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1 – 10 of over 2000
Article
Publication date: 6 December 2019

Toyin Ajibade Adisa, Fang Lee Cooke and Vanessa Iwowo

By conceptualising patriarchy in the workplace as a social situation, the purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of patriarchal attitudes and their impact on women’s…

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Abstract

Purpose

By conceptualising patriarchy in the workplace as a social situation, the purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of patriarchal attitudes and their impact on women’s workplace behaviour among Nigerian organisations.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a qualitative research approach, drawing on data from 32 semi-structured interviews with female employees and managers in two high-street banks in Nigeria.

Findings

The study finds that patriarchy shapes women’s behaviour in ways that undermine their performance and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Furthermore, the study finds that patriarchal attitudes, often practised at home, are frequently transferred to organisational settings. This transference affects women’s workplace behaviour and maintains men’s (self-perceived) superior status quo, whereby women are dominated, discriminated against and permanently placed in inferior positions.

Research limitations/implications

The extent to which the findings of this research can be generalised is constrained by the limited sample and scope of the research.

Practical implications

The challenges posed by the strong patriarchy on women’s workplace behaviour are real and complex, and organisations must address them in order to create a fairer workplace in which employees can thrive. It is therefore essential for organisations to examine periodically their culture to ensure that all employees, regardless of gender, are involved in the organisation’s affairs. Furthermore, organisations need to help women become more proactive in combating patriarchal behaviour, which often affects their performance and OCB. This requires organisations to affirm consistently their equal opportunities, equal rights and equal treatment policies. It is essential that organisations take this problem seriously by attaching due penalty to gender discrimination, as this will go a long way in ensuring positive outcomes for women and providing a fairer workplace.

Originality/value

This study provides empirical evidence that a more egalitarian work environment (in Nigerian banking) will result in improved performance from female employees and organisations. It calls for greater policy and organisational interventions to create a more inclusive work environment and an equal society.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 25 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 15 March 2021

Pavla Miller

The concept of patriarchy, one of the key thinking tools of the 1970s women’s movements, has been used and critiqued in many current and historical projects. This chapter enters…

Abstract

The concept of patriarchy, one of the key thinking tools of the 1970s women’s movements, has been used and critiqued in many current and historical projects. This chapter enters the debate in an unorthodox way. Rather than define, defend, or critique the concept of patriarchy, it focuses on its capacity to articulate historically specific forms of relations between gender and generation.

The body of the chapter notes the continuities and differences in the way mastery and social infancy were connected in several episodes of thinking with patriarchy in Western social and political thought. Attempts to bring Roman law into a coherent system in early sixth-century ce, debates between defenders of absolutist rule and proponents of democracy in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, nineteenth-century reconstructions of human pre-history and resurgent twentieth-century women’s movements have all left traces in ways of thinking about gender and generational relations today.

In the last two decades, new forms of activism and scholarship drew on the conceptual toolkit surrounding patriarchy. The last section of the chapter highlights two of these areas: research on child rights governance and the total social organization of labor, and writings on patrimonialism. Key insights from this work, the chapter concludes, can be used to argue that a focus on historically specific forms of the interface between gender and generation constitutes a useful aspect of thinking with patriarchy.

Details

Gender and Generations: Continuity and Change
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-033-7

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Defining Rape Culture: Gender, Race and the Move Toward International Social Change
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-214-0

Article
Publication date: 7 January 2019

Toyin Ajibade Adisa, Issa Abdulraheem and Sulu Babaita Isiaka

Research on the impact of patriarchy and patriarchal norms on women’s work-life balance is scarce. A typical patriarchal society, such as Nigeria, tends to be organised based on…

4393

Abstract

Purpose

Research on the impact of patriarchy and patriarchal norms on women’s work-life balance is scarce. A typical patriarchal society, such as Nigeria, tends to be organised based on gender, and the construct is embedded in the culture. This paper aims to investigate the impact of patriarchy on women’s work-life balance in a non-Western context: Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopt a qualitative research approach to enhance their insight into the issue of patriarchy and women’s work-life balance. Data for the study were collected over a four-month period, using semi-structured interviews as the primary method of data collection.

