Women and leadership in investment management
Exploring Organizational and Cultural Barriers and Boundaries
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6058910 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Corina Sheerin (0000-0001-5224-075X, National College of Ireland), Margaret Linehan (Munster Technological University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Equal Opportunities International (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1758-7093 • E-ISSN: 2040-7149 |
| Publisher | Emerald (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1108/edi-10-2024-0479 |
| OpenAlex | W4414036428 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
Purpose Set within the investment management sector in Ireland, this paper aims to examine the cultural and organizational barriers faced by women. We identify social closure theory along with Bourdieu’s “field” and “habitus” constructs and his non-material forms of capital ideology as a collective lens from which to understand women’s “otherness”. Design/methodology/approach An interpretivist philosophical stance underpins the research. Using a snowball sampling technique, nineteen semi-structured interviews were undertaken with sixteen women and three men, all of whom work, or had worked, within the Irish investment management sector. Findings A complex mix of cultural and organizational barriers prevents women attaining cultural, social and symbolic capital and “fitting in”. Gendered cultural expectations are pervasive and exclude women from senior roles. The acquisition of capital is deeply reliant on organizational context and is unavailable to women in the same way as men. The boys’ club, presenteeism, performance ethos and workplace structures and practices together act as boundary drawing tactics to exclude women and reinforce how capital in the sector is used as a mechanism for maintaining men’s privilege and positioning women as “other”. Originality/value Highlighting how closure regimes in investment management both emerge and persist provides essential insights into how gender regimes are maintained. By placing attention not on the individual, but rather on the “field” and “habitus” with its inherent norms and structures, we reveal the implicit and explicit challenges women face. Emphasizing these issues has important implications in prohibiting the perpetration of heteronormative assumptions about women as leaders
Business · Business administration · Economics · Management · Organizational culture · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Gender Diversity and Inequality
Hedged Out
Economy and Society
Distinction
Painting the full picture
Introduction
Outline of a Theory of Practice
“If Lehman Brothers Had Been Lehman Sisters…”
Diversity management
Where is the patriarchy
Behind closed doors! Homosocial desire and the academic boys club
Gender performativity and hegemonic masculinity in investment management
Drivers of Gendered Sectoral and Occupational Segregation in Developing Countries
It's Down to Hard Work, Lonely Work, Long, Long Hours, and You Have to be Able to Sacrifice’
Reimagining value
Working in nontraditional employment roles
Belonging’ and ‘Otherness’
Toward a (Re)Integrated Application of Bourdieuan Theory
Reputation and Social Ties
An invitation to reflexive sociology
Inequality beneath the surface
Shall I stay or shall I go
Rationalizing gender inequality at scientific research organizations
Decoding the networking strategies of Asian and Black workers in the London Insurance Market
Social class as a blessing in disguise? Beyond the deficit model in working-class and higher education studies
Women at work! Evaluating equal employment policies and outcomes in construction
Embodied prejudices
How exclusive are inclusive organisations
Superdiversity
What cultural hierarchy? Cultural tastes, status and inequality
Weighted kappa
Fit to be king
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |