IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/scaman/v30y2014i2p163-174.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The support paradox: Overcoming dilemmas in gender equality programs

Author

Listed:
  • Van den Brink, Marieke
  • Stobbe, Lineke

Abstract

This paper revolves around ambivalent discourses surrounding gender equality policies and interventions in organizations. On the one hand, these equality policies are perceived as necessary in order to create more opportunities for upward career mobility for women. On the other hand, both men and women argue against these policies due to issues of reverse discrimination and quality loss that they raise. For a Dutch Funding Organization, this resulted in a dilemma; with gender equality on the one hand, and merit and individual advancement on the other. The support paradox provides a discursive tool to counter this dilemma that finds its roots in a strong belief in the meritocracy and a blindness for the genderedness of the meritocracy and academic careers. By reframing and illustrating this paradox, this study shows that the support that men often receive in their academic careers tends to be taken for granted, while women are expected to advance on their own in order to prove that they are sufficiently qualified. We will argue that it is theoretically interesting and politically important to frame the “getting help” dilemma in terms of a paradox.

Suggested Citation

  • Van den Brink, Marieke & Stobbe, Lineke, 2014. "The support paradox: Overcoming dilemmas in gender equality programs," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 163-174.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:scaman:v:30:y:2014:i:2:p:163-174
    DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2013.07.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095652211300064X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.scaman.2013.07.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Penny Dick & Catherine Cassell, 2002. "Barriers to Managing Diversity in a UK Constabulary: The Role of Discourse," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(7), pages 953-976, November.
    2. Eriksson-Zetterquist, Ulla, 2008. "Gendered role modelling--A paradoxical construction process," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 259-270, September.
    3. Eero Vaara & Anne Marie Soderberg & Charlotte Holgersson & Janne Tienari, 2005. "Gender and National Identity Constructions in the Cross-Border Merger Context," Post-Print hal-02311808, HAL.
    4. Elisabeth Kelan, 2009. "Gender as an Ideological Dilemma," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Performing Gender at Work, chapter 6, pages 145-181, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Kvande, Elin & Rasmussen, Bente, 1994. "Men in male-dominated organizations and their encounter with women intruders," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 163-173, June.
    6. Cynthia Hardy, 2001. "Researching Organizational Discourse," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 25-47, September.
    7. Kim S. Cameron, 1986. "Effectiveness as Paradox: Consensus and Conflict in Conceptions of Organizational Effectiveness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(5), pages 539-553, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marco Pautasso, 2015. "The Italian University Habilitation and the Challenge of Increasing the Representation of Women in Academia," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Irene Campos-García & José Ángel Zúñiga-Vicente, 2019. "The female presence in different organisational positions and performance in secondary schools: Does a woman leader function as mediator?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-25, September.
    3. van den Brink, Marieke & Holgersson, Charlotte & Linghag, Sophie & Deé, Sharon, 2016. "Inflating and down playing strengths and weaknesses—Practicing gender in the evaluation of potential managers and partners," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 20-32.
    4. Torchia, Mariateresa & Calabrò, Andrea & Gabaldon, Patricia & Kanadli, Sadi Bogac, 2018. "Women directors contribution to organizational innovation: A behavioral approach," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 215-224.
    5. Christian Möller & Saffron Passam & Sarah Riley & Martine Robson, 2024. "All inside our heads? A critical discursive review of unconscious bias training in the sciences," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 797-820, May.
    6. Lina Marcela Ramírez Leguizamón, 2019. "The paradox of equality policies and meritocracy in female leadership," Documentos CEDE 17371, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    7. Nina van Douwen & Marieke van den Brink & Yvonne Benschop, 2022. "Badass marines: Resistance practices against the introduction of women in the Dutch military," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1443-1462, September.
    8. Helen Peterson, 2019. "A Women-Only Leadership Development Program: Facilitating Access to Authority for Women in Swedish Higher Education?," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-14, May.
