CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: CULTURE, PRACTICE, AND STRUCTURE

Three traditional social science approaches to organizational change inform ISU's Comprehensive Institutional Intervention model. None of these alone is sufficient for creating lasting organizational change. Our strategy employs the most effective elements of the three approaches to devise a comprehensive strategy for transforming institutional culture, practice and structure.

Partial solutions: Traditional approaches. Most organizational approaches to gender equity transformations fall into one of three categories (Calas & Smircich, 1996; Ely & Meyerson, 2000b):

1. "Fixing the women." The "ideal scholar," like the "ideal worker" in work organizations, is one whose life is structured to accommodate the goals of the institution (Acker, 1990; Connell, 1995; Williams, 2000). Those whose lives best fit the "ideal scholar" mold are more likely to be affirmed, valued, and promoted, and to experience greater personal success than those whose lives cannot conform to the "ideal worker" (Jacobs & Winslow, 2004b). Institutions of higher education across the United States have implemented programs intended to provide women and people of color with skills and credentials that they presumably lack, but that white men presumably have, in order to enable women and people of color to "be" the ideal scholar (Carli & Eagly, 1999). While this approach can help many women succeed in the workplace (e.g., by providing skills for successfully negotiating for laboratory space), it has limited value because it does not address gendered structural barriers to women's success (e.g., tenure policies that penalize one for devoting time/energy to child/elder care).


2. "Valuing 'feminine' skills." This approach seeks to educate men and women of the value that "feminine" skills bring to a department (e.g., co-operation as a strategy for collaboration and information sharing). This approach acknowledges diversity, but is problematic because it reinforces stereotypes that suggest women are essentially different from men. This approach also has the unintended effect of reinforcing the notion that a woman who leads or does research "like a man" is not "appropriately" feminine (Pierce, 1995; Williams, 1995). This is especially problematic because research has shown that men or women who deviate from gender expectations are granted less authority than those who conform (Valian, 1998).


3. "Breaking down institutionalized barriers." Universities nation-wide have added policies intended to alleviate barriers posed by the assumptions behind the "ideal scholar" model. Parental leave, delaying the tenure clock, and part-time tenure tracks are examples of top-down policies created and implemented in an attempt to remove institutional barriers to women's success. While this approach helps some women advance, it is often inadequate because it does not address organizational culture. Such policies cannot have their full, intended effect unless the culture and practices of departments and universities are organized such that people actually take advantage of them (American Council on Education 2005).



Back to Initiatives