The Invisible Gendered Subject: Men in education management

Debates as to the efficacy of a 'new gender order', a place/time where women enjoy social ascendancy having displaced men/masculinity in 'crisis', increasingly inspire both academic and more popularist writings. Whilst recognising the seductive notion of such analysis and the shifts in many women's epistemological and ontological locations, this article considers whether any celebration might be somewhat premature. For whilst profound changes appear to have occurred in the self-perceptions of many women, to what extent have men changed? Drawing on feminist and pro-feminist analysis, and informed by recently completed research into education management, this article compares and contrasts the gendered subjectivities of women and men Further Education managers. In so doing, attention is given to the continuing debates surrounding the validity of feminist/womanist epistemologies, contrasting these with similar discussions in respect of the gendered subjectivities of men.