Workplace diversity debated at ESRC gender inclusion seminar

Leading researchers in the fields of management and organisation studies gathered on 17 June for the third seminar in the Gendered Inclusion in Organisations series.

Entitled ‘Researching Gendered Inclusion: Interdisciplinary Methodologies’, the event saw academics from across the UK meet to discuss a range of innovative, interdisciplinary research methodologies for exploring the gendered nature of inclusion in the workplace. Delegates joined to reflect on issues of workplace diversity and how they can make a positive impact on gender inclusion in their research and interactions with various organisational stakeholders.

Professor Martyna Sliwa, Director of Essex Business School’s Centre for Work, Organisation and Society co-organised the event with colleagues from Middlesex University, University of Kent, University of Portsmouth and The Cranfield School of Management.

She said:

“The current extent to which women participate in the labour market is the result of many years of struggle to create the conditions for reducing gender inequality and deserves recognition. However, this success also poses challenges for academics, who must continue to question prevalent patterns of inclusion.

“June’s event provided a forum for creative engagement around important issues of workplace diversity. We are seeking to create a dialogue with practitioners and policymakers about the need to critically appraise and change the ways women and men are included within contemporary organisations.”

Presentations included:

• Analysing Gendered Representations in Popular Culture - Professor Emma Bell, Keele Management School, Keele University
• (Male) Members Only: Place, Performativity and Position in the Powerhouse - Louise Nash, Essex Business School, University of Essex
• Ethnographic Encounters: Gender, Politics and Therapeutic Technologies - Dr Suvi Salmenniemi, Department of Sociology, University of Turku
• Rethinking Methodologies of Gender Inclusion - Professor Melissa Tyler, Essex Business School, University of Essex

Funded by the ESRC, the Gendered Inclusion in Organisations seminar series argues for a shift in how we theorise and understand ongoing gender discrimination in the workplace. The series calls for a move away from explanations that assume exclusion (underpinned materially and symbolically by a masculine norm), towards a focus on the way in which women and men are included in organisations today.