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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Discourses of ambition, gender and part-time work
Contributor:
Benschop, Yvonne;
van den Brink, Marieke;
Doorewaard, Hans;
Leenders, Joke
imprint:
SAGE Publications, 2013
Published in:Human Relations
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1177/0018726712466574
ISSN:
0018-7267;
1741-282X
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<jats:p> The aim of this article is to unravel the gendered practices in ambition and challenge the hegemonic masculinity within it. Our findings are based on a qualitative study using focus groups in which Dutch men and women, full-timers and part-timers, constructed different meanings of ambition. The men and women in our study used three manifest discourses of ambition in the workplace, regarding individual development, mastery of the task, and upward career mobility. A critical analysis of these three discourses indicates how cultural and organizational norms on gender and working hours affect these constructions of ambition. We argue that a fourth discourse, ‘ambition as a resource’, is a major driving force of inequality. ‘Ambition as a resource’ is the dominant hegemonic discourse in organizations, and its power effects mitigate the impact of other discourses on ambition, revealing the potential for change when different discourses of ambition are valued. </jats:p>