Performing Gender in the Workplace

Despite an increase in the number of women in the labour market, gender inequalities and gender segregation persist. This chapter explores how gender is practised and performed in the workplace. It first outlines the key concepts of gender, performance, and culture before discussing dominant cultural stereotypes on how we “do” gender in the workplace. Two case studies on women in computing and female entrepreneurs illustrate how people negotiate, (re)produce, and challenge gendered cultures. You will thus gain insights into how workplaces and organisational culture(s) are shaped by socially accepted gender roles and can, in turn, reinforce and contest these.