Yvonne Due Billing

University of Copenhagen

Dept. Of Sociology

Abstract:

The will to power – On women and identities in managerial jobs.

For decades managerial jobs have been dominated by men. Because of the construction of a discourse of management and masculinity as almost inseparable the logical assumption has been to think of women and power positions as anti-thetical.

This understanding however is based upon the idea that women and men differ and that there is an immediate congruence between men and mangerial jobs. Within this discourse there are also expectations that women differ from men in their leadership style should they become managers. In this paper I am going to present the disharmony discourse and then on the basis of recent empirical Scandinavian data I wish to question the two above mentioned assumptions. I will argue that the ’misfit’ idea is too simplistic and based upon rigid ideas of leadership jobs and an essentialistic understanding of women.