This article contributes to ongoing debates on the politics of feminist knowledge transfer by considering how feminist professionals advocate transformative economic thinking and policies. I draw on interviews with an under‐researched group—feminist professionals with specialized knowledge about the economy—to argue that feminist economic experts' transformative politics is shaped by highly contextual efforts to lend credibility to feminist alternatives to conventional economic knowledge and policy. Combining feminist scholarship on scientific boundary‐work with theorizing on resistance to feminist institutional transformation, the article analyzes the practices that feminist experts use to reframe their knowledge claims to get their messages through to decision‐makers. I suggest that although feminist boundary‐work is likely to come up against ‘brick walls’ of institutional resistance, it can dismantle such walls by gradually shifting the boundaries of legitimate economic knowledge and policies.
{"title":"Shifting boundaries, dismantling brick walls: Feminist knowledge in the struggles to transform economic thinking and policy","authors":"Emma Lamberg","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13135","url":null,"abstract":"This article contributes to ongoing debates on the politics of feminist knowledge transfer by considering how feminist professionals advocate transformative economic thinking and policies. I draw on interviews with an under‐researched group—feminist professionals with specialized knowledge about the economy—to argue that feminist economic experts' transformative politics is shaped by highly contextual efforts to lend credibility to feminist alternatives to conventional economic knowledge and policy. Combining feminist scholarship on scientific boundary‐work with theorizing on resistance to feminist institutional transformation, the article analyzes the practices that feminist experts use to reframe their knowledge claims to get their messages through to decision‐makers. I suggest that although feminist boundary‐work is likely to come up against ‘brick walls’ of institutional resistance, it can dismantle such walls by gradually shifting the boundaries of legitimate economic knowledge and policies.","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140839494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stephanie Erwin, Brandy Jenner, Megan J. Hennessey, Brett Weigle
This multi‐year, cross‐sectional qualitative study investigates gendered experiences of students and faculty at one master's degree‐granting military education institution in the United States. Findings from a grounded theory exploration into institutional climate using focus groups and classroom observations include themes of underrepresentation, tokenization, and dismissal during class conversations, and mischaracterization of diversity of thought. The studied institution responded to these findings by adopting a new gender‐blind class assignment process for students. The authors examined the resultant changes in the learning environment with regards to gender representation in classrooms that had zero, one, two, or three women. A next round of findings reflects students' conformance to gender norms, the prevalence of gatekeeping in class discussion, and the creation of affinity groups as a coping mechanism for underrepresented students. Findings also indicate the burden of intersectional representation falls disproportionately on women students; 73% of women students reflected two or more underrepresented‐group identities compared to just 7% of men students. Encompassing 114 h of classroom observations and 47 interviews with faculty and students, this research represents a rigorous and unprecedented cross‐sectional empirical inquiry into gendered experiences of a master's degree‐granting professional learning environment and has implications for scholars and practitioners working in male‐dominated organizations.
{"title":"Gendered experiences in professional military education: Implications for diversity, equity, and inclusion","authors":"Stephanie Erwin, Brandy Jenner, Megan J. Hennessey, Brett Weigle","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13131","url":null,"abstract":"This multi‐year, cross‐sectional qualitative study investigates gendered experiences of students and faculty at one master's degree‐granting military education institution in the United States. Findings from a grounded theory exploration into institutional climate using focus groups and classroom observations include themes of underrepresentation, tokenization, and dismissal during class conversations, and mischaracterization of diversity of thought. The studied institution responded to these findings by adopting a new gender‐blind class assignment process for students. The authors examined the resultant changes in the learning environment with regards to gender representation in classrooms that had zero, one, two, or three women. A next round of findings reflects students' conformance to gender norms, the prevalence of gatekeeping in class discussion, and the creation of affinity groups as a coping mechanism for underrepresented students. Findings also indicate the burden of intersectional representation falls disproportionately on women students; 73% of women students reflected two or more underrepresented‐group identities compared to just 7% of men students. Encompassing 114 h of classroom observations and 47 interviews with faculty and students, this research represents a rigorous and unprecedented cross‐sectional empirical inquiry into gendered experiences of a master's degree‐granting professional learning environment and has implications for scholars and practitioners working in male‐dominated organizations.","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140623314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We invite you to explore with us the enchanting affects that move us, through ordinary moments in writing for children. Enchantment shows how we are entangled with the world, that which surprises us and builds a sense of wonder. A wind in the trees, a gentle smile, a look of horror. The smell of fresh coffee and the final words of a manuscript. We explore enchantment as mundane but gendered experiences which entail a promise and a potentiality, one that is part of power relations, and where an ethical possibility to engage in the world differently emerges. This paper shows how enchantment is not a detachment from, but a connection to the world. Through interviews with children's writers, we ask how enchanting affect can help us to see work through a different ethical lens.
