Organising Feminisms (Women's Studies at York Series)

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This interdisciplinary study explores howpatriarchal power in the academy is exercised, rather than simply possessed. As such, the book aims to offer conceptual insights into the quotidian practice of power. It analyses how domination is experienced and resisted by a sample of feminist academics and students in Britain, Sweden and Greece. Informants analyse organisational culture in the academy in terms of atmosphere and ethos, symbolism, networks, coalitions, women in senior positions and critical mass theory. Issues such as emotion, embodiment, motherhood, agency, bureaucracy, creativity, organisational change, support and the sociology of space are theorised in the context of gendered power in the academy. Attention is also drawn to the micropolitics of coercive power relations such as harassment, bullying and spite as means of gendered regulation. Its object is to explore the processes through which change may be both activated and constrained. As part of this process, the study examines the efficacy of equity policies. The cross-cultural focus offers evidence of international patterns of gender inequalities in dominant organisations of knowledge production.

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LOUISE MORLEY is Lecturer and Director of Graduate Studies in the Institute of Education at the University of Sussex, UK. Her previous posts were at the University of Reading and in equal opportunities work for the Inner London Education Authority. She has been involved with Women's Studies both in the UK, and on an international basis. She has published widely on feminist education, power, policy, equity and empowerment in higher and professional education and public service organizations. Recent publications include Feminist Academics: Creative Agents For Change and Breaking Boundaries: Women in Higher Education (both co-edited with Val Walsh). She is currently writing a book, with Naz Rassool, on equity and school effectiveness.