Varda Wasserman
Biographic Data
| ID | 263458 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Varda Wasserman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Varda |
| FAMILY NAME | Wasserman |
| SIGNATURE | WASSERMAN V |
| AFFILIATIONS | Open University of Israel |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9522-8857 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 62 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
“Hold your nose and harness these men”
Based on 34 in-depth interviews with women in the Israeli military, this article explores how the sexual vulnerability of women in power positions is used as both a disciplining power and a resource for agency that enables them to negotiate a hyper-masculine organizational culture. Juxtaposing theoretical insights from the CMS literature on sexuality within organizations with those arising from the Butlerian conceptualization of vulnerability, we…
Fashion as embodied resistance
Drawing on the qualitative research of Jewish ultraorthodox female fashion entrepreneurs (JUFFE) in Israel, we examine how women's body regulations are collectively negotiated, challenged, and resisted. Our paper shows that, through the disruption of religious clothing and hairstyling, JUFFEs have challenged the patriarchal expectations of women's ideal type in their authoritative society and triggered various changes that allowed for the constru…
Bodies in‐between
This paper examines the creation of women‐only organizational spaces as a diversity practice and assesses their potential to facilitate the workforce inclusion of religious women from gender‐conservative groups. Based on longitudinal fieldwork in two ultra‐Orthodox‐Jewish women‐only colleges in Israel and interviews with students and staff, we demonstrate how this practice constitutes three types of liminality—spatial, social, and epistemic—that …
Higher education professionals in the age of NPM and digital knowledge
Varda Wassermana* & Izhak Berkovichb a Department of management & Economics, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israelb Department of Education, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israel
No Room of her Own
The politics of (in)visibility displays
How does the multiplicity of surveilling gazes affect the experience of employees subjected to a matrix of domination in organisations? Building on a case study of ultra-religious Jewish women in Israeli high-tech organisations, the article demonstrates how the intersectionality of gender and religiosity exposed them to a matrix of contradicting visibility regimes – managerial, peers, and religious community. By displaying their compliance with e…
With God on their Side
On the basis of a case study of the integration of Haredi Jewish women into the Israeli high-tech industry, we explore how gender-religiosity intersectionality affects ultra-conservative women's participation in the labor market and their ability to negotiate with employers for corporate work-family practices that address their idiosyncratic requirements. We highlight the importance of pious women's affiliation to their highly organized religious…
The Interpretation of Design-Based Cues
We advance current understandings about the nature of interpretative processes unique to design-based cues—elements in the organizational environment, such as colors or textures—that affect institutional processes by shaping behaviors and emotions. The implicit assumption in extant work is that because these cues are salient, they are tightly coupled with distinct meanings. We argue, however, that interpretation in the context of these cues is pr…
Exploring narratives of non-faculty professionals in neoliberal higher education
The purpose of this study is to explore how the rise of the new public management (NPM) culture in higher education affected librarians. Librarians are a central part of the traditional intellectual model of academia, whose professional ethos is challenged and threatened by the new market-oriented culture. Using a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews with managers and professional staff of academic libraries at a public uni…
Upgraded Masculinity
This article examines the importation of new gender ideals into a highly masculine organization through top-down and bottom-up processes. We analyze how a dominant group of men undo and redo gender to reproduce their supremacy and create a new, 'improved' form of masculinity. Based on qualitative research on the practice of debriefing in the Israel Air Force, we explore how new practices of masculinity are incorporated into a hegemonic masculinit…
We Were Here First”
The article examines the image of Christianity and Christians as expressed in the narratives used to guide Israeli pupils at Christian sites in Jerusalem. Based on an analysis of tour observations and interviews with tour guides and those who prepare the itineraries, it explores how the presentation of Christianity and Christians serves as a means of constructing a modern Israeli identity. It argues that despite the power of Jews in the Israeli s…
Juggling resistance and compliance
In an attempt to examine how resistant discourses are constructed in a highly conservative society, this article presents four discursive forms of resistance used by an Israeli ultra-orthodox Jewish magazine juggling between compliance and resistance in its attempt to subvert hegemonic rabbinical authority. These resistance forms are: cushioning, discursive hybrids, explicit provocation and trivializing. Based on a qualitative content analysis of…
