Now we just need an answer!
.-= Shayna´s last blog ..Break Out The Hair Dye – Blondes Have More Fun – And Money! =-.

Regardless of whether or not someone claims a feminist lens, it is important to see what you do- that organizations don’t accommodate the needs of their employees and members. One challenge is to see that organizations’ failure to consider members’ needs is a systemic issue, one that usually can’t be addressed by one person working to fix his or her situation. Individual action usually isn’t strong enough to influence the system (unless that person is pretty powerful anyway). So it’s important to find ways (1) to reveal the systemic problems, and (2) to get individuals to work together to fix them for themselves and each other.

We are though struggling to find more effective change levers… ‘opting out’ doesn’t work… although I have high hopes for those who go off and create their own organizations and maybe create these different/ly.

I am looking forward to relationship-based changes (e.g., social media, social capital), because I think that in terms of conventional organizational change these are the bright shiny objects and will be so for a while. I think they might make good Trojan horses for other change initiatives. we’ll keep working on this.

Rachel–Your comments on the inequality of the workplace are right on and profoundly feminist. Those who fear losing positions, those who live paycheck to paycheck and have others dependent upon them, are in a far more delicate position than those who don’t fear the loss of their livelihood. But that fear can also stop people from taking actions. I am reminded of the early strikes by the men and women of the labor movement. Poor people, who desperately feared losing their jobs, put their jobs and sometimes lives on the line, to rewrite the conditions they worked under. As Elsie says, the entire culture has to be rewritten so that it is not just those who compete ferociously/act like those in charge/look & think like those in charge and (probably most importantly) are accepted by those in charge who have some control in a situation. Possibilities for alternate employment, from general increase in the economy and from feminist, authentic organizations, are one possibility for increased security for those who feel trapped and unable to speak.

You could say it is the perfection of ‘patriarchal’ values, just as ‘collaborative, cooperative, compassionate, inclusive, life-enhancing’ are feminine impulses. I have been working since 1998 to nurture the Feminine in the transnational C Suites. I’m getting tired of the lack of results. I’m getting ready to burn my bra again. Women? Where are you? Where is your threshold of tolerance? Let’s give the Feminine its due. If we don’t, who will? If not now, when?

I have a slightly different personal perspective in that I agree with you that I likely subvert many of the issues and concerns I care about because it never seems to have a ‘place’ in the business conversation inside an organization but I also don’t necessarily see myself as a feminist. Instead I am a person who is complex and has a lot of needs and I don’t think organizations always accommodate people’s complex and competing needs (and I think a lot of people are not even willing to let themselves acknowledge those needs for fear of being seen as a slacker – men and women). I also see a lot of people who are very competitive drive others to extremes because they see more/better/faster as the best way to manage. I think that it a position that lacks perspective and the long view but I think I’m in the minority.

Part of the problem is that regardless of gender, to demand that your needs be accommodated, you have to be fairly self-assured. I happen to think that the majority of people are not – at least not on that issue and it’s easy to see why – many people live paycheck to paycheck. It is a luxury to not fear being laid off or fired. I’m not really sure how to solve the problem. The people that have the luxury to demand work that accommodates them also typically have the luxury to go out on their own and create new models for themselves. So, not sure how to really systemically address this issue. If large organizations want people like you and me back in the fold, they will have to change quite a bit but I’m not sure they really do want mavericks (an issue for a whole different post).

So yes, there is a feminist issue here but there is also a humanist issue here and until people feel like they have good alternative options, they are going to suck up the existing power structure whether they like it or not.
.-= Rachel Happe´s last blog ..The New Diplomats: Community Managers =-.