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International Journal of Training and Development 10:1
ISSN 1360-3736
. 英国留学生论文2006 The Author. Journal Compilation . 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ,
UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Choice, diversity and ‘false consciousness’
41
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Oxford, UK and Malden, USAIJTDInternational Journal of Training and Development1360-3736Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 20052005
10
14154Articles
Choice, diversity and
‘false consciousness’International Journal of Training and Development
r
Val Caven, Department of Human Resource Management, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham
Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK. E-mail: valerie.caven@ntu.ac.uk.
Choice, diversity and
‘false consciousness’ in
women’s careers
Val Caven
The central theme of this paper is that contemporary literature
concerning women’s careers is based on assumptions held by
researchers and not actually on views held by women themselves.
Many feminist researchers are guilty of assuming ‘false
consciousness’ on the part of their subjects by explaining these
women as being victims of gender or patriarchal systems
instead of making a mindful decision founded on choice. The
empirical work draws on in-depth interviews with 39 women
architects. Of the 39 women interviewed, 20 had adopted alternative
ways of working in the sense that they had rejected the
conventional career within an organization. Their reasons for
this were diverse and ranged from wanting to combine child or
elder care with work; involvement in local politics; wanting
time for further study or sporting activities; as well as just not
wanting to work full-time. In short, this research demonstrates
that work is not always a central interest in the lives of individuals
and supports Hakim’s view of heterogeneity among
women.
Introduction
Conventional literature regarding women’s careers assumes that women want to work
full-time, and alternative forms of work organization other than an upward, linear
progression within an organization are regarded with a sense of failure (Mallon &
Cohen, 2001). Hakim’s (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003) contention that women have
differing orientations to work challenged many of these assumptions and became the
subject of much derision from her critics (Bruegel, 1996; Crompton & Harris, 1998;
Crompton & Le Feuvre, 1996; Ginn
et al
., 1996; McRae, 2003a, 2003b; Procter & Pad42
International Journal of Training and Development
. 2006 The Author. Journal Compilation . 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
field, 1999; Walsh, 1999). The only area of common ground appears to be that McRae
(2003a, 2003b) concurs that most sociological theory is inadequate at explaining
women’s employment decisions.
Sociological theories overemphasize structural factors, and micro-level explanations
such as preference are ignored (Hakim, 2002). However, many women want to care
for their own families (Meiksins & Whalley, 1998) rather than rely on institutional care
and do this by adopting work patterns, which allow them to maximize both their
employment careers and family life (Meiksins & Whalley, 1998; Tilly, 1996; Walsh,
1999). Hakim’s critics have largely overlooked this fact, preferring instead to focus on
economic and social factors (McRae, 2003a, 2003b) and lack of inst本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。