Technocracy and Gender in the Workplace

Technocracy, the most recent in a series of different types of workplace control, is analyzed, particularly with regard to its gender implications. Technocratic organization is characterized by: (I) polarization into expert and non-expert sectors and the erosion of internal labor markets in favor of external credentialing, (2) flexible configurations of centralization/ decentralization, (3) skill restructuring, (4) increased importance of expertise rather than rank authority as the primary basis of organizational authority, and (5) technocratic ideology of apolitical decision making based on technical imperatives and system maintenance. These changes have particular implications for women because they structure economic opportunity in new and yet still gendered ways.