    9. Alison M. Konrad & Orlando C. Richard & Yang Yang, 2021. "Both Diversity and Meritocracy: Managing the Diversity‐Meritocracy Paradox with Organizational Ambidexterity," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(8), pages 2180-2206, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Izabelle Bäckström & Malin Lindberg, 2018. "Behavioural Implications Of Employee-Driven Innovation — A Critical Discourse Analysis," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(07), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Ieda Margarete Oro & Carlos Eduardo Facin Lavarda, 2017. "Interaction Between Strategy and Organizational Performance: The Influence of Family Management," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 14(5), pages 493-509, September.
    3. Bairoh, Susanna, 2008. "Current Debates on Classifying Diversity Management: Review and a Proposal," Working Papers 534, Hanken School of Economics.
    4. Andrews, Matt & Pritchett, Lant & Woolcock, Michael, 2013. "Escaping Capability Traps Through Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 234-244.
    5. Katerina Guba & Mikhail Sokolov & Angelika Tsivinskaya, 2020. "Fictitious Efficiency: What the Russian Survey of Performance of Higher Education Institutions Actually Assessed," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 1, pages 97-125.
    6. Annette Risberg & Hervé Corvellec, 2022. "The significance of trying: How organizational members meet the ambiguities of diversity," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 1849-1867, November.
    7. Swati Dhir, 2024. "Developing a Scale to Measure Institutional Effectiveness in the Context of Indian Business Schools: Using Exploratory Factor Analysis," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 25(2_suppl), pages 23-41, April.
    8. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Губа К. С. & Соколов М. М. & Цивинская А. О., 2020. "Фиктивная Эффективность: Что На Самом Деле Оценивал Мониторинг Эффективности Образовательных Организаций," Вопросы образования // Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 1, pages 97-125.
    10. Al-Atwi, Amer Ali & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Khan, Zaheer, 2021. "Micro-foundations of organizational design and sustainability: The mediating role of learning ambidexterity," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(1).
    11. Stefanescu, Silviu Cristian, 2019. "Multi-dimensional model for measurement of the motivation level and its relationship with organizational performance," MPRA Paper 102400, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2020.
    12. Charles Amoyea Atogenzoya & Anna Comacchio, 2019. "Nature and Management of Social-business Tensions: A Study of Micro and Small Social Enterprises in Developing Countries," Proceedings of Business and Management Conferences 8612069, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    13. Lorna Treanor & Susan Marlow & Janine Swail, 2021. "Rationalizing the postfeminist paradox: The case of UK women veterinary professionals," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 337-360, January.
    14. Jonathan Wareham & Paul B. Fox & Josep Lluís Cano Giner, 2014. "Technology Ecosystem Governance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 1195-1215, August.
    15. Gilberto SERAVALLI, 2011. "Conflict, Contract, Leadership and Innovation: An Interdisciplinary View," Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology, ScientificPapers.org, vol. 1(6), pages 1-48, October.
    16. Mohamad, Amri & Zainuddin, Yuserrie & Alam, Nafis & Kendall, Graham, 2017. "Does decentralized decision making increase company performance through its Information Technology infrastructure investment?," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 1-15.
    17. Domingo Soriano & Gary Castrogiovanni, 2012. "The impact of education, experience and inner circle advisors on SME performance: insights from a study of public development centers," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 333-349, April.
    18. Jordan Famularo, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility communication in the ICT sector: digital issues, greenwashing, and materiality," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, December.
    19. Kammerlander, Nadine & Sieger, Philipp & Voordeckers, Wim & Zellweger, Thomas, 2015. "Value creation in family firms: A model of fit," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 63-72.
    20. Yannis Caloghirou & Stavros Ioannides & Nicholas S. Vonortas, 2003. "Research Joint Ventures," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(4), pages 541-570, September.
    21. Babiak, Kathy M., 2009. "Criteria of effectiveness in multiple cross-sectoral interorganizational relationships," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 1-12, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:scaman:v:30:y:2014:i:2:p:163-174. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/872/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.