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Narratives by women managers about spousal support for their careers

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  • Heikkinen, Suvi
  • Lämsä, Anna-Maija
  • Hiillos, Minna

Abstract

In this article we present a qualitative study of spousal support for the careers of women managers. The research material consists of the narratives of 25 women managers in Finland. The study has two main implications. Firstly, unlike previous studies, we use a narrative approach to demonstrate that a woman manager's career and spousal support are experienced as ambiguous and evolving over the career. The support was constructed by the women managers as flourishing, irrelevant, deficient or inconsistent. Secondly, to increase our knowledge about gender relations, we combine discussion of the topic with gender order analysis and suggest that gender order is critical for an understanding of the nature of spousal support. We conclude that a male spouse who is willing to break the traditional gender order and provide his wife with various forms of support is often constructed as having a positive influence on the career of his woman manager wife. The study calls attention to families as sites of doing gender.

Suggested Citation

  • Heikkinen, Suvi & Lämsä, Anna-Maija & Hiillos, Minna, 2014. "Narratives by women managers about spousal support for their careers," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 27-39.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:scaman:v:30:y:2014:i:1:p:27-39
    DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2013.04.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gertsen, Martine Cardel & Søderberg, Anne-Marie, 2010. "Expatriate stories about cultural encounters--A narrative approach to cultural learning processes in multinational companies," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 248-257, September.
    2. Gherardi, Silvia & Poggio, Barbara, 2001. "Creating and recreating gender order in organizations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 245-259, October.
    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.
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    1. Suvi Heikkinen & Anna-Maija Lämsä & Charlotta Niemistö, 2021. "Work–Family Practices and Complexity of Their Usage: A Discourse Analysis Towards Socially Responsible Human Resource Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 815-831, July.
    2. Maya Staub & Thamar Melanie Heijstra, 2022. "“This Would Never be Possible if Not for Our Team Play”: An Analysis of Icelandic Doctorate Earnings from a Gender Perspective," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 565-580, September.

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