The power of women's connections: A study of women and men in corporate-government affairs

• Main Author: Scott, Denise Benoit
• Language: ENG
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 1996
• Subjects: Sociology|Womens studies|Political science
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9639026

Women occupy an increasingly significant proportion of professional and managerial positions in the United States. This dissertation asks whether this shift translates into importance and power for women by examining their connections within a particular occupational context--corporate-government affairs management. Workplace and family ties have been characterized by social scientists and economists in gendered ways. Women's ties in the marketplace and in the home are typically characterized as "expressive," compared to men's "instrumental" connections. These characterizations are rooted in traditionally male conceptions of power that stress domination rather than influence, capacity, and strength. Drawing primarily from in-depth interviews and a mail survey of government relations officials who are their corporations' political action committee (PAC) managers, this dissertation examines the character of women's connections in the workplace and family, whether they differ from men's, and what these differences reveal. The findings indicate that, although women's and men's networks are similar in many ways, there is a significant difference in their character. This dissertation concludes that although women's connections at work and in the home are limiting in a variety of ways, they nonetheless potentially empower women by placing them in key positions to influence their own conditions as well as the character of corporate-government affairs. One of the broader implications of this study is that by studying women's connections in the context of the occupations within which they are embedded, and using a more inclusive conception of power, we can move beyond traditional dichotomies that denigrate and devalue women's work and women's connections to a better understanding of women's opportunities and power.