IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v28y2021i4p1304-1322.html

Mentoring as affective governmentality: Shame, (un)happiness, and the (re)production of masculine leadership

Author

Listed:
  • Jette Sandager

Abstract

This article contributes to current discussions on the effectiveness of mentoring as a gender equality tool, but also focuses on the emotions and bodily (dis)comforts mentoring produces in addition to linguistic discourses, thus offering a novel take on how the tool operates. Drawing on a case study of a Danish mentoring program aimed at establishing the organizational space of leadership as more gender equal, the article demonstrates how, in producing shame and (un)happiness, mentoring (re)produces leadership as an organizational space dominated by masculine norms and work practices. The findings of the article support literature arguing that mentoring is an ineffective gender equality tool. However, the article does not entirely discard mentoring for this purpose, instead suggesting that scholars and practitioners look to literature on queered forms of mentoring for inspiration on how to use mentoring as a tool that carries the potential of truly promoting gender equality.

Suggested Citation

  • Jette Sandager, 2021. "Mentoring as affective governmentality: Shame, (un)happiness, and the (re)production of masculine leadership," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1304-1322, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:4:p:1304-1322
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12653
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12653
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12653?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frey, Bruno S & Stutzer, Alois, 2000. "Happiness, Economy and Institutions," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(466), pages 918-938, October.
    2. Cayce C. Hughes & Kristen Schilt & Bridget K. Gorman & Jenifer L. Bratter, 2017. "Framing the Faculty Gender Gap: A View from STEM Doctoral Students," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 398-416, July.
    3. Dworkin, Terry Morehead & Maurer, Virginia & Schipani, Cindy A., 2012. "Career mentoring for women: New horizons/Expanded methods," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 363-372.
    4. Bruno S. Frey, 2018. "Economics of Happiness," SpringerBriefs in Economics, Springer, number 978-3-319-75807-7, April.
    5. Gherardi, Silvia & Poggio, Barbara, 2001. "Creating and recreating gender order in organizations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 245-259, October.
    6. Elisabeth Kelan, 2009. "Gender as an Ideological Dilemma," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Performing Gender at Work, chapter 6, pages 145-181, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Sadhvi Dar & Yasmin Ibrahim, 2019. "The Blackened body and White governmentality: Managing the UK academy and the production of shame," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(9), pages 1241-1254, September.
    8. Christiana Hilmer & Michael Hilmer, 2007. "Women Helping Women, Men Helping Women? Same-Gender Mentoring, Initial Job Placements, and Early Career Publishing Success for Economics PhDs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 422-426, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lilith A. Whiley & Ashley Wright & Sarah E. Stutterheim & Gina Grandy, 2023. "“A part of being a woman, really”: Menopause at work as “dirty” femininity," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 897-916, May.
    2. Araki, Satoshi & Olivos, Francisco, 2025. "Gender inequality, well-being, and ill-being: A macro analysis of human and societal flourishing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 366(C).
    3. Singh, Anjali & Das, Seema & Jha, Sumi, 2023. "Women leadership and emotions: Knowledge structure and future research opportunities," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 864-882.
    4. Rhea Ashley Hoskin & Lilith A. Whiley, 2023. "Femme‐toring: Leveraging critical femininities and femme theory to cultivate alternative approaches to mentoring," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1317-1333, July.

    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. Torgler, Benno & Schneider, Friedrich & Schaltegger, Christoph A., 2007. "With or Against the People? The Impact of a Bottom-Up Approach on Tax Morale and the Shadow Economy," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series qt6331x6vz, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
    2. Carl Christian von Weizsäcker, 2011. "Homo Oeconomicus Adaptivus – Die Logik des Handelns bei veränderlichen Präferenzen," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics 2011_10, Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics.
    3. Barbora Mazúrová & Ján Kollár & Gabriela Nedelová, 2021. "Travel Mode of Commuting in Context of Subjective Well-Being—Experience from Slovakia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Easterlin, Richard A. & Angelescu McVey, Laura & Switek, Maggie & Sawangfa, Onnicha & Zweig, Jacqueline Smith, 2011. "The Happiness-Income Paradox Revisited," IZA Discussion Papers 5799, IZA Network @ LISER.
    5. Benno Torgler, 2003. "Tax Morale in Transition Countries," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 357-381.
    6. Flavio Comim, 2005. "Capabilities and Happiness: Potential Synergies," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(2), pages 161-176.
    7. Simone Schneider, 2012. "Income Inequality and its Consequences for Life Satisfaction: What Role do Social Cognitions Play?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(3), pages 419-438, May.
    8. Bruno S. Frey & Anthony Gullo, 2021. "Does Sports Make People Happier, or Do Happy People More Sports?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(4), pages 432-458, May.
    9. Andersson, Fredrik W., 2006. "Is Concern for Relative Consumption a Function of Relative Consumption?," Working Papers in Economics 220, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    10. Easterlin, Richard A. & Angelescu McVey, Laura, 2009. "Happiness and Growth the World Over: Time Series Evidence on the Happiness-Income Paradox," IZA Discussion Papers 4060, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Paul Downward & Simona Rasciute, 2011. "An Economic Analysis of the Subjective Health and Well-being of Physical Activity," Chapters, in: Plácido Rodríguez & Stefan Késenne & Brad R. Humphreys (ed.), The Economics of Sport, Health and Happiness, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Hajdu, Tamás & Hajdu, Gábor, 2011. "A hasznosság és a relatív jövedelem kapcsolatának vizsgálata magyar adatok segítségével [Examining the relation of utility and relative income using Hungarian data]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 56-73.
    13. Funk, Matt, 2008. "On the Problem of Sustainable Economic Development: A Theoretical Solution to this Prisoner's Dilemma," MPRA Paper 19025, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 08 Jun 2008.
    14. Kitae Sohn, 2013. "Sources Of Happiness In Indonesia," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 58(02), pages 1-27.
    15. Necati Aydin, 2013. "Redefining Islamic Economics as a New Economic Paradigm," Islamic Economic Studies, The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), vol. 21, pages 1-34.
    16. Jan Eichhorn, 2013. "Unemployment Needs Context: How Societal Differences between Countries Moderate the Loss in Life-Satisfaction for the Unemployed," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(6), pages 1657-1680, December.
    17. Bender, Keith A., 2012. "An analysis of well-being in retirement: The role of pensions, health, and ‘voluntariness’ of retirement," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 424-433.
    18. Adrian Chadi, 2019. "Dissatisfied with life or with being interviewed? Happiness and the motivation to participate in a survey," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 53(3), pages 519-553, October.
    19. Richard Layard, 2006. "Happiness and Public Policy: a Challenge to the Profession," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(510), pages 24-33, March.
    20. Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D’Ambrosio & Simone Ghislandi, 2016. "Adaptation to Poverty in Long-Run Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(3), pages 591-600, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:4:p:1304-1322. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    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.