IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i6p5051-d1095469.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Engineering Emotion Sustainably: Affective Gendered Organizing of Engineering Identities and Third Space

Author

Listed:
  • Patrice M. Buzzanell

    (Department of Communication, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA)

  • Colleen Arendt

    (Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University, St. Paul, MN 55104, USA)

  • Rebecca L. Dohrman

    (Department of Management Communication, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA)

  • Carla B. Zoltowski

    (Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA)

  • Prashant Rajan

    (Research & Insights, Salesforce, Seattle, WA 98103, USA)

Abstract

The questions of why there are so few women in engineering and how to change engineering cultures to be more inclusive have garnered much social scientific research and considerable funding. Despite numerous findings and interventions, no studies to our knowledge have analyzed how difference is constituted discursively, materially, and affectively in ways that are deeply embedded in engineering occupational and societal cultures. This study takes an affective gendered organizing approach to analyze how affect is constituted through emotions/talk, interactions, and materialities. Using constructivist grounded theory, we explored our interview data of 69 engineers (45 women and 24 men) to find three themes. The first describes women’s sensate experiences that underlie their expressions of (un)belongingness and (in)visibility. The second depicts men’s emotional labor to voice inclusion while enacting exclusion. The third pulls these feelings forward as the impetus for women’s constitution of feminist third spaces/places that operate as sites of collective emotional labor and resilience. Throughout we display the contradictory and essential embodiment of affect within individuals’ identities and as a sensemaking force that continues to constitute organizing systems of inequity. Taking an affective gendered organizing approach enables researchers and practitioners to respond more fully to the question of why inclusion is so difficult to achieve and to develop sustainable interventions for women’s career success in STEM.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrice M. Buzzanell & Colleen Arendt & Rebecca L. Dohrman & Carla B. Zoltowski & Prashant Rajan, 2023. "Engineering Emotion Sustainably: Affective Gendered Organizing of Engineering Identities and Third Space," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-20, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:6:p:5051-:d:1095469
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/5051/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/5051/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Minkyung Kim & Elizabeth A. Williams, 2022. "Emotional Sustainability in Human Services Organizations: Cultural and Communicative Paths to Dealing with Emotional Work," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-17, November.
    2. Samantha Rae Powers & Michele W. Gazica & Karen K. Myers, 2022. "Emotional Communication and Human Sustainability in Professional Service Firms (PSFs)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-15, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jennifer S. Linvill & Gloria O. Onosu, 2023. "Stories of Leadership: Leading with Empathy through the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-22, May.
    2. Michael Cody Coker & Sarah E. Riforgiate, 2023. "Organizing Emotions throughout Disenfranchised Grief: Virtual Support Group Sensemaking through Emotion Discourses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-16, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:6:p:5051-:d:1095469. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.