{"title":"Enchanting encounters in ordinary writing for children","authors":"Carolyn Hunter, Nina H. Kivinen","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13129","url":null,"abstract":"We invite you to explore with us the enchanting affects that move us, through ordinary moments in writing for children. Enchantment shows how we are entangled with the world, that which surprises us and builds a sense of wonder. A wind in the trees, a gentle smile, a look of horror. The smell of fresh coffee and the final words of a manuscript. We explore enchantment as mundane but gendered experiences which entail a promise and a potentiality, one that is part of power relations, and where an ethical possibility to engage in the world differently emerges. This paper shows how enchantment is not a detachment from, but a connection to the world. Through interviews with children's writers, we ask how enchanting affect can help us to see work through a different ethical lens.","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140603441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There is an increased blurring of work and home life in contemporary society due to access to technology and the mass expansion of remote work during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Flexible working arrangements like remote work can lead to men self‐exploiting themselves in the workplace and women self‐exploiting themselves in the domestic sphere in the context of a work‐centric society that is reliant upon passion at work and traditional gender norms. This study extends Chung's ideas on gendered patterns in the flexibility paradox by examining spatial‐temporal dimensions of COVID‐19 remote work adaptation among an extreme sample: dual‐earner parents with young children. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted on Zoom with 20 mothers and 17 fathers working from home in the U.S. with children ages 5 and under between the summer of 2020 and the spring of 2021. Findings indicate that fathers' work is prioritized in spatio‐temporal terms whereas mothers' work is fragmented and dispersed. Gendered patterns in the flexibility paradox and labor shouldered by mothers as primary caregivers are considered as potential theoretical explanations for the privileging of fathers' workspace and work time.
{"title":"The flexibility paradox and spatial‐temporal dimensions of COVID‐19 remote work adaptation among dual‐earner mothers and fathers","authors":"Ashley Parry","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13130","url":null,"abstract":"There is an increased blurring of work and home life in contemporary society due to access to technology and the mass expansion of remote work during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Flexible working arrangements like remote work can lead to men self‐exploiting themselves in the workplace and women self‐exploiting themselves in the domestic sphere in the context of a work‐centric society that is reliant upon passion at work and traditional gender norms. This study extends Chung's ideas on gendered patterns in the flexibility paradox by examining spatial‐temporal dimensions of COVID‐19 remote work adaptation among an extreme sample: dual‐earner parents with young children. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted on Zoom with 20 mothers and 17 fathers working from home in the U.S. with children ages 5 and under between the summer of 2020 and the spring of 2021. Findings indicate that fathers' work is prioritized in spatio‐temporal terms whereas mothers' work is fragmented and dispersed. Gendered patterns in the flexibility paradox and labor shouldered by mothers as primary caregivers are considered as potential theoretical explanations for the privileging of fathers' workspace and work time.","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140603113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper I present a reading of poetry on the silences that surround experiences of sexual violence. The reading took place at an academic conference in 2022 in a stream on the topic of vulnerability. I offer these poems, based on my personal experiences, in the spirit of connection and solidarity, and as a feminist strategy of reclamation and resistance. I posit that collective conversations about sexual violence as a social phenomenon are necessary to change the status quo and explore the difficulty to speak of/through pain in relation to my particular subjectivity as a grievable body. I also reflect on my experiences of doing the reading and the impossibilities of knowing how this kind of work will be received taking into consideration the different registers through which the experience can be communicated, discussed and taken forward: the affective, discursive, and action‐oriented registers. Grappling with the question how we can imagine an alternative future if we continue to be lost for words, I don't offer answers but an invitation for readers to engage.
