Feminization Unveiled: Management Qualities in Contemporary Writings

Qualities that are culturally associated with females are appearing in descriptions of managerial work in the texts of contemporary writers, and these texts function as carriers of a feminine ethos to practicing managers. The article describes a mechanism—management writings—used to disseminate and legitimate a management idea. It examines the nature of the rhetoric used in management writings and the implication of authors' failure to label the idea by its name: feminization. This “feminization” is discussed from both women's voice and poststructuralist perspectives. Implications for management theorizing and future research are described.