be what you can’t see’ - gender representation in marketing’s academic journals

“…So much so that there are a number of organisations such as @ManelWatch and @EUPanelWatch which specifically bring these panels to our attention. Indeed, manels continue to be prevalent across academia, and the marketing academy has been called to task in recent years for its 'all male panels' and a privileging of the work of male academics within our research endeavours (Gurrieri, Previte and Prothero, 2020). There is a recognition that "A new sexism seems to be stalking us" (Maclaran 2015(Maclaran , p. 1736, alongside calls for further research on gender inequality within the marketing academy (Fischer, 2015).…”