(Un)dressing masculinity
This article explores the ways in which the aesthetics of employees’ bodies are used as a site of control and resistance, processes which are activated through ethnic and gendered practices. By exploring three resistance strategies used by Israeli combat soldiers, we demonstrate the construction of competing identities of military masculinity. We demonstrate how, by activating a process of self-ethnicization, Israeli soldiers use an ethnic identi…
Open spaces, closed boundaries
This research attempts to explore the link between organisational space and gender power relations. Drawing on extensive research conducted at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this paper demonstrates three spatial mechanisms, which construct and reconstruct a docile female body and a gendered identity: By applying theories of feminist geography, this paper explores how planning and design is not gender-neutral, but rather anchored in powe…
The politics of (in)visibility displays
How does the multiplicity of surveilling gazes affect the experience of employees subjected to a matrix of domination in organisations? Building on a case study of ultra-religious Jewish women in Israeli high-tech organisations, the article demonstrates how the intersectionality of gender and religiosity exposed them to a matrix of contradicting visibility regimes – managerial, peers, and religious community. By displaying their compliance with e…
No Room of her Own
With God on their Side
On the basis of a case study of the integration of Haredi Jewish women into the Israeli high-tech industry, we explore how gender-religiosity intersectionality affects ultra-conservative women's participation in the labor market and their ability to negotiate with employers for corporate work-family practices that address their idiosyncratic requirements. We highlight the importance of pious women's affiliation to their highly organized religious…
Upgraded Masculinity
This article examines the importation of new gender ideals into a highly masculine organization through top-down and bottom-up processes. We analyze how a dominant group of men undo and redo gender to reproduce their supremacy and create a new, 'improved' form of masculinity. Based on qualitative research on the practice of debriefing in the Israel Air Force, we explore how new practices of masculinity are incorporated into a hegemonic masculinit…
Bodies in‐between
This paper examines the creation of women‐only organizational spaces as a diversity practice and assesses their potential to facilitate the workforce inclusion of religious women from gender‐conservative groups. Based on longitudinal fieldwork in two ultra‐Orthodox‐Jewish women‐only colleges in Israel and interviews with students and staff, we demonstrate how this practice constitutes three types of liminality—spatial, social, and epistemic—that …
Fashion as embodied resistance
Drawing on the qualitative research of Jewish ultraorthodox female fashion entrepreneurs (JUFFE) in Israel, we examine how women's body regulations are collectively negotiated, challenged, and resisted. Our paper shows that, through the disruption of religious clothing and hairstyling, JUFFEs have challenged the patriarchal expectations of women's ideal type in their authoritative society and triggered various changes that allowed for the constru…
We Were Here First”
The article examines the image of Christianity and Christians as expressed in the narratives used to guide Israeli pupils at Christian sites in Jerusalem. Based on an analysis of tour observations and interviews with tour guides and those who prepare the itineraries, it explores how the presentation of Christianity and Christians serves as a means of constructing a modern Israeli identity. It argues that despite the power of Jews in the Israeli s…
Juggling resistance and compliance
In an attempt to examine how resistant discourses are constructed in a highly conservative society, this article presents four discursive forms of resistance used by an Israeli ultra-orthodox Jewish magazine juggling between compliance and resistance in its attempt to subvert hegemonic rabbinical authority. These resistance forms are: cushioning, discursive hybrids, explicit provocation and trivializing. Based on a qualitative content analysis of…
Open spaces, closed boundaries
This research attempts to explore the link between organisational space and gender power relations. Drawing on extensive research conducted at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this paper demonstrates three spatial mechanisms, which construct and reconstruct a docile female body and a gendered identity: By applying theories of feminist geography, this paper explores how planning and design is not gender-neutral, but rather anchored in powe…
(Un)dressing masculinity
This article explores the ways in which the aesthetics of employees’ bodies are used as a site of control and resistance, processes which are activated through ethnic and gendered practices. By exploring three resistance strategies used by Israeli combat soldiers, we demonstrate the construction of competing identities of military masculinity. We demonstrate how, by activating a process of self-ethnicization, Israeli soldiers use an ethnic identi…
Juggling resistance and compliance
In an attempt to examine how resistant discourses are constructed in a highly conservative society, this article presents four discursive forms of resistance used by an Israeli ultra-orthodox Jewish magazine juggling between compliance and resistance in its attempt to subvert hegemonic rabbinical authority. These resistance forms are: cushioning, discursive hybrids, explicit provocation and trivializing. Based on a qualitative content analysis of…
We Were Here First”
The article examines the image of Christianity and Christians as expressed in the narratives used to guide Israeli pupils at Christian sites in Jerusalem. Based on an analysis of tour observations and interviews with tour guides and those who prepare the itineraries, it explores how the presentation of Christianity and Christians serves as a means of constructing a modern Israeli identity. It argues that despite the power of Jews in the Israeli s…
Upgraded Masculinity
This article examines the importation of new gender ideals into a highly masculine organization through top-down and bottom-up processes. We analyze how a dominant group of men undo and redo gender to reproduce their supremacy and create a new, 'improved' form of masculinity. Based on qualitative research on the practice of debriefing in the Israel Air Force, we explore how new practices of masculinity are incorporated into a hegemonic masculinit…
The Interpretation of Design-Based Cues
We advance current understandings about the nature of interpretative processes unique to design-based cues—elements in the organizational environment, such as colors or textures—that affect institutional processes by shaping behaviors and emotions. The implicit assumption in extant work is that because these cues are salient, they are tightly coupled with distinct meanings. We argue, however, that interpretation in the context of these cues is pr…
Exploring narratives of non-faculty professionals in neoliberal higher education
The purpose of this study is to explore how the rise of the new public management (NPM) culture in higher education affected librarians. Librarians are a central part of the traditional intellectual model of academia, whose professional ethos is challenged and threatened by the new market-oriented culture. Using a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews with managers and professional staff of academic libraries at a public uni…
The politics of (in)visibility displays
How does the multiplicity of surveilling gazes affect the experience of employees subjected to a matrix of domination in organisations? Building on a case study of ultra-religious Jewish women in Israeli high-tech organisations, the article demonstrates how the intersectionality of gender and religiosity exposed them to a matrix of contradicting visibility regimes – managerial, peers, and religious community. By displaying their compliance with e…
With God on their Side
On the basis of a case study of the integration of Haredi Jewish women into the Israeli high-tech industry, we explore how gender-religiosity intersectionality affects ultra-conservative women's participation in the labor market and their ability to negotiate with employers for corporate work-family practices that address their idiosyncratic requirements. We highlight the importance of pious women's affiliation to their highly organized religious…
No Room of her Own
Higher education professionals in the age of NPM and digital knowledge
Varda Wassermana* & Izhak Berkovichb a Department of management & Economics, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israelb Department of Education, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israel
Fashion as embodied resistance
Drawing on the qualitative research of Jewish ultraorthodox female fashion entrepreneurs (JUFFE) in Israel, we examine how women's body regulations are collectively negotiated, challenged, and resisted. Our paper shows that, through the disruption of religious clothing and hairstyling, JUFFEs have challenged the patriarchal expectations of women's ideal type in their authoritative society and triggered various changes that allowed for the constru…
Bodies in‐between
This paper examines the creation of women‐only organizational spaces as a diversity practice and assesses their potential to facilitate the workforce inclusion of religious women from gender‐conservative groups. Based on longitudinal fieldwork in two ultra‐Orthodox‐Jewish women‐only colleges in Israel and interviews with students and staff, we demonstrate how this practice constitutes three types of liminality—spatial, social, and epistemic—that …
“Hold your nose and harness these men”
Based on 34 in-depth interviews with women in the Israeli military, this article explores how the sexual vulnerability of women in power positions is used as both a disciplining power and a resource for agency that enables them to negotiate a hyper-masculine organizational culture. Juxtaposing theoretical insights from the CMS literature on sexuality within organizations with those arising from the Butlerian conceptualization of vulnerability, we…
Sociology (13 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Gender Diversity and Inequality (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Geography (4 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (4 works)