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A typology of sexism in contemporary business schools: Belligerent, benevolent, ambivalent, and oblivious sexism

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Emily YarrowORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).


Abstract

The legitimacy of business schools is based on rankings, revenues, branding, and opportunities to support staff and students ‘to make a difference in the world’. Yet sexism in business schools is endemic. Drawing on Acker’s inequality regimes framework and a thematic analysis of reports in Poets&Quants, EFMD’s Global Focus and AACSB International’s BizEd/AACSB Insights over a decade, this study explores how business schools are dealing (or not) with sexism. We propose a typology of four categories of sexism in business schools: belligerent, benevolent, ambivalent, and oblivious sexism. Our findings contribute to understandings of institutional theory and the institutional development of business schools as important sites of (sexist and gendered) knowledge production and dissemination and entrenched inequalities. We posit that media constructions of sexism may better inform individual decisions, organizational development, and governance about the imperative to eliminate sexist behaviours and discrimination. We argue that business schools need to gain substantive legitimacy as effective role models by reforming themselves. They must actively tackle institutional and cultural sexism from within. Implications for practice include effective inclusion of mandatory sexism reporting in international business school accreditation standards and rankings criteria as well as requirements for research funding.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Yarrow E, Davies J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Gender, Work and Organization

Year: 2024

Volume: 31

Issue: 5

Pages: 2019-2039

Print publication date: 01/09/2024

Online publication date: 01/11/2022

Acceptance date: 18/09/2022

Date deposited: 05/11/2022

ISSN (print): 0968-6673

ISSN (electronic): 1468-0432

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd

URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12914

DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12914


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