{"title":"Word by word: An attempt at creating a collective conversation around sexual violence","authors":"Noortje van Amsterdam","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13126","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper I present a reading of poetry on the silences that surround experiences of sexual violence. The reading took place at an academic conference in 2022 in a stream on the topic of vulnerability. I offer these poems, based on my personal experiences, in the spirit of connection and solidarity, and as a feminist strategy of reclamation and resistance. I posit that collective conversations about sexual violence as a social phenomenon are necessary to change the status quo and explore the difficulty to speak of/through pain in relation to my particular subjectivity as a grievable body. I also reflect on my experiences of doing the reading and the impossibilities of knowing how this kind of work will be received taking into consideration the different registers through which the experience can be communicated, discussed and taken forward: the affective, discursive, and action‐oriented registers. Grappling with the question how we can imagine an alternative future if we continue to be lost for words, I don't offer answers but an invitation for readers to engage.","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140594724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gendered norms in society can strongly influence the presence of men or women in professional contexts. This study examined the perceptions of 13 women working in the funeral directing services in order to better understand how they perform gender roles to play in a field that has long been considered male-dominated. The findings suggest that women face many challenges to play a professional role in funeral directing and that they rely on their ability to perform care work to be recognized as better professionals. The issue of physical strength—a characteristic element of funeral work—seems to be an issue that still arouses contrasting positions among women. Another finding was that women also perform gender roles through their professional appearance, which they recognize as an important aspect of their professionalism. This work brings new insight into this specific and under-researched area and provides new understanding on how women use gender performativity to achieve professionalism in the death care; in particular, it shows that women do gender in different ways to achieve the same entitlement to be good funeral professionals as men.
{"title":"Doing gender in death care: How women are finding their place in Italian funeral directing services","authors":"Annalisa Grandi, Gloria Guidetti, Daniela Converso, Nicoletta Bosco, Lara Colombo","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13123","url":null,"abstract":"Gendered norms in society can strongly influence the presence of men or women in professional contexts. This study examined the perceptions of 13 women working in the funeral directing services in order to better understand how they perform gender roles to play in a field that has long been considered male-dominated. The findings suggest that women face many challenges to play a professional role in funeral directing and that they rely on their ability to perform care work to be recognized as better professionals. The issue of physical strength—a characteristic element of funeral work—seems to be an issue that still arouses contrasting positions among women. Another finding was that women also perform gender roles through their professional appearance, which they recognize as an important aspect of their professionalism. This work brings new insight into this specific and under-researched area and provides new understanding on how women use gender performativity to achieve professionalism in the death care; in particular, it shows that women do gender in different ways to achieve the same entitlement to be good funeral professionals as men.","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140324285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maranda Ridgway, Michaela Edwards, Louise Oldridge
This article presents our “multi‐vocal memory work” of collaborative researching and writing experiences as women academics in UK Business Schools. Set against the backdrop of the broken neoliberal academy, we use Daoism as an analytical lens to identify two emergent themes: 1) emotional contradictions and 2) institutional and social structures: micro‐creative and collective change. Examining ourselves and the academy as broken, we learn to find beauty in the flaws as they signify healing. Thus, sharing our emotions and vulnerability through collective research and writing enables us to “put ourselves back together.” Methodologically, we draw on memory work to explore different ways of researching and writing. We argue that there is emergent hope in identifying and raising the profile of growing spaces within the academy for alternative forms of writing.
