”Snälla flickor kommer till himlen men vi andra kommer väldigt mycket längre” : En kvalitativ studie om kvinnors väg mot ledande positioner

• Main Authors: Olsson, Johanna, Seveson, Caroline
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper 2015
• Subjects: Coping strategies; gender; homosociality; management positions; male norm; obstacles; opportunities; sex; structures; the gender system; Genus; genussystemet; hanteringsstrategier; hinder; homosocialitet; kön; ledande positioner; manlig norm; möjligheter; strukturer
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-29224

In this qualitative study ”Nice girls go to heaven but the rest of us go much further”, Johanna Olsson and Caroline Seveson examine how women in male-dominated management boards have experienced and handled female gender roles in order to reach management positions. The study has a gender perspective and semi-structured interviews were conducted with five women. Previous research shows that there is a role incongruity between female gender roles and management positions since these positions often are coded as male. To analyze the material, a theoretical framework was chosen based on previous research and the study’s empirical data. The framework consists of theories discussing structures that can affect women’s career progress and coping strategies that can be used by women to handle female gender roles in order to reach management positions. The analysis shows that female gender roles can affect women’s career progress. The role incongruity between female gender roles and male coded management positions does not seem to have affected the participants notably since they, in comparison to “nice girls”, match the male norm and male coded management positions. The participants have occasionally used a gender neutral strategy, conformist strategy and loyalty strategy in order to reach management positions and parts of the theoretical framework could be developed based on the result of the study.