Men as middle managers doing and undoing gender in organizations

• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Author: Elisabeth K. Kelan
• Date: 01 July 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12496

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Men as middle managers doing and undoing gender in organizations

Elisabeth K. Kelan

Essex Business School, University of Essex,

Colchester, UK

Correspondence

Professor Elisabeth K. Kelan, Professor of

Leadership and Organisation, Essex Business

School, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park,

Colchester, CO4 3SQ, Essex, UK.

Email: elisabeth.kelan@essex.ac.uk

Funding information

Leverhulme Trust, Grant/Award Number:

MRF-2019-069; British Academy, Grant/

Award Number: MD130085

Although middle managers are often presumed to resist change in organizations,

they can act as change drivers. This article shows how men as middle managers

aim to act as change agents for gender equality through doing and undoing gen-

der. Through practices such as bonding with women by objectifying them, being

engaged in women-focused initiatives and using gender equality to advance their

own careers, men as middle managers aim to create gender equality but often

reaffirm existing gender inequalities. However, men were more successful in mov-

ing towards gender equality when developing those who are different from them-

selves. The article contributes to understanding the complexities in analyzing and

conceptualizing how men as middle managers are undoing gender by showing

that many undoing gender practices can lead to a (re)doing of gender. However,

only by engaging with those complexities can men in middle management posi-

tions become effective change agents for gender equality.

KEYWORDS

change agents, ethnography, gender, men, middle managers

INTRODUCTION

Men are increasingly seen as change agents for gender

equality by practice (Davis, 2014; Esquire, 2016;

Harrison, 2015; Male Champions of Change, 2017; United

Nations, 2016) and research (de Vries, 2015; Hekman

et al., 2017; Humbert et al., 2019;Kelan&Wratil,2018;

Kelan & Wratil, 2021;Metz,2016; Wahl, 2014). Most of

the extant research focuses on senior leaders, but research

on middle managers is emerging (Cortis et al., 2021;

Kelan, 2020;Lansuetal.,2020; Williamson et al., 2020).

Middle managers are central for gender equality because

they often translate gender equality strategy into everyday

practices (Balogun, 2003; Floyd & Wooldridge, 1992;

Harding et al., 2014; Rouleau & Balogun, 2011).

However, more research is needed to understand how

men as middle managers are doing and undoing gender.

Although there are different definitions of doing and

undoing gender (Butler, 1990;Butler,1997;West&

Zimmerman, 1987), one interpretation of doing gender is

to recreate gender inequality, and undoing gender means

accordingly to establish gender equality (Deutsch, 2007).

This interpretation has been used for a review of the aca-

demic literature on men doing and undoing gender, which

produced a compendium of practices (Kelan, 2018). Such

a compendium of practices is ideally suited to analyze how

men as middle managers are doing and undoing gender.

The purpose of the article is to analyze how men in

middle management positions are doing and undoing

gender by applying and expanding a compendium of

practices. The article shows how men as middle managers

face a specific and complex set of challenges that can be

understood and theorized against the backdrop of doing

and undoing gender. The article proceeds as follows.

First, the literature on men as change agents in general

and in relation to gender equality is discussed, before

reviewing practices of doing and undoing gender. Second,

the methodology and methods used to collect and ana-

lyze the material are presented. The findings provide an

overview of the context in which the managers worked,

and four practices of men as middle managers doing and

undoing gender are discussed. Finally, the findings are

set in the context of the existing literature and further

research. The article contributes an understanding that

using the theory of doing and undoing gender allows see-

ing some of the complexities that emerge when men as

managers are called upon to act as change agents.

MEN AS MIDDLE MANAGERS DOING

AND UNDOING GENDER

With men increasingly being conceptualized as central

for achieving gender equality in the workplace, it is useful

DOI: 10.1111/emre.12496

236 © 2022 European Academy of Management. European Management Review. 2022;19:236–247.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/emre