Performing Gender in the Workplace Gender Socialization, Power, and Identity Among Women Faculty Members

Organizational cultures shape and reinforce socially appropriate roles for men and women. Drawing on a performativity framework, which assumes that gender is socially constructed through gendered "performances," this study employs interviews with and observations of six women faculty members to examine how dominant discourses define and maintain the formation of gender roles within a community college context. The experiences of one of these faculty members, a welding instructor, are highlighted. Results indicate that the women faculty members performed a variety of stereotypical feminine gender roles based on (a) socialization experiences external to the college, (b) socialization within the college's organizational culture, and (c) the individual's construction and negotiation of gender identity.