Cold War, chilly climate: Exploring the roots of gendered discourse in organization and management theory

Abstract

Prior to the mid-1970s, gender was virtually absent from theories of management and organization (OMT), particularly within the North American context. In recent years, four strands of research have brought gender into management theory - gender and organizations, women in management, work-family conflict, and diversity management - but largely in ways that reinforce the masculinist project. With the exception of the more critical gender and organizations approach, gender continues to be discussed in OMT in ways that privilege masculinity and problematize femininity. This is particularly true of the work-family conflict literature and, to a lesser extent, the women in management literature. In this article, we are interested in the root of the gendered discourse within OMT. Through a feminist hermeneutic excavation of the development of modern OMT in post-war USA, we conclude that the continued masculinist project owes much to Cold War discourses of family and work