Anne Ross-Smith

The future of work and employment sociology has been a subject of concern for a number of authors in recent years. Halford and Strangleman, among others, have suggested that work and employment sociology is on the decline, in that it has been disconnected from wider sociology and co-opted by management and business schools. In this article we unpack the debate and look at how it relates to gender and work scholarship. In doing so, we propose that the decline thesis might be overstated. While gender and work sociology has been implicated in the demise of labour process theory, it has also embraced change and strengthened and diversified work and employment sociology. Nevertheless, in this article, we treat the perceived threat as an opportunity to rethink work and employment sociology. We propose a four-themed, interdisciplinary, gender-inspired research paradigm.

Purpose: This paper aims to review Ruth Simpson’s contribution to the field of gender and management. Design/methodology/approach: This paper looks at Ruth Simpson’s body of work over her career through a conversation that took place between Pullen and Ross-Smith. Findings: Ruth Simpson’s contribution to gender, class, work and organizations is discussed. Originality/value: This piece remembers Ruth Simpson’s feminist scholarship to the field of gender and management.

Board roles are often framed as the ultimate career achievement for ‘successful’ corporate leaders (Stern and Westphal, 2010). Women’s limited access to the most senior levels of organizations, including the board level, is well recognized internationally (Davies et al., 2011; Deloitte, 2011) and responses to women’s under-representation differ across countries. The governments of Iceland, Israel, Norway and Spain have opted to legislate for women’s representation on boards, to varying degrees and with varying timelines for compliance (Catalyst, 2012; GovernanceMetrics Int ernational, 2013). Other countries, such as Sweden, Finland, the UK and the USA, have elected to take a more ‘hands off’ approach, with efforts to increase women’s access to boards focusing more on self-regulation than government intervention. Following a surge in calls for quotas to be applied in Australian boardrooms in 2009 (Broderick, 2009; Fox, 2013), it is this more self-regulatory approach that has been followed in Australia.19 page(s

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to interrogate changes to women's representation on boards from an institutional perspective in a particular national context (Australia).Design/methodology/approach: – Drawing on institutional theory at the legal, political and social levels the paper identifies the factors through which women's underrepresentation on corporate boards in Australia gained traction over the period 2009-2012.Findings: – Through the analysis of the Australian context over the period 2009-2012, the paper proposes a framework to represent the multiple, differentiated and often conflicting spheres affecting women's representation on boards and how this may have wider application internationally.Research limitations/implications: – In focusing on the institutional factors, the paper does not mean to underplay organisational factors relevant to women's access to board positions; rather the authors seek to draw attention to how the organisational factors may be shaped by changing institutional “rules”. From the interrogation of the conditions under which women's underrepresentation on corporate boards in Australia gained traction, the paper provides a conceptual foundation for the emerging study of institutions and women's representation on corporate boards internationally.Practical implications: – The purpose of documenting these institutional changes in Australia is to be instructive to others addressing the practical problem of how to increase women's representation on boards and what institutional factors may need to be considered to prompt change.Originality/value: – The conceptual framework adds to the as yet relatively under-theorised field of women on corporate boards.

In 2010, a forum on Women on Boards was convened in Australia to discuss ways different countries were addressing the lack of women on boards and to interrogate changes to the governance reporting requirements in Australia. Researchers from Australia, UK, USA, NZ and Norway met with key corporate governance stakeholders from top listed Australian company boards as well as professional associations and consultants working in this area. This paper adds to the scant research on the board appointment pathway through its focus on the pathways to the corporate boardrooms of Australia, as perceived by these key stakeholders. A model of participants’ perceptions of the pathway to the boardroom is presented where the key influences in gaining a board appointment are i) The Right Experience, ii) The Skill Set, iii) Knowing Someone and iv) Fitting In. Gaining a corporate board appointment requires a combination and interaction of the ‘right’ experience, ‘appropriate’ skills, an effective network and the ability to fit in. Underlying this view of the pathway to the boardroom is that merit underpinned board selection processes. Notwithstanding increased public debate and changes in corporate governance reporting requirements, an uncritical acceptance of the status quo and a continued discourse of competence were evident.

There is little existing research on how managers within the ‘Big Four’ professional services firms (PSFs) respond to the increasing normative pressures and performative cultures that characterize contemporary PSFs. It is primarily managers within PSFs that enact the new managerial roles, systems and ethos that differentiate ‘managed professional businesses’ (MPBs) from the P2 archetype. It is managers who in their own estimation need to ensure that both organization and employees perform to the required standard. This article reports from an empirical study into one of the Big Four accounting firms. The focus is on how a specific group of employees, namely female managers, make sense of career and performance in their particular organization. The respondents’ career is being shaped by their real and perceived willingness to be ‘bothered to be playing the game’ as well as providing a good client service and participating in the ongoing rationalization of professional practices. Thus, the self is divided: on the one hand, ambitious, committed and loyal to the firm and to the notion of performing. On the other hand, there is also distancing and disenchantment with the existing practices and reluctant acknowledgement that the reality is characterized by a culture of visibility and exposure; the need to network, play politics and be playing-the-game, none of which are gender-neutral.

A generation of women have sustained careers in senior management. We use Bourdieu's concepts of field together with contemporary feminist interpretations of embodied cultural capital to analyse a group of such women's narratives of their own managerial experiences. We extend feminist analyses of gender capital and argue it may be an important cultural resource by which women develop and sustain their careers in senior management. Drawing on selected findings of an empirical study of senior managers in Australian organizations and a recent theoretical analysis of women's narratives using Bourdieu and feminist interpretations of Bourdieu, we examine whether women wield gender capital in the management field. We propose that gender capital, as articulated in contemporary feminist theory, provides an unexplored but potentially powerful explanatory mechanism for furthering our understanding of the complex and different ways the presence of women in senior managerial roles may shape contemporary management discourses and practices.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how women in senior management draw on discourses of merit and special contribution in making sense of the contradictions and tensions they experience in their working lives. It has a particular focus on how women explain possible experiences of disadvantage and the extent to which they see such experiences as gendered. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on an Australian study of women leaders in the private and tertiary sectors. Data are drawn from in-depth interviews with 14 women. Findings – Findings suggest that women draw on discourses of meritocracy and of “special contribution” in discussing their experiences at work. Inconsistencies between these competing discourses are mediated through notions of choice. Research limitations/implications – The research has implications for the understanding of how women at senior levels make sense of their experiences in organizations. A wider sample may give further corroboration to these results. Originality/value – The paper highlights the significance of the discourse of choice in aligning discourses of “special contribution” with the reality of their lives whilst keeping intact the concepts of equality and meritocracy to which they strongly adhere.