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Individualization and Equality: Women's Careers and Organizational Form

Employment Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, james.wickham{at}tcd.ie

Gráinne Collins

Houses of the Oireachtas, Dublin, Ireland, Grainne.Collins{at}Oireachtas.ie

Lidia Greco

Universitá di Bari, Italy and late of Employment Research Centre, Dublin, l.greco{at}scienzepolitiche.uniba.it

Josephine Browne

Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland, Josephine.Browne{at}iadt.ie

Some feminist writings have claimed that `bureaucracy' is inherently `patriarchal'. This article challenges this argument by comparing the experience of women in Ireland in a state sector organization and in a cluster of software firms. While the bureaucratic state company has been reformed to incorporate equal opportunities, in the individualized or `marketized' software companies women's progress is at the whim of individual managers and motherhood and a career are largely incompatible. If bureaucratic organizations can be reformed in this way, it cannot be claimed that there is any inherent link between bureaucracy and patriarchy. Instead organizations can be either bureaucratic or marketized, and either patriarchal or woman-friendly. These are two separate dimensions which change independently of each other. On this basis the article suggests that the contemporary `remasculinization' of management occurs because earlier reforms in bureaucratic organizations are now being eroded.

Key Words: bureaucracy • discrimination • equal opportunities • Ireland • software industry

Organization, Vol. 15, No. 2, 211-231 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1350508407086581


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