"Gender Cage - revisited": Reconfiguration of organizational Gender Differences in postmodern societies (GEREV)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Maria Funder
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2013 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 223985919

The basic transformation of modern industrial societies includes a change of gender relationships. Our project focuses on organizations which are in the center stage of these developments. They do not only play a major role in producing the „rational myths“ of hierarchy, rather they also participate in the „de-thematization“ of gender hierarchies. Therefore, the title of the project was chosen through an analogy of the classical publication „The Iron Cage revisited“ by DiMaggio and Powell (1983). Building on this metaphor, the project aims to make a further contribution towards encoding the complex, interrelated and contradictory interrelationship among organizations, gender and society. Moreover, the project will enhance the function of organizations concerned with (re)production and change of gender differences.To further investigate inner organizational interpretations and transformations of societal expectations, a new observation and analysis tool will be developed. It is assumed that the dynamic of societal expectations - that are reflected in the reconstruction of gender regimes - as well as the dynamic of necessary organizational transformations (to fulfill their functions), proves to be a catalyst for the modification of gender relations in organizations. The restructuring of organizations is always linked to questioning „old“ arrangements (structures, action patterns, guiding principles).So far, organizations have managed to legitimize hierarchies and produce „facades of egality“ that conceal many discriminatory practices. Due to actual change processes the question of an invisible „gender cage“ arises again. Thus, our research refers to the strategies and practices organizations apply in order to deal with societal pressure for equality. Based on a multi-level-analysis and a mixed method approach (including qualitative and quantitative methods) various types of organizations will be analyzed. The aim of this analysis is to identify changes in gender relationships along the lines of gender differences and (formal) hierarchy, and to compare the country specific results from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Switzerland
• Partner Organisation: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF); Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
• Participating Persons: Professorin Dr. Nathalie Amstutz; Professorin Dr. Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger