"Pero no te dejan ser". Gender Dynamics and Leadership in Southern Peru

Authors

  • Beatriz Alvarado University of Massachusetts
  • Elin Baldarrago Universidad Católica San Pablo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37467/gka-revhuman.v1.689

Keywords:

Gender equality, Power, Stereotyping, Decision making

Abstract

This article explores perceptions and voices of a group of women from southern Peru about gender equity in the fields of leadership and decision making in both public and private organizations. Through semi-structured interviews, documents analysis, and field notes, and under the post-structural feminist approach, our findings showed that despite the advances of women in public spaces, they still face a strong male-center system. Gender discrimination persists along with structural, institutional and cultural barriers that prevent their fully inclusion and participation. However, despite institutional and domestic barriers, these women construct their identities within an active patriarchal culture. Implications from this article are significant for the creation of gender sensitive policies and for the improvement of labor conditions in the public and private sectors.

Author Biographies

Beatriz Alvarado, University of Massachusetts

Docente e investigadora universitaria en Perú y en los Estados Unidos. Obtuvo el grado de Ph.D en estudios sociales y educación global en The Ohio State University, Ohio - Estados Unidos. Sus líneas de investigación e interés se enfocan en temas de género, investigación social y educación. Ha presentado en diversas conferencias a nivel nacional e internacional sobre temas de educación rural, construcción de género y metodologías cualitativas de investigación. Asimismo, es directora ejecutiva de Killari, una organización sin fines de lucro que busca empoderar a las jóvenes en estado de pobreza a través de la educación formal.

Elin Baldarrago, Universidad Católica San Pablo

Magister en Economía de la Universidad Alberto Hurtado de Santiago de Chile. Ha realizado investigaciones relacionadas a la salud infantil. También ha realizado estudios sobre trabajo infantil y adolescente. Labora en la Universidad Católica San Pablo, donde coordina el Observatorio para el Desarrollo Territorial, encargado de trabajar con los gobierno locales asesorando en la mejor toma de decisiones a nivel local.

References

Abdel-hameid, Shahira, and AbdelRhman, Widad. “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.” Ahfad Journal 26, 1 (2009): 3-24.

Alvarado, Beatriz. Voice and Agency in Andean Rural Young Women's Education: An Ethnographic View on the Lives of Young Women. VDM Verlag. ISBN-13: 9783639097177, 2009.

Alcoff, Linda. “Cultural feminism versus post-structuralism: The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory.” In Feminist theory: A reader, edited by Wendy Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski, 402-414. Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000.

Atal, Juan Pablo, Hugo Ñopo, and Natalia, Winder. New century, old disparities. Gender and Ethnic Wage Gaps in Latin America. IDB Working Paper Series, N° 109, Washington, D.C., Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, 2009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1815933

Adler, Nancy, and Dafna Izraeli. “Where in the World are the Women Executives?.” Business Quarterly 59, (1994): 89-94.

Bailey, Susan. The AAUW Report: How Schools Shortchange Girls. Washington, D. C.: National Education Association, 1992.

Bird, Sharon. “Welcome to the Men's Club: Homosociality and the Maintenance of Hegemonic Masculinity.” Gender and Society 10, no. 2 (1996): 120-132. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124396010002002

Baxter, Judith. Positioning gender is discourse. A Feminist Methodology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230501263

Baxter, Judith. “A Juggling Act: A Feminist Post-Structuralist Analysis of Girls’ And Boys’ Talk in the Secondary Classroom.” Gender and Education 14, no.1 (2002): 5-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09540250120098843

Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Fourth World Conference on Women, 15 September 1995. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e5dplw.htm (accessed mayo, 2012).

Blake-Beard, Stacy. “Taking a hard look at formal mentoring programs: A consideration of potential challenges facing women.” The Journal of Management Development 20, (2001): 331-346. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710110388983

Burns, Nancy, Kay L., Schlozman, and Sidney Verba. The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674029088

Catalyst, Women in Leadership: Comparing European and US Women Executives, Catalyst/Conference Board Report. New York, 2003.

Carli, Linda. “Gender, Interpersonal Power, and Social Influence.” Journal of Social Issues 55, no. 55 (1999): 1-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00106

Charmaz, Kathy. “Grounded theory: Objectivism and Constructivist Methods.” In Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, 509-537. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication, Inc., 2000.

CEPAL, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean Santiago. Participation and Leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean: Gender Indicators. Chile, 2009.

DAW, Division for the Advancement of Women. Equal Participation of Women and Men in Decision- Making Processes with Particular Emphasis on Political Participation and Leadership. Report of the Expert Group Meeting. Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia 24 – 27 October, 2005.

Daeren, Lieve. Enfoque de Género en la Política Económica-Laboral. El Estado del Arte en América Latina y el Caribe. Institucionalización del Enfoque de Género en la CEPAL y en Ministerios Sectoriales. Santiago de Chile, febrero, 2001.

Eagly, Alice, and Linda, Carli. “Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership.” Harvard Business Review 85, no. 9 (2007): 63-71.

Eagly, Alice, and Steven Karau. “Role Congruity Theory of Prejudice toward Female Leaders.” Psychological Review 109, (2002): 573-598.

Eagly, Alice, Mona Makhijani, and Bruce Klonsky. “Gender and the Evaluation of Leaders: A metaanalysis.” Psychological Bulletin 111 (1992): 3–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.111.1.3

Eagly, Alice, and Steven Karau. “Role Congruity Theory of Prejudice towards Female Leaders.” Psychological Review 109, no. 3 (2002): 573-598. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.109.3.573

ECLAC, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Challenge of Gender Equity and Human Rights on the Threshold of the Twenty-first Century. Mujer y desarrollo series 27. Santiago, Chile, 2000.

Eisner, Susan, and Mary Harvey. “C-Change? Generation Y and the Glass Ceiling.” SAM Advanced Management Journal 74, no. 1 (2009): 13-28.

Fontana, Andre, and Frey James. The Interview: From Structure Questions to Negotiated Text. In N. Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, 645-673. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication, Inc., 2000.

Fox, Richard. Gender Dynamics in Congressional Elections. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483327839

Gavey, Nicola. “Feminist poststructuralism and discourse analysis.” In Towards a new psychology of gender, edited by Mary Gergen, and Sara. Davis, 49-65. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Gini, Al. My Job, My Self: Work and the Creation of the Modern Individual. London: Routledge, 2001.

Glesne, Corrine. Becoming Qualitative Researcher. New York: Longman, 1999.

Goldin, Claudia. Understanding the Gender Gap: The Economic History of American Women. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Goodwin, Stephanie, and Susan Fiske. “Power and Gender: The Double Edged Sword of Ambivalence.” In Handbook of the Psychology of Women and Gender, edited by Unger Rhoda, 358-366. New York: Wiley, 2001.

Gruber, James. “The Impact of Male Work Environments and Organizational Policies on Women's Experiences of Sexual Harassment.” Gender and Society 12, no. 3 (1998): 301-320. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243298012003004

Hale, Mary M. Gender Equality in Organizations: Resolving the Dilemmas. Review of Public Personnel Administration 16, 1 (1996): 7-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X9601600103

Harris, Patricia. “Towards a Critical Post-Structuralism.” Social Work Education, 20, no. 3 (2001): 335-350. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02615470120057424

Hatch, Amos. Doing Qualitative Research in Education Settings. New York: State University of New York Press, 2002.

Hollingsworth, Sandra. Teacher Research and Urban Literacy Education: Lessons and Conversations in a Feminist Key. New York: Teachers College Press, 1996.

Htun, Mala, and Laurel Weldon. “When Do Governments Promote Women's Rights? A Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Sex Equality Policy.” Perspectives on Politics. 8, 1 Mar(2010): 207-216. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592709992787

Ibarra, Herminia. “Provisional selves: Experimenting with Image and Identity in Professional Adaptation.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 44 (1999):764-791. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2667055

ILO, International Labour Organization. Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Geneva, 18 June, 2004.

ILO, International Labour Organization. Facts on Investing in Decent Work for Women. Geneva, February, 2008.

INEI - Instituto Nacional de Estadística del Perú. Censos Nacionales de Población y Vivienda, 1940, 1961, 1972, 1981, 1993 y 2007, edición 2009. http://www.inei.gob.pe/biblioineipub/bancopub/Est/Lib0838/libro02/cap01.pdf (accessed julio, 2012).

INEI, Instituto Nacional de Estadística del Perú. Censos Nacionales de Población y Vivienda, 1993 y 2007, edición 2009. http://www.inei.gob.pe/ (accessed abril, 2012).

Inglehart, Ronald, and Pippa Norris. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511550362

IPU, Inter‐Parliamentary Union. Men and Women in Politics. Geneva, 1997.

Kent, Russell and Sherry Moss. “Effects of Sex and Gender Role on Leader Emergence.” Academy of Management Journal 37 (1994): 1335-1346. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/256675

Kolesnikova, Natalia, and Liu Yang. “Gender Wage Gap may be much Smaller than Most Think. The Regional Economist 19, (2011): 14-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20955/es.2011.25

Lather, Patti. Getting Smart: Feminist Research and Pedagogy with/in the Postmodern. New York: Routledge, 1991. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203451311

Leyenaar, Monique. Political Empowerment of Women: The Netherlands and Other Countries. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047406358

Luke, Carmen. “Feminist Politics in Radical Pedagogy.” In Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy, edited by Carmen Luke, and Jennifer Gore, 24-53. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Mavin, Sharon. “Venus Envy: Problematizing Solidarity Behavior and Queen Bees.” Women in Management Review 21, no. 4 (2006): 264-276. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420610666579

McGlen, Nancy E., and Karen O’Connor. Women, Politics, and American Society. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Maguire, Patricia. “Considering more Feminist Participatory Research: What’s Congruency got to Do with It?” Qualitative Inquiry 2, no. 1 (1996): 106-118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/107780049600200115

Moghadam, Valentine. “Women’s Socioeconomic Participation and Iran’s Changing Political Economy.” In The Economy of Iran: The Dilemmas of an Islamic State, edited by Parvin Alizadeh, 233–260. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2000.

Moran, Barbara. “Gender Differences in Leadership.” Library Trends 40, no. 3 (1992): 475-491.

Oakley, Judith. “Gender-Based Barriers to Senior Management Positions: Understanding the Scarcity of Female CEO’s.” Journal of Business Ethics 27, no. 4 (2000): 321-334. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006226129868

Patton, Michael. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2002.

Paxton, Pamela, and Sheri Kunovich. “Women’s Political Representation: The importance of Ideology.” Social Forces 82, (2003): 87-113. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2003.0105

Quaile, Kim, and Leighley, Jan. “The Policy Consequences of Class Bias in State Electorates.” American Journal of Political Science 36 (1992): 351–65. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2111481

Rudman, Laurie, and Stephen Kilianski. “Implicit and Explicit Attitudes toward Female Authority.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 26 (2000): 1315-1328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167200263001

Rudman, Laurie, and Peter Glick. “Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes and Backlash toward Agentic Women.” Journal of Social Issues 57 (2001): 743-762. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00239

Sadie, Yolanda. Women in Political Decision-Making in the SADC Region. Agenda 65, (2005): 17-31.

Sczesny, Stan. “A Closer Look beneath the Surface: Various Facets of the Think-Manager-Think-Male stereotype.” Sex Roles, 49 (2003): 353-363. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025112204526

Sherman, Becky. “Ethnographic Interview.” In Paul Handbook of Ethnography, edited by Atkinson Amanda, Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland, and Lyn Lofland, 369-384. London: Sage Publications, 2001.

Simpson, Alyson. “It’s a game!: The construction of gendered subjectivity.” In Gender and discourse, edited by Ruth Wodak, 37-56. London: Sage Publications, 1997. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250204.n9

Tedlock, Barbara. “Ethnography and Ethnographic Representation.” In Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, 455-487. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication, Inc., 2000.

Taylor, Steven, and Robert Bogdan. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.

Thomas, Anita, Suzette Speight, and Klonoff Witherspoon. “Internalized Oppression among Black Women.” In The psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination, edited by Chin Jean, 113-132. New York: Praeger, 2004.

Valdés, Teresa, and Enrique Gomáriz. Latin American Women: Compared Figures. Santiago: Instituto de la Mujer-FLACSO, 1995.

Weedon, Chris. Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1997.

Wiersma, William. Research Methods in Education: An introduction. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995.

World Bank World Development Report. Gender Equality and Development. Washington, DC, 2012.

Zogerah, Johnson, and Babita Mathur-Helm. “Experiences with Queen Bees: A South African Study Exploring the Reluctance of Women Executives to Promote Other Women in the Workplace.” South African Journal of Business Management 42, no.4 (2011): 47-55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v42i4.504

Published

2012-03-05

How to Cite

Alvarado, B., & Baldarrago, E. (2012). "Pero no te dejan ser". Gender Dynamics and Leadership in Southern Peru . HUMAN REVIEW. International Humanities Review / Revista Internacional De Humanidades, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.37467/gka-revhuman.v1.689

Issue

Section

Research articles