Findings

The findings of the thematic analysis reveal the impact of patriarchy on women’s work-life balance in Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically Nigeria. Women’s aspirations to achieve work-life balance in this part of the world are often frustrated by patriarchal norms, which are deeply ingrained in the culture. The findings of this study reveal that male dominance of and excessive subordination of females, domestic and gender-based division of labour and higher patriarchal proclivities among men are the ingredients of a patriarchal society. These issues make the achievement of work-life balance difficult for women.

Research limitations/implications

The extent to which the findings of this research can be generalised is constrained by the limited sample size and the selected research context.

Practical implications

The insights gleaned from this research suggest that there are still major challenges for women in the global south, specifically Nigeria, in terms of achieving work-life balance due to the prevalent patriarchy and patriarchal norms in the society. Strong patriarchal norms and proclivity negatively affect women’s work-life balance and in turn may impact employee productivity, organisational effectiveness, employee performance and employee punctuality at work. However, an Australian “Champion of Change” initiative may be adopted to ease the patriarchal proclivity and help women to achieve work-life balance.

Originality/value

This paper provides valuable insights by bringing patriarchy into the discussion of work-life balance. This issue has been hitherto rare in the literature. It therefore enriches the literature on work-life balance from a patriarchal perspective.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal, vol. 34 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 December 2018

Rina Agarwala

This chapter examines how gender interacts with informal workers’ collective action strategies in the context of contemporary development scripts around economic growth…

Abstract

This chapter examines how gender interacts with informal workers’ collective action strategies in the context of contemporary development scripts around economic growth. Specifically, it engages the theoretical debates on the relationship between patriarchy and capitalism as the systems of domination that organize gender and class. Drawing from a comparative analysis of informal workers’ movements in India’s domestic work and construction sectors, I find the relationship between gender and class and between patriarchy and capitalism is being reconceptualized from below and differs by occupational structures and organization histories. For domestic workers, movements assert what I call a “unitary” model of exploitation. Because domestic workers’ organizations entered the productive sphere through a focus on social reproduction, their struggles conflate gender and class to reverse the shame attached to domestic work and increase the recognized worth of women’s labor. Because construction workers’ organizations mobilize male and female workers and began as class-based organizations focusing on productive work, they articulate what I term “a dual systems” approach to patriarchy and capitalism that exposes inequalities between men and women within the sector, such as unequal pay, glass ceilings, and issues of embodiment. In both cases, global development scripts have not only shaped movement approaches, but also enabled movements to articulate gendered labor subjects in innovative ways. While domestic workers’ unitary model has had more success in increasing women workers’ dignity and leadership, construction workers’ dualist model has attained more successes in attaining material benefits in the reproductive sphere. These findings suggest that debates on unitary versus dual-systems models of exploitation present a false dichotomy and veil the reality that both are necessary for feminist theory, development models, and women workers’ struggles on the ground.

Details

Gendering Struggles against Informal and Precarious Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-368-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1989

Steven Goldberg

It is arguable that the central questions requiring explanation by the behavioural and social sciences are those falling under the rubric “nature vs. nurture”. To be sure, the…

Abstract

It is arguable that the central questions requiring explanation by the behavioural and social sciences are those falling under the rubric “nature vs. nurture”. To be sure, the issue is oversimplified when stated so simply; there are both physiological and environmental elements in the causation of behaviour, as well as feedback through which each alters the other. Moreover, discussions of this dichotomy can often be seen to be sterile arguments about definition, rather than answers to the empirical question of what is, in fact, happening. What matters is not “nature” or “nurture” in the abstract, but the roles physiology, environment, and the interaction of the two play in generating specific behaviour.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 4 March 2014

Srinivas Goli and Ladumai Maikho Apollo Pou

– The paper aims to find out how far the size of household landholding directs patriarchal traits and thus influence women's autonomy.

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to find out how far the size of household landholding directs patriarchal traits and thus influence women's autonomy.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a two-part methodology. The first part provides theoretical background based on existing literature on women's autonomy and related information in formulating the “landholding-patriarchy hypotheses”. The second part of this study evaluates the empirical evidences of the association between the size of household landholding and women's autonomy.

Findings

Results indicate considerable variation in women's autonomy with the size of their household landholding: women's autonomy decreases with increasing size of household landholding. Evidence suggests that landholding directs patriarchal traits, as manifested in a reasonable influence on women's autonomy in rural India.

