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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Email Group Discussion Questions

• In the Organizational and Community Behavior
  class last semester, there were no male students.
  In discussing the topic of feminist theory in
  social work, I suggested that some comments might
  have been different if there were some men in the
  class. In what ways might our conversation in
  this class be different because men are present?
  Does that matter?
• Are you a feminist? A liberal or radical
  feminist? What does that mean for your practice
  as a social worker?

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Email Group Discussion Questions

• What have been your personal experiences in the
  workplace or in your personal life related to
  feminism or sexism? How have these experiences
  shaped your view of gender and inequality?
• As a social work manager, how will you promote
  gender equality?

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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