Gender, Work & Organization
11th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference
Transforming Contexts, Transforming Selves: Gender in New Times
June 24th – 26th, 2020
University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Call for Papers
Stream: The Performance of Gender and Gender in Performance
Organizers: Robbin Derry, University of Lethbridge robbin.derry@uleth.ca
Saga Darnell, Reed College darnells@reed.edu
This stream welcomes papers and presentations related to the ways that gender is performed in the many structures and organizations in our lives. Second wave feminists raised questions about constrained gendered roles for women and men. Third wave feminists raised questions about the fundamental nature of gender. We want to interrogate the dynamic between social expectations of gender performance and lived gender identity. While gender non-conforming people are increasingly acknowledged in some societies, they are strictly prohibited in authoritarian regimes, where such non-conformance is seen as a violation of either religious or secular moral codes. Even in societies where a wider range of gender identities and performance is acceptable, levels of violence towards transgender people are dramatically higher, and there are rising political threats of diminished protections of basic human rights for gender queer and non-conforming individuals. On the personal level, the lack of support and acceptance by families, schools, and churches, leave gender queer youth at extreme risk of suicide. Transwomen of color are uniquely vulnerable to expressions of social violence and hatred. In corporate environments gendered performance is both policed and exploited: dress codes are generally narrow and based on longstanding cisgender norms; products are designed specifically for use by or appeal to men or women (or girls or boys) based on gender binary stereotypes. While broader gender norms are occasionally used in advertisements to signal progressive attitudes or to acquire increased social legitimacy (e.g. ad campaigns by Coke, Gillette and Nike), these are rarely supported by changes within their respective workforces, hiring practices, or political lobbying efforts (Moeller, 2018).
Breaking the social rules of gender performance has long come with a high price. In the transition from the middle ages to capitalism, witch hunts emerged as a means of enforcing gender conformity on women (Federici, 2004). Enlightenment scholars notably excluded women and non-Europeans from their theories, entrenching gender and racial bias (Bem, 1993); less frequently recognized is how subsequent practices strengthened and enforced the gender binary, setting the stage for contemporary struggles over recognizing and accepting gender non-conforming people (Erickson-Schroth & Jacobs, 2017). During the 20th century in the U.S. racialized and low-income women were imprisoned at increasing rates for non-violent crimes, including sex work: "Throughout modern Western history it was primarily women who were burdened with the maintenance of bourgeois morality, and who have paid the price for society's lapses from class-defined gender standards" (Faith, 2011; 40).
We encourage contributors to reflect on institutional as well as individual biases that constrain gender identity and expression. What initiatives do we take to recognize our own biases and to articulate practices that would better support marginalized gender nonconformers?
As well, we extend this stream to include explorations of how gender is designed, portrayed, and performed in media, including, but not limited to, journalism, advertisements, movies, television, theatre, and pornography (Senelick, 2000). These embodiments, performances, and portrayals are powerful communicators of acceptable as well as rule-breaking gendered roles within society.
References and Potential Sources
Bem, Sandra. L., 1993. The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Bornstein, Kate and Bergman, S. Bear. 2010. Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Collins, Patricia H., & Bilge, Sirma. 2016. Intersectionality. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Erickson-Schroth, Laura. & Jacobs, Laura. A., 2017. "You're in the Wrong Bathroom!" And 20 other myths and misconceptions about transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Boston: Beacon Press.
Faith, Karlene. 2011. Unruly Women: The Politics of Confinement and Resistance. New York: Seven Stories Press.
Federici, Silvia. 2004. Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia.
Moeller, Kathryn. 2018. The Gender Effect: Capitalism, Feminism, and the Corporate Politics of Development. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
Munoz, Jose Esteban. 2009. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: New York University Press.
Senelick, Laurence. 2000. The Changing Room. New York: Routledge.
Sycamore, Matt Bernstein, (Ed). 2006. Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.
The following questions are suggestive but not exhaustive of possible topics:
To what extent are the shifting social norms of gender identification and transgender recognition influencing how gender is performed within workplace, religious, educational, family, and / or community organizations?
How do race, ethnicity, nationality, and culture interact with social norms for gender performance? How do racial or ethnic stereotypes contribute to differing standards of gender performance for people of color? (Sycamore, 2006; Browning, 2016)
Family acceptance contributes significantly to the well-being of gay, transgender and gender nonconforming people. What are contemporary examples of work organizations fostering, enabling, and normalizing such acceptance?
How do restrictive social rules of gender performance contribute to the precarity of physical or mental health? What roles could organizations play to mitigate this precarity?
What are strategies for challenging the hegemonic norms of gender performance?
Why does sex work divide feminists? Many self-identified radical feminists do not support sex workers' rights to a safe work environment. Can one be a feminist while choosing to/not to support sex work?
What institutional structures, systems, and practices reproduce constricted gender performance? What justifications are used to enforce current norms of gender performance and who benefits from these norms?
How does an intersectional analysis enable us to recognize the matrix of oppression (Collins and Bilge 2016) working to limit the free expression of gender identity by all people?
What gendered expectations or roles do we consciously or unconsciously incorporate into our teaching? In what ways do we reward gender conformity or alternatively, support resistance to conformity?
How does trans exclusion within the LGBTQ community affect that community and what forms might constructive inclusion take?
Guidelines for submitters:
Abstracts of approximately 500 words (submitted directly to stream leaders, ONE page, WORD NOT PDF, single spaced, excluding any references, no headers, footers or track changes) are invited by Friday, November 1, 2019. Decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be made by stream leaders within one month and communicated to authors by Monday, December 2, 2019. All contributions will be independently refereed. Abstracts should include FULL contact details, including name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address. Abstracts should be emailed to robbin.derry@uleth.ca
Stream Convenors' Bios:
Robbin Derry (she/her) is on the Dhillon School of Business faculty at the University of Lethbridge in Calgary, Alberta. Her research is currently focused on applying intersectionality to business ethics. Saga Darnell (they/them) is a 4th year student at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, majoring in theater and dance. At GWO 2018, Robbin and Saga co-presented a paper on Feminist Ethics, from Care to Intersectionality, and also collaborated on a performance of shared letters about coming out as non-binary.
Robbin Derry, MBA, PhD
Associate Professor, Strategy
Phone: 403-317-2873
Email: robbin.derry@uleth.ca
Dhillon School of Business
University of Lethbridge Calgary Campus
345 – 6th Ave, SE, Calgary, AB T2G 4V1
Canada
