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Browsing by Subject "gender inequality"

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  • Härkönen, Iiris (2018)
    The low proportion of women among attorneys-at-law in Finland is striking, particularly among attorneys-at-law in partner positions. Previous research has shown that female attorneys-at-law in Finland, although not working in the prestigious positions of power or financial decision-making, can express a belief in gender equal career opportunities. However, the idea of equal opportunities has been shown to be a myth, which ignores for instance how women are faced with greater expectations concerning family caretaking than men. Overall, the traditionally masculine norms of the legal field have been shown to carry a male advantage. While previous research on the topic has focused on the experiences of female attorneys-at-law, this thesis aims to study also men’s perspectives. The objective of this thesis is to understand better how attorneys-at-law, women and men, talk about gender equality and inequality within their profession, and what kind of attitudes towards the topics are being expressed. The theoretical framework for this thesis draws from social constructionism, rhetorical social psychology and the qualitative attitude approach. Altogether 13 women and men, of different age and living in different parts of Finland, were interviewed in October-November 2017. Three topics were discussed within the interviews: 1) career development as an attorney-at-law, 2) gender and gender equality, and 3) professional success. The analysis of this thesis focused only on the second theme of the interviews, gender and gender equality, and more precisely, on argumentative talk generated by five attitude statements concerning the role of gender, work and family reconciliation and gender inequality. The analysis revealed three different attitudes towards gender equality or inequality in the legal field: 1) gender inequality as women leaving the legal field, 2) gender equality as gender-neutral attitudes and treatment, and 3) men’s gender inequality as an upcoming problem. In addition, an important finding was how work and family reconciliation was constructed as a women’s concern. The attitudes drew from the discourses of individual choice, equal opportunities, and gender neutrality, the idea of work and family reconciliation concerning women, low amounts of boys in faculties of law, as well as a belief in the proportion of female partners changing. Functions of the attitudes included, among others, representing women or oneself as making justified choices over family caretaking or as having opportunities to leave or stay in the legal field, representing oneself as a supporter of gender neutrality or as a person who sees the situation from a larger perspective. Overall, the attitudes represented gender inequality as a problem or not as a problem in varying degrees. The most important references for this thesis were Choroszewicz’s (2014a) Managing Competitiveness in Pursuit of a Legal Career: Women Attorneys in Finland and Poland and Vesala’s & Rantanen’s (2007) Argumentaatio ja tulkinta.
  • Tuvikene, Maris (2023)
    This master’s thesis contributes to the limited research on gender equality discourses among elite occupational groups in Finland. The objective of the study is to examine how gender (in)equality is discursively constructed in the accounts of women middle managers. More specifically, it investigates which discourses are central in rationalizing gender (in)equality and analyses their implications on the visibility and legitimacy of gender inequalities. Theoretically, the study builds on feminist organizational sociology and especially on Joan Acker’s concept of ‘inequality regimes’. 8 semi-structured interviews with women middle managers form the material for the study. The interviewees work in the field of knowledge work in Finnish-based organizations. The interview data is constructed in interaction, with the researcher asking questions about gender and gender equality at work. Critical discourse analysis is used to understand how the discourses are used to resist or reproduce inequality. A meritocracy discourse and a diversity discourse emerged as central in rationalizing gender (in)equality, along with various postfeminist discursive moves. The meritocracy discourse drew from the rationale that skills and competence should be the basis of wages and advancement. The discourse was utilized to reveal gender-based discrimination or to counter affirmative action measures. The diversity discourse valued different social backgrounds as a business advantage. It was used to speak for the need to recruit people from different backgrounds and to emphasize the diversity of gender beyond a binary concept. The diversity discourse was also utilized to downplay gender equality as less important than other, more modern aspects of diversity. When diversity discourse was used to signify various personal differences, its potential impact on diversity or gender equality was lost. The postfeminist discursive moves, apparent throughout the data, minimized the significance of gender inequality in various ways, such as placing responsibility elsewhere or downplaying the relevance of gender in inequal situations. Overall, the postfeminist moves justified the existing situation. The results indicate how gender inequality is maintained discursively in organizations by legitimizing the status quo and not challenging systemic disadvantages. The role of women middle managers as proponents for gender equality is conflicted, as their position of relative power is constrained by managing gendered disadvantages in their career, the business-oriented logic of private sector organizations and by the difficult task of raising gender inequality as an issue in organizations where it is not deemed relevant. Change is possible if diversity is pursued by concrete actions and gender inequalities are not made light of, but raised as a significant topic in organizations, on its all levels.