{"title":"Writing differently: Finding beauty in the broken","authors":"Maranda Ridgway, Michaela Edwards, Louise Oldridge","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13125","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents our “multi‐vocal memory work” of collaborative researching and writing experiences as women academics in UK Business Schools. Set against the backdrop of the broken neoliberal academy, we use <jats:italic>Daoism</jats:italic> as an analytical lens to identify two emergent themes: 1) emotional contradictions and 2) institutional and social structures: micro‐creative and collective change. Examining ourselves and the academy as broken, we learn to find beauty in the flaws as they signify healing. Thus, sharing our emotions and vulnerability through collective research and writing enables us to “put ourselves back together.” Methodologically, we draw on memory work to explore different ways of researching and writing. We argue that there is emergent hope in identifying and raising the profile of growing spaces within the academy for alternative forms of writing.","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140201746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Wronged and dangerous: Viral masculinity and the populist pandemic By Karen LeeAshcraft, Bristol: Bristol University Press: University of Bristol. 2022. pp. 253. $16.74. ISBN 978‐1‐5292‐2140‐4","authors":"Jussara Jéssica Pereira","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13127","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140201726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Women who enter professions that have previously been male‐dominated often struggle to rise through ranks to leadership positions. Herein, we present the findings of a 12‐month cross‐sector intervention focused on embedding practices into organizations to create an inclusive organizational environment that fostered the development of women leaders. The intervention focused on three male‐dominated sectors, sport, surgery and trades. Managing the intervention was an Advisory Group that comprised researchers, and leaders from a national member Association and Organization within each sector. The Advisory Group's goal was to provide support and guidance to assist Organizations with the task of changing and challenging their values toward a feminist orientation. Post‐intervention interviews were conducted with women leaders and Advisory Group Members, to examine how Organizations can build their capacity to embed practices and policies to encourage women as leaders. Extending on a conceptualization of continuum of care across three focus areas we discuss how capabilities were affirmed through visible and accessible career pathways; the empowering potential of mentoring and networking; and creating cultures of belonging through addressing unconscious bias.
{"title":"Continuum of care to advance women as leaders in male‐dominated industries","authors":"Wendy O’Brien, Clare Hanlon, Vasso Apostolopoulos","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13122","url":null,"abstract":"Women who enter professions that have previously been male‐dominated often struggle to rise through ranks to leadership positions. Herein, we present the findings of a 12‐month cross‐sector intervention focused on embedding practices into organizations to create an inclusive organizational environment that fostered the development of women leaders. The intervention focused on three male‐dominated sectors, sport, surgery and trades. Managing the intervention was an Advisory Group that comprised researchers, and leaders from a national member Association and Organization within each sector. The Advisory Group's goal was to provide support and guidance to assist Organizations with the task of changing and challenging their values toward a feminist orientation. Post‐intervention interviews were conducted with women leaders and Advisory Group Members, to examine how Organizations can build their capacity to embed practices and policies to encourage women as leaders. Extending on a conceptualization of continuum of care across three focus areas we discuss how capabilities were affirmed through visible and accessible career pathways; the empowering potential of mentoring and networking; and creating cultures of belonging through addressing unconscious bias.","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140153687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annadís Greta Rúdólfsdóttir, Auður Magndís Auðardóttir
In this paper, we explore maternal shame and guilt as affective derivatives of social regulations of motherhood in Iceland, which is internationally perceived as a frontrunner in gender equality. We analyze 450 qualitative questionnaires completed by parents describing feelings of guilt and shame in connection to parenthood. We use 76 questionnaires completed by fathers to contrast and compare to answers from mothers to better understand the affective‐discursive workings of motherhood. The affective‐discursive analytical framework allows us to understand affective pulls, pushes, power dynamics and their social politics. The findings are contextualized in the Nordic welfare state, neoliberalism, the current ethos of intensive mothering. The recurrent thread running through the data is the idea of the ever‐present mother, and under this umbrella concept, we have developed two affective‐discursive themes: (i) the guilt of working (long hours) and having to arrange for childcare and (ii) failing to be 100% present for the child. We conclude that the emotions of guilt and shame are consistently present in mothers' lives, much more so than in fathers' lives, and that this gendered pattern is both caused by and serves to reinforce the age‐old cultural mandate that mothers are primarily responsible for child rearing. The marks of intensive mothering are evident in mothers' description of feeling guilty for everyday tasks such as working, cleaning, studying, arranging for daycare, sending their children to preschool, and attending to their own needs. This gendered pattern suggests that the gender equality cornerstone of the Nordic welfare state might be at risk as important institutions, such as preschools, are perceived as inferior to mothers' constant attention.
