SAMKUL-Samfunnsutviklingens kulturell

What is it about gender, power and leadership that maintains a situation where men occupy the top positions in organizations? This is the overarching question for MirrorMirror. The aim is to explore gender as social and cultural dynamics. The project consists of several empirical studies, looking at powerful institutions like the defense force, maritime sector, and oil and finance businesses. MirrorMirror is also engaged with critical and idealistic arenas in our studies of green politics and humanitarian organizations. The analytical profile of MirrorMirror is based on the co-work between scholars from the humanities and the social sciences, and in particular marked by the use of perspectives from the humanities in this academic field where social scientists have dominated. Bolsø and Mühleisen (to be published November 2015) have addressed the esthetics of power by analyzing visual representations of women in powerful positions. They discuss the leeway there is for women in their negotiations of alternatives to the masculine connoted corporate suit, as women still have to keep personal and organizational authority. Visual representations also make up the empirical material for Gjelsvik (in progress) in her study of finance, while Snickare has interviewed men within finance banking, a male dominated work environment to the extreme, in her ethnographic study (in progress). An analysis of gender in the visual and textual recruitment material for the Norwegian Defence is under way, conducted by Svendsen and Lilleaas. Lilleaas has earlier in the project shown how mixed rooms in military service seem to discourage gendering and improve conditions for female recruits. The study of the maritime sector describes a broad and complex image of challenges for recruitment of women in to leadership positions in the sector (Langås, in production, with Momoko Kitada). The study of the maritime sector also shows how sex and sexuality figures in the work environments on ships. When on board, women seem to be held solely responsible for sexual moral, while they simultaneously are seen as carriers of a potential for sex which they have to negotiate (Langåker, Bolsø and Mühleisen, in progress). Bolsø and Svendsen have, in their study of the Norwegian Green Party, shown how green political currents, ecofeminism and Norwegian gender equality politics interact in constituting a concept of diversity in green politics. The study shows how the concept of diversity in the party's documents slides between its ecological and social meanings, producing a conflation. This results in a lacking understanding of social differences, including power differences. The gender performative effect of ideas and narratives about individual choices is a central issue on Sørensen's analyses of how depictions of career paths are gendered (Sørensen in progress, and under publication 2016). Preliminary analyses of a qualitative interview study in humanitarian organizations shows that conceptions about women's choices, leadership and status interact with gender (Sørensen, work in progress). Leadership is also a key issue in Dockweilers ongoing doctoral study, where the oil business is studied. She shows how gender imbalance and gender issues are treated with ignorance when issues of position and profession are at stake, and how this influences knowledge about leadership, as well as inclusion and exclusion mechanisms. The last study in the project has is starting up, and focuses on masculinity in the oil business (Svendsen). Mirror Mirror disseminates its results to the interested public and organizations in popular scientific form, as well as academic publications. The popular dissemination is done through op ed articles and lectures for interested publics in the sectors that are studied, government agencies, schools and the general public (see publication list for details). The project has also developed a book proposal for an anthology where results from the project as well as contributions from the international partners will be published. Cross cutting analyses of the results from the different strands in the project forms the basis for a policy paper (work in progress), which will be communicated to stakeholders in the sector of work and management.

The organizations selected for empirical study are central to the Norwegian social organism: the financial sector, the military and the petroleum/maritime sector. Powerful institutions produce visions and strategies, which will also be studied. In additio n, the empirical material includes data about organizations and discourses that are critical towards contemporary institutions and politics. The main research questions are: which symbolic constructions of gender and leadership are found in powerful or ganizations and in alternative political organizations and political visions? How are these symbolic constructions connected with structural distribution of power between the sexes? What are the backward-looking and/or forward-looking scientific, cultural and symbolic meanings of gendered power? How do cultural representations effect recruitment and career development of women and men in the organizations? The methodological approach includes interviews and field work within the organizations mentioned above, and also analysis of textual and visual representations. The project is organized in sub-projects and the empirical material will to a large extent be used across the sub-projects, which implies direct empirical, analytical and theoretical exchange between the researchers involved. It is important in this project to apply analytical theory from the Humanities, when until now, Economy and Social Science have dominated the field. The project is interdisciplinary and will be carried out in collabora tion between researchers from Stord/Haugesund University College, the University of Oslo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norwegian Institute for Water Research, University of Stavanger and University of London.