Looking Good and Being Good: Women Leaders in Australian Universities
- For leadership
- Summary created: 2021
This research examines explicit and implicit ways women’s leadership bodies are gendered. I interrogate the visibility of women in leadership positions and the performance of gender.
Summary was created by
In this article, I argue that women in senior leadership positions in universities continue to face a number of tensions and ambiguities in their everyday working lives.
Insights
Their physical presence, appearance, clothing, gestures, and behaviours are central to the bodily exercise of leadership.
As the data presented illustrate, women’s leadership bodies and bodily performances reflect gendered institutional norms and assumptions about how leaders should look and act.
What it means
Drawing on the metaphors of ‘looking good’ and ‘being good’, I highlight the gendered assumptions that senior women encounter. As senior leaders, women are simultaneously required to negotiate an inherently masculine culture yet at the same time are expected to exercise a level of femininity.
These research findings can be applied to any context, and in any organisation.
Proposed action
Conduct unconscious bias training
Understanding of organisational culture
Organisations should commit to understanding implicit ways in which gender operates
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Acknowledgements
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