Page 122 - Through the gate of the neoliberal academy • Herschberg
P. 122

120 CHAPTER 5
Studying the practicing of gender attends to this critique, as it “directs attention to the literal activities of gender, physical and narrative – the doing, displaying, asserting, narrating, performing, mobilizing, maneuvering” (Martin, 2003, p. 354). Van den Brink and colleagues (2016), for example, have found subtle patterns of practicing gender in the evaluation of men and women in business organisations that resulted in women getting attributed lower managerial competence than men. Current study builds on previous research on gender practices in academic hiring by examining the practicing of gender in action and interaction in real time and space. Looking at academic hiring from a practicing gender perspective can bring to light gender dynamics that are usually hidden from view (Martin, 2006). Through observations I could study how gender was practiced, in which moment, and by whom. Particularly, I could study how evaluation discussions unfolded, when gender was made relevant, how gender was negotiated, and how some committee members addressed and tried to eliminate practicing gender at times.
Studying the gendering dynamics in academic hiring also answers to the call for more research on gender that is practiced in groups (Martin, 2006). This can give insight into collective decision-making processes, organizational (micro) politics and its gendered effects. The concept of micro politics “focuses on the ways in which power is relayed in everyday practices” (Deem et al., 2005, p. 61). Organisational political processes are seen as fundamental to gender in organisations and maintaining gender differences (Davey, 2008). Political activity that perpetuates gender differences in organisations, usually remains covert as it is enacted through subtle, informal micro-processes (Davey, 2008). Hiring committees provide a good platform for studying practicing gender at the micro-interactional level (Martin, 2003), as they consist of multiple members that have their own agendas. They can “exercise the power of inclusion and exclusion and contribute to the persistence of structural gender inequalities” (Van den Brink & Benschop, 2014, p. 460). In this chapter, I will study how committee members practice gender in hiring procedures for assistant professor positions and also examine how they exert micro politics in these procedures.
5.5 Methodology
Research strategy
I conducted a qualitative case study, including six cases: three hiring procedures in a Natural Sciences department (STEM) and three hiring committees in a Social Sciences





























































































   120   121   122   123   124