|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
|
Disciplined Bodies: Women's Embodied Identities at Work
Angela Trethewey
Department of Communication, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
This study employs a Foucauldian feminist lens to analyze how organizational and gendered discourses are quite literally written upon women's bodies in ways that often constrain women's professional identities. Nineteen professional women were interviewed about their definitions and experiences of their professional bodies. The interview data are summarized in the following three emergent and telling themes: (1) a professional body is a fit body; (2) a professional body (purpose-fully) emits signs and messages through bodily comportment, nonverbal behaviours, and performances. Thus, the body is conceived as a text to be read; and, (3) a professional woman's body is positioned as excessively) sexual. The task of controlling the female body is made more difficult because the female body has a tendency to overflow. The undisciplined, excessive body points to the female body's otherness. These three themes indicate how professional women's bodies are normalized and made docile in organizational contexts. Additionally, the interview data imply that both men and women are disciplinarians. Finally, the political implications of women's embodied professional identities are discussed and future research directions are presented.
Key Words: discipline • women's bodies • professionalism • identity
Organization Studies, Vol. 20, No. 3,
423-450 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840699203003
 CiteULike  Complore  Connotea  Del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Technorati  Twitter What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
|
|
 
A. Waring and J. Waring
Looking the Part: Embodying the Discourse of Organizational Professionalism in the City
Current Sociology,
May 1, 2009;
57(3):
344 - 364.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Pullen and R. Simpson
Managing difference in feminized work: Men, otherness and social practice
Human Relations,
April 1, 2009;
62(4):
561 - 587.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
G. Cheney and M. Nadesan
Forum Conclusion: A Response to These Essays and a Prologue to Further Investigations
Management Communication Quarterly,
August 1, 2008;
22(1):
181 - 189.
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
K. Riach
'Othering' older worker identity in recruitment
Human Relations,
November 1, 2007;
60(11):
1701 - 1726.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Hindmarsh and A. Pilnick
Knowing Bodies at Work: Embodiment and Ephemeral Teamwork in Anaesthesia
Organization Studies,
September 1, 2007;
28(9):
1395 - 1416.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
G. Cheney and D. L. Cloud
Doing Democracy, Engaging the Material: Employee Participation and Labor Activity in an Age of Market Globalization
Management Communication Quarterly,
May 1, 2006;
19(4):
501 - 540.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. Jones
Spot the Difference: Discourse in Organizational Communication, Organizational Studies, and Workplace Sociolinguistics
Management Communication Quarterly,
November 1, 2005;
19(2):
288 - 298.
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. K. Mumby
Theorizing Resistance in Organization Studies: A Dialectical Approach
Management Communication Quarterly,
August 1, 2005;
19(1):
19 - 44.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. J. Tracy
The Construction of Correctional Officers: Layers of Emotionality Behind Bars
Qualitative Inquiry,
August 1, 2004;
10(4):
509 - 533.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Trethewey
Reproducing and Resisting the Master Narrative of Decline: Midlife Professional Women's Experiences of Aging
Management Communication Quarterly,
November 1, 2001;
15(2):
183 - 226.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Trethewey and S. Corman
Anticipating K-Commerce: E-Commerce, Knowledge Management, and Organizational Communication
Management Communication Quarterly,
May 1, 2001;
14(4):
619 - 628.
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
