Speaking in the Gender-Divided Corporation

You may initially feel that the Gender-Divided corporation, based on the principle of gender difference, is barely a step forward from the Male-Dominated corporation described in the last chapter. Once again, many organisations today might deny that gender difference affects the distribution of jobs, individual career progress, conditions of work or pay — especially in light of legislation and professional codes of practice that seek to guarantee gender equality. Yet in my research experience, many companies in the western world have elements within them of gender difference, even if these are usually experienced quite subtly through attitudes, terms of address, speech styles, behaviour, appearance, dress and ‘representations’ of people in internal communications. Traditional as it still may be, the Gender-Divided corporation is definitely a better place to work for senior women than the Male-Dominated version in the sense that women are generally valued and supported rather than marginalised or disparaged.