« Ni un homme, ni une femme, mais un consultant. » Régimes de genre dans l'espace du conseil en management

In management consulting, gender discriminations derive from different social processes. Facing specific constraints while doing the job and performing in front of customers, female consultants, particularly managing consultants, have to use tactics to neutralize gender and to appear as legitimate professional figures. Nonetheless, virile defensive strategies solidly maintain gender boundaries at a symbolic level, through the ideal-typical figure of the ?outgoing and tough expert?. Gender regimes are also embedded in human resources and career management and ?up or out? systems. The result is a much easier access to partnership for male competitors. However, in several consulting firms, a less rigid organizational model enables women to explore alternative ways to bypass gender barriers, even if the most economically profitable careers remain almost exclusively masculine.