Colleagues,

Trust this finds you well.

Please find below call for abstracts for the stream 'Gender, Resistance and the Collective at Work' at the next GWO conference in 2016.

Please feel free to disseminate to others whom you think might be interested!

Best (and apologies for cross-posting),

Jenny

Gender, Work and Organization

9th Biennial International Interdisciplinary conference, 29th June-1st July, 2016

Keele University, UK

 

GWO2016 Call for Abstracts

 

Gender, resistance and the collective at work

 

Julie Douglas, Auckland University of Technology, NEW ZEALAND

Katherine Ravenswood, Auckland University of Technology, NEW ZEALAND

Janet Sayers, Massey University, NEW ZEALAND

Trine Pernille Larsen, FAOS, DENMARK

Jenny Rodriguez, Newcastle University, UNITED KINGDOM

Cathy Brigden, RMIT, AUSTRALIA

 

This stream calls for papers that both challenge the ‘traditional’ organisation of work, and identify collective ways in which this can be resisted.

 

Research has long assumed a homogenous worker (Healy et al., 2006; Kirton & Healy, 2012) upon which many of our models of industrial relations have been based. These do not recognize the experiences of women, and often do not give adequate voice and opportunity to women and other workers (Cooper, 2012; Cooper & Parker, 2012; Douglas, 2015; Parker et al., 2014; Ravenswood & Markey, 2011). Gendered stereotypes of women and their bodies in the public have had ongoing negative effects for women’s opportunities in paid work (Rodriguez, 2010; Sayers & Jones, 2014, 2015; Sayers, 2015). Histories of work and collectivism also overlook women’s agency in collective resistance (Brigden 2007, 2014). Workplaces are still generally plagued by poor representative and collective processes, particularly for those (such as women, transgender and intersex people) whose identities, occupations and skills are further diminished by the neo liberal driven patriarchal hegemonic worldview. How can effective resistance be created and sustained in a workplace which is still more often concerned with profit maximization and individualism?

 

Despite women’s increasing participation in paid work and success in education in many countries over some decades inequality can still be seen in gendered labour market segmentation and gendered organisations. Although some individual women have made remarkable achievements many others continue to experience the workplace as a foreign place as ‘space invaders’ (Puwar, 2014).  For example, women continue to feel defined and constrained by discourses around their bodies such as their ‘looks’ (in aesthetic labour) and their so-called ‘natural’ capacity for emotional labour (in care work). Yet despite their marginalisation, women are increasingly vocal about injustice, with fourth wave feminism becoming a particularly significant force for many women in paid work. While the causes of inequality can often be attributed to ongoing male dominance in work organisation, research has identified the role of class (Acker, 2006) and also the consequences for those who do not fit gender binary expectations.

 

Papers that draw attention to the nexus between gender, resistance by groups within workplaces and the place of collective bodies in this resistance are particularly welcome. Our stream aims to bring an industrial relations perspective to Gender, Work and Organisation, although papers that do not come from this background are welcome. Some indicative (but not limited) themes are:

 

• representation of ‘intersectional’ interests (representation of diversity/intersectional interests, inclusivity of sub-groups of women and/or minority groups);
• unorganised workplaces and NGOs (‘voice’, processes, and outcomes at work in unorganized workplaces, jobs and industries; and the role of NGOs in representing and advocating for particularly women/minority groups and their workplace experiences with, and instead of, unions);
• collective regulation and working conditions and pay (e.g. minimum standards, awards and industry agreements, national systems; how this is distributed across groups within workplaces);
• historical patterns and practices of women’s collectivism (e.g. highlighting historical role of women and others in collectivism; continuities and change in collectivist practices and discourse; labour history perspectives);
• women/minority groups and unions, and women/minority groups in unions (women in/and union leadership, women and union policies, roles and structures, women’s self-organising, women and union organizing, women’s ‘voice’ in unions);
• emerging developments in work and employment and gender implications (e.g. increased casualization, non-standard and precarious work (e.g. the precariat class – Standing, 2011), the use of IT in the workplace).
• bodies and work (mechanisms of collectivism outside of tradition unions, representation and advocacy challenging homogeneity, standardization of the body in the workplace, the role of the body in work, bodywork)
• sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace (eg collective processes and inclusion for the sexually/gendered diverse; recognition of trans gendered rights in the workplace; anti-discrimination laws in the workplace)

Abstracts of approximately 500 words (ONE page, Word document NOT PDF, single spaced, excluding references, no header, footers or track changes) are invited by 1st November 2015 with decisions on acceptance to be made by stream leaders within one month. All abstracts will be peer reviewed. New and young scholars with 'work in progress' papers are welcomed. Papers can be theoretical or theoretically informed empirical work. In the case of co-authored papers, ONE person should be identified as the corresponding author. Due to restrictions of space on the conference schedule, multiple submissions by the same author will not be timetabled. Abstracts should be emailed to:   [log in to unmask]      Abstracts should include FULL contact details, including your name, department, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address. State the title of the stream to which you are submitting your abstract. Note that no funding, fee waiver, travel or other bursaries are offered for attendance at GWO2016.

 

References

Brigden, C. (2007). A Women’s Place? Women in the Victorian Trades Hall Council from the 1880s to the 1990s. Australian Feminist Studies, 22(54), 369-384.

Brigden, C. (2014). Organising and representing women: the historical case of the Female Confectioners Union. Women’s History Review, 23 (1), 43-59.

Cooper, R. (2012). The gender gap in union leadership in Australia: A qualitative study, Journal of Industrial Relations, 5 (42), 131-46

Cooper, R.& Parker, J. (2012). Women Work and collectivism, Journal of Industrial Relations, 54 (2),107-13

Douglas, J. (2015). Gay pride & prejudice in the Pacific, Labour & Industry, DOI:10.1080/10301763.2015.1064067 

Healy, G. Heery, E., Taylor, P. & Brown, W. (eds) (2006) Future of Workers Representation, London, Palgrave MacMillan.

Kirton, G. & Healy, G. (2012). ‘Lift as you rise”: Union women’s leadership talk, Human Relations, 65 (8), 979-999.

Parker, J., Douglas, J. F., Ravenswood, K., Sayers, J., & Cooper, R. (2014). Editors' introduction: Women, work and collectivism: revisited. Labour and Industry, 24(4), 249-257.

Puwar, N. (2004). Space invaders: Race, gender and bodies out of place. Oxford: Berg.

Ravenswood, K., & Markey, R. (2011). The role of unions in achieving a family-friendly workplace. Journal of Industrial Relations, 53(4), 486–503.

Rodriguez, J.K. (2010). The Construction of Gender Identities in Public Sector Organizations in Latin America: A View of the Dominican Republic. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 29(1), 53-77.

Sayers, J.G. (2015). Telling tales: online comic and gripe story-sharing by service workers about difficult customers. New Technology, Work and Employment, 30 (7), 128-144

Sayers, J.G. & Jones, D. (2015). Truth scribbled in blood: Women’s work, menstruation and poetry. Gender, Work and Organization, 22 (2), 94-111.

Sayers, J.G. & Jones, D. (2014). Fifty shades of outrage: women’s collective online action, embodiment and emotions. Labour and Industry, 24 (4), 272-285.

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