IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v30y2023i6p1996-2013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“What use is the legislation to me?” Contestations around the meanings of gender equality in legislation and its strategic use to drive structural change in university organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Rebecca Tildesley
  • MariaCaterina La Barbera
  • Emanuela Lombardo

Abstract

Multiple meanings of gender equality in the implementation process provide feminist actors in institutions with opportunities to contest these meanings to address resistance against gender equality policy implementation and drive structural change in organizations. Taking legislation as a key discursive resource and Spanish universities as a case study, this article analyzes how the meaning of gender equality is constructed in the relevant legislation and how feminist actors interpret and use it in their implementation efforts. Despite a women approach predominating in the legislation, feminist actors contest and reinterpret these meanings to push for a more transformative gender approach in their institutions. They strategically use the legislation, molding it to their preferred approach, to negotiate the meaning of gender equality and to drive structural gender equality actions and demand institutional compliance.

Suggested Citation

  • Rebecca Tildesley & MariaCaterina La Barbera & Emanuela Lombardo, 2023. "“What use is the legislation to me?” Contestations around the meanings of gender equality in legislation and its strategic use to drive structural change in university organizations," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(6), pages 1996-2013, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:30:y:2023:i:6:p:1996-2013
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.13039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13039
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.13039?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. Debra E. Meyerson & Maureen A. Scully, 1995. "Crossroads Tempered Radicalism and the Politics of Ambivalence and Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(5), pages 585-600, October.
    2. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/f5vtl5h9a73d5ls976m1ga289 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Rosalind Eyben, 2010. "Subversively Accommodating: Feminist Bureaucrats and Gender Mainstreaming," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(2), pages 54-61, March.
    4. Stina Powell & Malin Ah†King & Anita Hussénius, 2018. "‘Are we to become a gender university?’ Facets of resistance to a gender equality project," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 127-143, March.
    5. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/f5vtl5h9a73d5ls976m1ga289 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Michel Anteby & Curtis K. Chan, 2018. "A Self-Fulfilling Cycle of Coercive Surveillance: Workers’ Invisibility Practices and Managerial Justification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 247-263, April.
    2. Thais França & Filipa Godinho & Beatriz Padilla & Mara Vicente & Lígia Amâncio & Ana Fernandes, 2023. "“Having a family is the new normal”: Parenting in neoliberal academia during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 35-51, January.
    3. Slavova, Mira & Metiu , Anca, 2015. "Ritualization and the Process of Knowledge Transfer," ESSEC Working Papers WP1511, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    4. James Traeger & Carolyn Norgate, 2015. "A safe place to stay sharp: action learning meets cooperative inquiry in the service of NHS OD capacity building," Action Learning: Research and Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 197-207, July.
    5. Margaret Hodgins & Pat O’Connor & Lucy-Ann Buckley, 2022. "Institutional Change and Organisational Resistance to Gender Equality in Higher Education: An Irish Case Study," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, May.
    6. Inga SHALEV & Adriana PRODAN, 2018. "Limiting Terms of Office for Directors as a Policy Change in the Israeli Nursing System," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(2), pages 109-123, May.
    7. Lisa Buchter, 2023. "Militer de l’intérieur : Les stratégies des réseaux professionnels LGBT," Post-Print hal-04325686, HAL.
    8. Rebecca Tiessen, 2019. "What’s New about Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy and Why ‘More of the Same’ Matters," SPP Research Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 12(44), December.
    9. Alison Pullen & Sheena Vachhani & Suzanne Gagnon & Nelarine Cornelius & Carl Rhodes, 2017. "Ethical Praxis and the Business Case for LGBT Diversity: Political Insights from Judith Butler and Emmanuel Levinas," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 533-546, September.
    10. Chatterjee, Ira & Cornelissen, Joep & Wincent, Joakim, 2021. "Social entrepreneurship and values work: The role of practices in shaping values and negotiating change," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    11. Ea Høg Utoft, 2021. "Maneuvering within postfeminism: A study of gender equality practitioners in Danish academia," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 301-317, January.
    12. Michal Carrington & Detlev Zwick & Benjamin Neville, 2019. "Activism and Abdication on the Inside: The Effect of Everyday Practice on Corporate Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 973-999, December.
    13. Ruthanne Huising, 2019. "Moving off the Map: How Knowledge of Organizational Operations Empowers and Alienates," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 1054-1075, September.
    14. Hoyer, Patrizia, 2016. "Making space for ambiguity: Rethinking organizational identification from a career perspective," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 166-177.
    15. W. E. Douglas Creed & Maureen A. Scully & John R. Austin, 2002. "Clothes Make the Person? The Tailoring of Legitimating Accounts and the Social Construction of Identity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(5), pages 475-496, October.
    16. Nina van Douwen & Marieke van den Brink & Yvonne Benschop, 2022. "Badass marines: Resistance practices against the introduction of women in the Dutch military," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1443-1462, September.
    17. Stewart, Alex, 2020. "Family control, ambivalence, and preferential benefits," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 11(4).
    18. Katherine C. Kellogg, 2011. "Hot Lights and Cold Steel: Cultural and Political Toolkits for Practice Change in Surgery," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 482-502, April.
    19. Mergaert, Lut and Emanuela Lombardor, 2014. "Resistance to implementing gender mainstreaming in EU research policy," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 18, November.
    20. James Traeger, 2016. "Embodied generosity -- the ethics of doing action research in the places where we work," Action Learning: Research and Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 3-9, March.

    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:30:y:2023:i:6:p:1996-2013. 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.