Gendertelling in Organizations

An engrossing and enlightening book for every woman who works and for all men who want to learn more about the women they work with.
This book gathers the stories told by men and women. With a play on words sometimes used by feminists in the past, it could have been entitled His/story and Her/story, in order to convey from the outset a banal, but sometimes overlooked, fact: the contents of stories depend on the voice telling them, and the experience recounted in first person differs according to the gender of the narrator. The purpose of the book is to make an innovative contribution, both empirical and theoretical, to understanding of the ways in which male and female are constructed in organizations.


"An engrossing and enlightening book for every woman who works and for all men who want to learn more about the women they work with. This intriguing book illuminates and dissects the stories of men and women struggling to find ways to adjust their old ideas about gender. We are shown how the introduction of women, into jobs previously reserved for men, upsets old ways of doing business and creates difficult new ways of being a woman ? or a man ? at work."

Joanne Martin, Fred H. Merrill Professor of Organizational Behavior, Emerita, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University


"This excellent study of gender at work using a "narrative of entry" approach offers invaluable insights about gender in occupations that have historically excluded women. Their skillful integration of theories of gender, practice, interaction, and organizations augments understanding and challenges organizational leaders to create conditions that avoid unjustly penalizing women."

Patricia Yancey Martin, Dairy Parker Flory Professor of Sociology, and 2007 recipient of the American Sociological Association's prestigious Jessie Bernard Award for Gender.