Feminist Theory and Organizations SOWO 804 Lecture VII

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Feminist Theory and OrganizationsSOWO
804Lecture VII VIII

• Tamara H. Norris, Instructor
• Management and Community Practice
• School of Social Work
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3550

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Recent Gender Controversies

• Lawrence Summers President, Harvard Spring 2005
  (higher education)
• Women choose lower career paths
• Women lack aptitude in Science
• Bias is not the main reason women do not move up
• Neil French Worldwide Creative Director, WPP,
  October 2005 (advertising/communications)
• Women make poor executives because motherhood
  makes them wimp out and go suckle something
• Women dont have the skills to do creative work

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Definitions of Feminism

• The theory of the political, economic, and social
  equality of the sexes
• Organizational activity for womens rights and
  interests
• The actions of men and women who work and/or
  advocate for gender equality
• Why the need for a feminist perspective?

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Are you a Feminist?

• Men and women should have equal access to
  opportunities, resources, etc.?
• Men and women should be paid equally?
• There is male privilege?
• Power is used to maintain status quo?
• No one should face discrimination?

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Feminist Legal Theory

• Concern with the legal treatment of women
• Historically women were viewed as property
• Feminist Jurisprudence
• Society is patriarchaldominated by men
• Examines how law maintains patriarchy
• Application of feminist analysis and perspectives
  to areas of the law

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Feminist Perspectives in Therapy

• Consciousness-Raising approach-- clients are
  helped to assess the influence of racism, sexism,
  and homophobia in their lives
• Egalitarian relationship and mutual respect
  between client and therapist
• Assisting women toward empowerment in their lives
  while they seek change in the social structure
  that form the basis of many of their problems
• What feminist principles are important for
  practice and why?

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Radical Feminist Theory

• Critiqued liberal feminism-male defined norm
• Called for transformation of systems
• Promotes organizations that value feminine traits
• Maintains women can have feminine organizations
  outside realm of patriarchy

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Feminism and Sociology

• Integration
• Research that includes women in the sample
  population
• Reforming theories by removing sexism
• Separatism
• Women conducting research for women
• Reconceptualization
• Revolution, not reform is necessary
• Total and radical reformulation of sociology to
  include the roles and contributions of women

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Liberal Feminist Theory

• Individuals are rational and autonomous
• Sex is biological gender is socialized
• Equal access to opportunities, without changing
  systems
• Women are as human as men
• In organizations
• Women as rational, effective, efficient, and fair
  as men
• Glass ceiling is a major issue

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Psychoanalytic Feminist Theory

• Social institutions affect development
• Gender development is more positive when both
  parents are loving and autonomous
• In organizations
• Women are unsuccessful due to their socialization
• Earlier research suggests that women not
  organizations should change
• More recent research views feminine
  characteristics more positively

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Other Feminist Theories

• Marxistdomination and oppression of women
• Socialistsexual division of labor, segregation
• Third World/Post Colonialexamining intersection
  of capitalization, colonialism, and gender
  stratification

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Management and Womanhood

• Dualism between woman v. manager
• Estrangement and isolation
• Exclusionary practices, reproduced homogeneity or
  organizational hierarchies
• Survival of the group?
• Gender, personal knowledge, and the opposition to
  old boys networks

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Conclusions

• Gender inequalities are one result of systemic
  problems that affect everyone
• Gender and other inequalities are increasing and
  have become normalized
• Discrimination and oppression must be challenged
  in society and organizations
• How can one integrate feminism into community
  practice, and what are the future directions in
  this area given the rise of conservatism in
  American society?

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The Learning OrganizationSOWO 804Lecture VIII

• Tamara Norris, Instructor
• Management and Community Practice
• School of Social Work
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3550

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The Learning Organization

• Primary institutions in society are oriented
  toward CONTROLLING rather than LEARNING
• Schools
• Work situations (private and nonprofit)
• Voluntary Organizations
• Classes
• Why?

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The Learning Organization(contd)

• Performance for anothers approval
• Can it be entirely avoided?
• How do we encourage LEARNING in our ORGANIZATION
  and COMMUINITY?
• Listening?
• Participatory management
• ??

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The Learning Organization(contd)

• How do organization and/or community members act
  as learning agents?
• What is the system that controls events?
• For organizations
• For communities
• For our Organization (SOWO 804)

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The Learning Organization (contd)

• How does one lead in a learning organization or a
  community?
• Force of personality (charisma)
• By coaching
• Listening
• Observation
• Implementing changes
• Creative Tension
• What is it?
• How does it facilitate a learning organization?
• How does it relate to VISION?

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The Learning Organization (contd)

• New Leader Roles
• Designer
• Teacher
• Steward
• Facets of a Learning Organization/Community
• Psychologicalextent to which individuals/communit
  ies enact behaviors
• Policyhow management/communities can promote
  learning
• Contextualfactors that promote or inhibit
  learning
• Structurallearning by vs. learning in
  organizations/communities
• Culturalnormative behaviors that lead to
  productive learning in organizations/communities

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The Learning Organization (contd)

• Major Features/New Skills of LO
• Systems thinking personal ?org. ?larger
  environment
• Personal Mastery lifelong learning with the
  system in mind
• Mental Models challenging assumptions
• Shared Vision building it across the org.
• Team learning being open to changing contexts

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The Learning Organization (contd)

• How do these features increase the capacity for
  adaptation and change?
• Explore the contemporary territory
• Why is the learning organization, particularly
  relevant (or not) to social work (human service)
  organizations?

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The Learning Organization (contd)

• How do you build a shared vision with the
  community in which you are practicing?
• When a human service organization and a community
  interface, who is responsible for providing
  leadership?
• Given the changing social, cultural, economic,
  and demographic makeup of communities served by
  human service organizations today, who has to
  learn first?

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The Learning Organization (contd)

• List the elements/components of a learning
  community for an organization and provide the
  rationale
• List the elements/components of a learning
  community for a community and provide the
  rationale