冰岛在国际上被视为性别平等的领跑者，在本文中，我们探讨了在冰岛，母亲的羞耻感和负罪感作为社会对母亲身份的规定的情感衍生物。我们分析了 450 份由父母填写的定性问卷，这些问卷描述了与为人父母相关的内疚感和羞耻感。我们使用了 76 份由父亲填写的调查问卷，与母亲的答案进行对比和比较，以更好地理解为人母的情感-传播工作。情感-传播分析框架使我们能够理解情感的拉力、推力、权力动态及其社会政治。研究结果的背景是北欧福利国家、新自由主义和当前的密集型母性伦理。贯穿数据的主线是 "永远在场的母亲 "这一理念，在这一总括概念下，我们提出了两个情感-辨证主题：(i) 工作（长时间）和不得不安排托儿服务的负罪感，以及 (ii) 未能百分之百地陪伴孩子。我们的结论是，内疚和羞愧的情绪始终存在于母亲的生活中，而且比父亲的生活中更多，这种性别模式既是由母亲承担抚养子女的主要责任这一古老的文化规定造成的，也起到了强化这一文化规定的作用。在母亲们的描述中，工作、清洁、学习、安排托儿所、送孩子上学前班以及照顾自己的需要等日常任务都让她们感到内疚，这明显是密集型母性的标志。这种性别模式表明，北欧福利国家的性别平等基石可能岌岌可危，因为学前教育等重要机构被认为不如母亲的持续关注。
{"title":"“I feel like I am betraying my child”: The socio‐politics of maternal guilt and shame","authors":"Annadís Greta Rúdólfsdóttir, Auður Magndís Auðardóttir","doi":"10.1111/gwao.13124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13124","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we explore maternal shame and guilt as affective derivatives of social regulations of motherhood in Iceland, which is internationally perceived as a frontrunner in gender equality. We analyze 450 qualitative questionnaires completed by parents describing feelings of guilt and shame in connection to parenthood. We use 76 questionnaires completed by fathers to contrast and compare to answers from mothers to better understand the affective‐discursive workings of motherhood. The affective‐discursive analytical framework allows us to understand affective pulls, pushes, power dynamics and their social politics. The findings are contextualized in the Nordic welfare state, neoliberalism, the current ethos of intensive mothering. The recurrent thread running through the data is the idea of the ever‐present mother, and under this umbrella concept, we have developed two affective‐discursive themes: (i) the guilt of working (long hours) and having to arrange for childcare and (ii) failing to be 100% present for the child. We conclude that the emotions of guilt and shame are consistently present in mothers' lives, much more so than in fathers' lives, and that this gendered pattern is both caused by and serves to reinforce the age‐old cultural mandate that mothers are primarily responsible for child rearing. The marks of intensive mothering are evident in mothers' description of feeling guilty for everyday tasks such as working, cleaning, studying, arranging for daycare, sending their children to preschool, and attending to their own needs. This gendered pattern suggests that the gender equality cornerstone of the Nordic welfare state might be at risk as important institutions, such as preschools, are perceived as inferior to mothers' constant attention.","PeriodicalId":501466,"journal":{"name":"Gender, Work & Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140153269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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