FEB UI Management Department Research Seminar, “Publishing Qualitative Research: Gender and Organization”
DEPOK – (30/9/2021) On Thursday (30/9/2021), Lecturer and Researcher, Organizational Communication, Universitas Brawijaya, PhD Candidate UQ Business School Australia, Fitri Oktaviani was a speaker at the Research Seminar Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia (FEB UI), with the topic “Publishing Qualitative Research: Gender and Organization”.
In her presentation, Fitri Oktaviani explained on a paper titled “Trapped within Ideological Wars: Femininities in a Muslim Society and the Contest of Women as Leaders”, which was published in Gender, Work and Organization (Q1), after a review process of more than 1 year with 4 reviewers. The main problem in this study is how the issue of conflict against women who want to become leaders in Muslim countries with a case study of Indonesia, which is predominantly Muslim.
When women enter the world of leadership, it is very difficult because of stereotypes. Leadership stereotypes still describe leaders as having masculinity attributes. That is, if women become leaders and show too much masculinity, they are considered less compatible with the concept of femininity and are considered ‘fierce’. In addition, if women become leaders and are too feminine then they are considered weak. This happens because in the organizational world the norm of masculinity is built.
The majority of research focuses on the concept of hegemonic masculinity as a challenge faced by women when they have to enter as leaders. But there are still few who discuss the construction of women (hegemonic femininity).
“This study presents 4 discursive constructions of femininity, namely (1) Dialectic – Religion Political Femininity: the idealization of women as God’s creatures, especially from political Islam, they are positioned as followers of men. This is categorized as an anti-women narrative; (2) Ethical Femininity: women are positioned as men’s partners, they have different and equal roles before God even though women are allowed to be leaders but remain in their roles as mothers or wives; (3) Empowered Femininity: women can choose to determine their own lives and successful women can pursue their dreams and focus on self-development; (4) Equal Femininity: women and men have equal opportunities for competition. However, women must be reminded not to forget their roles as mothers or wives,” Fitri said in concluding her session.
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