Doing gender in engineering workplace cultures. II. Gender in/authenticity and the in/visibility paradox
Doing gender in engineering workplace cultures. II. Gender in/authenticity and the in/visibility paradox
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DOI：
10.1080/19378620903225059
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发表时间：
2009-01-01
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Faulkner, Wendy
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Faulkner, Wendy
本文的第一部分（第1卷，第1期）介绍了实地考察观察日常互动的工程工作场所的文化，这往往使男性比女性更容易建立工作关系，并“属于”在工程。这第二部分扩展了分析，通过研究“在/可见性悖论”，即女性工程师同时高度可见的妇女，但无形的工程师。这种悖论是理解女性工程师如何体验工程工作场所文化的关键，也是女性在工程领域保持和发展不佳的主要因素。女工程师作为工程师的不为人所知，这一点很明显，因为她们需要付出更大的努力才能被认真对待为“真实的工程师”，这可能会削弱她们的信心。他们作为女性的可见度带来了矛盾的压力-成为“小伙子之一”，但同时“不失去女性气质”。这些在/可见度动态有一个显着的累积效应，尤其是因为它们是微妙的和理所当然的。为了理解为什么会发生这种情况，本研究提出了一个相关的概念-性别/真实性-来捕捉男性和女性工程师的性别和工程身份的明显一致或不一致。这一概念为我们提供了一个更广泛的视角，解释为什么性别规范在工程领域的变化缓慢，以及如何在工程工作场所实现性别变化。
Part I of this paper (in Volume 1, Issue 1) presented fieldwork observations about everyday interactions in engineering workplace cultures, which tend to make it easier for men than for women to build working relationships and to 'belong' in engineering. This second part extends the analysis, by examining the 'in/visibility paradox' whereby women engineers are simultaneously highly visible as women yet invisible as engineers. This paradox is a key to understanding how women engineers experience engineering workplace cultures, and a major factor underlying the poor retention and progression of women in engineering. Women engineers' invisibility as engineers is evident in the greater effort required of them to be taken seriously as 'real engineers' and the undermining of confidence which can ensue. Their visibility as women brings contradictory pressures - to be 'one of the lads' but at the same time 'not lose their femininity'. These in/visibility dynamics have a significant cumulative effect, not least because they are subtle and taken for granted. To understand why they occur, the study proposes a related concept - gender in/authenticity - to capture the apparent congruence or non-congruence of gender and engineering identities for men and women engineers. This concept gives us a wider perspective on why gender norms are slow to change in engineering, and on how gender change might be achieved in engineering workplaces.