Gender Equality as Institutional Work: The Case of the Church of Sweden
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2014

Institutional theory predicts that organizations respond to external changes in their environment to be able to safeguard their long-term viability. One of the most significant institutional changes in the last century has been the entry of women into both labour markets and professions; however, an extensive literature reports that gender inequality and various forms of sexism still structure and influence the everyday work of organizations. Drawing on the recent literature on institutional work, the article reports on a study of how the Church of Sweden has managed to relatively successfully institutionalize female ministers as legitimate and widely respected members of the professional category of ministers ordained by the Church. Female ministers believe they are, by and large, respected in the Church, but suggest that gender remains an issue as women are at times expected to embody certain interests and have to answer some questions that their male colleagues may have been spared. The findings describe institutional work as an ongoing process with no fixed end-point, stressing agency as the distributed and collective capacity to question established beliefs and norms.

institutional theory

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

RATIONALITY

WOMEN

EXCLUSION

LOOSELY-COUPLED SYSTEMS

ORGANIZATIONS

institutional work

female ministers

Church of Sweden

LEADERSHIP

faith-based organizations

ENGINEERS

INEQUALITY

Författare

Alexander Styhre

Göteborgs universitet

Gender, Work and Organization

0968-6673 (ISSN) 1468-0432 (eISSN)

Vol. 21 2 105-120

Ämneskategorier

Genusstudier

Arbetslivsstudier

Företagsekonomi

DOI

10.1111/gwao.12024

Mer information

Skapat

2017-10-10