Originality/value

The paper innovates a means to understand the contributing factors to lowering women's autonomy, thus explore the relevance of “landholding-patriarchy hypothesis”.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 41 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 November 2020

Uzoechi Nwagbara

The purpose of this study is to examine how institutionalised patriarchy triggers work-life-balance (WLB) challenges for Nigerian female medical doctors. It is focused on Nigeria…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine how institutionalised patriarchy triggers work-life-balance (WLB) challenges for Nigerian female medical doctors. It is focused on Nigeria to understand how its unique institutional context poses WLB challenges.

Design/methodology/approach

Relying on exploratory qualitative approach based on 41 semi-structured interviews with female medical doctors in Nigeria and informed by institutional theory (IT), this study explores how patriarchal institutions create, maintain and transmit male dominance, exploitation and inequality in the family, workplace and larger society.

Findings

The findings of this study show that patriarchy exists not only in family but also in all structures and institutions that allow for control of women by men and further inequality and exploitation of women. It was also found that in contrast to research in the west, WLB challenges stemming from Nigeria's patriarchal institutions are significantly different because of the peculiar institutional frameworks framing them. Also, WLB challenges for female physicians while common to female doctors in western countries are more intense in developing countries, given their unique sociocultural and institutional realities.

Research limitations/implications

The implications of this study are that WLB challenges of female doctors are not fundamentally driven by individual choices but by broader contextual issues, which create and sustain such challenges. Further studies can be undertaken in private hospitals including quantitative approaches.

Originality/value

This research thus contributes to both institutional theory and WLB discourse from the perspective of developing countries.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 40 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 May 2008

Amal Al Kharouf and David Weir

The purpose of this paper is to clarify and re‐position the debate on the role of women in employment in the Arab Middle East by drawing on the findings of empirical research to…

1195

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to clarify and re‐position the debate on the role of women in employment in the Arab Middle East by drawing on the findings of empirical research to critique the paradigm of “neo‐patriarchy” defined by Sharabi and used uncritically by others.

Design/methodology/approach

A review of the literature on neo‐patriarchy is followed by some findings from an empirical study of 197 women in the Jordanian labour market, from a sample drawn on a population basis.

Findings

The findings indicate generally positive attitudes towards the employment of women and to the involvement of husbands in employment decisions, and to a slight preference on the part of managers for women as employees.

Research limitations/implications

These findings need to be supplemented by more intensive studies in work situations and by case‐studies of specific employment sites.

Practical implications

The attitudes of women in Jordan are in general positive towards employment and policy is evolving accordingly.

Originality/value

These findings point to the limitations of the “neo‐patriarchy” discourse and to the likelihood that the employment situations of women in Jordan do not need to be characterized by the discourse of under‐development and traditionalism.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 4 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2017

Charlotte M. Karam and Fida Afiouni

The purpose of this paper is to explore how public (i.e. culture, state, paid work) and private (i.e. household) patriarchal structures work to shape a woman’s own legitimacy…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how public (i.e. culture, state, paid work) and private (i.e. household) patriarchal structures work to shape a woman’s own legitimacy judgments concerning not engaging in paid work. The authors trace the intersection and interaction of legitimacy logics at both the collective (i.e. validity) and individual (i.e. propriety) levels, thereby gaining a better contextual understanding of each woman’s perception of career opportunities and limitations.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative methodology drawing from 35 semi-structured interviews with Lebanese women. A multilevel analytic framework combining the institutional structures of private and public patriarchy with the micro-processes of institutional logics is used.

Findings

Legitimization of (not) engaging in paid work is often tied to patriarchal logics that favor private sphere responsibilities for women, particularly related to the relational and instrumental logics of childrearing and husband-oriented responsibilities. Women’s legitimacy judgment formation seems to be based on multilevel cues and on differential instances of evaluative vs passive judgment formation. Some appear to passively assume the legitimacy of the logics; while others more actively question these logics. The findings suggest that active questioning is often overwhelmed by the negative and harsh realities making the woman succumb to passivity and choosing not to engage in paid work.

Originality/value

This study provides: a better mapping of the individual woman’s daily cognitions concerning the legitimacy of (not) engaging in paid work; and a unique multilevel analytic framework that can serve as a useful example of contextualizing career research.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 22 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 2000