Performing gender in the workplace: gender socialization, power, and identity among women faculty members

Community College Review, April, 2008 by Jaime Lester

Organizational cultures shape and reinforce socially appropriate roles for men and women. Drawing on a performativity framework, which assumes that gender is socially constructed through gendered "performances," this study employs interviews with and observations of six women faculty members to examine how dominant discourses define and maintain the formation of gender roles within a community college context. The experiences of one of these faculty members, a welding instructor, are highlighted. Results indicate that the women faculty members performed a variety of stereotypical feminine gender roles based on (a) socialization experiences external to the college, (b) socialization within the college's organizational culture, and (c) the individual's construction and negotiation of gender identity.

Keywords: performance theory; gender, women faculty; identity

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Yes, I get a lot of people from industry, and they need to understand that I take my job seriously. It is unfortunate, but automatically when they see you are a woman, they don't take you seriously. There's a certain seriousness and distance that you need to keep, but that is not me. So you just have to do that to be effective, but I try not to be, you know. The essence is the same, but the delivery is the difference. I can be more compassionate and loving at home.

Rosa, Architecture professor

In this job there are dress issues. Most guys, like this one guy who has a ponytail and is attractive, he wears jeans and he looks great. I came in this summer a couple of times dressed like that, in a jeans and t-shirt, people say, "Hey '60s throwback." Dress is clearly an issue. There's gender stuff operating. It pisses me off that I feel like I have to. I guess that I don't have to. Some women come in dressed how they want. I guess I don't want to go through not being respected. I just don't want to undercut being respected. I don't want to make it an issue.

Susan, English professor

Over the last several decades, organizational scholars have noted the prevalence of organizational discourses and social practices that characterize appropriate roles for men and women. These roles include nurturing, caretaking, and exhibiting additional interest in the emotional health of students and fellow faculty members (Blackwell, 1996; Boice, 1993; Dallimore, 2003; Stein, 1994; Tierney & Bensimon, 1996). Tierney and Bensimon (1996) found in a study of promotion and tenure practices that women faculty members perceive that they are expected to perform "mom" and "smile" work, maintaining a caring and nurturing demeanor while also avoiding confrontation. Women faculty members also perform the "glue work" of the academic department by participating at greater rates then their male counterparts in service activities that often keep departments and universities functioning (Eveline, 2004; Tierney & Bensimon, 1996). Furthermore, women in leadership roles are expected to fit the leadership images of "philosopher-kings and military heroes that render women invisible" (Amey & Twombly, 1992, p. 476). Women are often signaled early in their careers that traditional male traits are expected in senior administrative roles and that promotion depends on their ability to act like men (Tedrow & Rhoades, 1999).

Similarly, several researchers have noted that women faculty members feel obligated to advise a disproportionate share of students, conduct research that addresses gender relations, and perform "emotional work" that provides emotional support to colleagues and students, thus reinforcing traditional feminine roles (Acker & Feuerverger, 1996; Bird, Litt, & Wang, 2004; Knights & Richards, 2003; Tierney & Bensimon, 1996). Although the emotional work "is necessary and beneficial to educational institutions" (Knights & Richards, 2003, p. 223), women do not find it beneficial to their careers. In fact, when women satisfy all the various responsibilities expected of them, including caring for others and being "good" faculty citizens, they acknowledge that the reward system does not value all of the caring and citizenship roles they carry out, leaving them to feel unfulfilled (Acker & Feuerverger, 1996).

The literature on gender roles and faculty work paints a complex picture of the various ways that women are constrained into traditionally feminine roles. However, we know less about how these roles affect individual identity. The few studies that address identity issues among women and minority faculty members describe significant cultural conflicts that arise as individuals attempt to negotiate their own identity in an ethnically homogenous and male-dominated academic culture (Johnsrud & Sadao, 1998; Turner, 2002; Turner, Myers, & Creswell, 1999). To expand our understanding of women faculty members and identity, I focus on gendered performances (or "doing gender") and on how social practices define gendered behaviors in the context of a community college. Specifically, this study addresses the following research questions: