Flawed Policy, Failed Politics? Challenging the Sexual Politics of Managing Diversity in Engineering Organizations

Bibliographic Data

ID12309863
AuthorsRhonda Sharp (University of South Australia, corresponding author), Suzanne Franzway (University of South Australia), Julie Mills, Julie E Mills (0000-0002-5333-2303, University of South Australia), Judith Gill (University of South Australia)
Year2011
Volume19
Issue6
Pages555-572
Publication date2011-01-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGender Work and Organization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0968-6673 • E-ISSN: 1468-0432
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00545.x
OpenAlexW1491986618
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited35

In Australia, as in most other developed countries, women constitute less than 10 per cent of engineers and they are leaving the profession faster than men. Engineering organizations have taken up managing diversity as a key policy to improve the recruitment and retention rates of women engineers. This article contributes to the developing literature of critical approaches to diversity by drawing on data from three large engineering companies to argue that this policy fails to challenge the prevailing sexual politics in engineering. We propose the concept of ‘sexual politics’ in order to stress that gender is relational, contested and always political. In failing to engage with the sexual politics in engineering organizations, managing diversity obscures the systematic nature of women's disadvantage and men's advantage in the workplace. Only when these politics are recognized, confronted and transformed will engineering careers be more equitable

Business · Disadvantage · Diversity (politics · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Law

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