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The authors report on research with women managers, documenting their strategies in response to gendered and sexualised working life. The paper aims to offer a conceptual framework and suggest ways in which employing organisations and workers might recognise and address the myriad forms of discrimination.

A qualitative design was pursued with 15 one-to-one interviews and two focus groups involving 12 women managers aged from their 30s to 60s. Data were collected in Finland. Women were recruited through business networks. Participants worked in a range of private sector and voluntary sector organisations.

Finland is a country which enjoys an international reputation for gender equality, but across the data, women recounted numerous examples of how they navigate working life to manage sexualised and discriminatory encounters and comments. Women reported feeling under constant surveillance for their looks, dress and behaviours in and outside the workplace. Further, ageing brought with it challenges to remain energetic and youthful and enhance the image of the organisation.

Although a considerable body of research exists on (gendered) aesthetic labour at work in service and hospitality work, there are limited data on this in business and middle management. With an ageing workforce, and women continuing to encounter pressures with their physical appearance, behaviours and dress, they continually develop ways to negotiate their careers. The authors propose the concept of “MyManagement” as a self-technology to denote the ways how women manage workplace relationships, working life and career development as organisational practices remain gendered.

Appearance-based discrimination in workplaces based on an employee's physical appearance is a legal and ethical problem. This study provide important research findings concerning such discrimination in Estonia.

A qualitative case study strategy and narrative inquiry were used. The information which was gathered for the research consists of three cases which concern appearance-based discrimination against young women. Information for two of the cases was gathered together by means of open interviews. Information for the third case is based on articles which were found in Estonian daily newspapers.

Covert and overt discrimination based on an employee's physical appearance can occur in Estonian workplaces, even though discrimination and inequality are not tolerated in public and all forms of discrimination are illegal in Estonia. The appearance norms, which frame perceptions of attractiveness and unattractiveness, may at times be rather narrow and stereotypical in Estonian workplaces. The attempts by employees to resist such discrimination in an early phase of the employees' careers are generally not successful.

Through real-life cases, this study makes empirically visible a problem at the workplace related to employees' physical appearance in Estonia. This study makes suggestions for preventing this kind of discrimination in organisations. Narrative inquiry offers a fruitful approach for how researchers can address a sensitive problem, such as the appearance-based discrimination against the employees discussed in this study.

This paper focuses on how gendered processes of working life are (re)constructed and are also challenged discursively in paid and volunteer care and work in reception centers. The purpose of this paper is to show how caring work with asylum seekers can both enhance the traditional gender order and challenge it through enabling men to have opportunities to care.

The data were produced through qualitative interviews among paid workers and volunteers in reception centers, and analyzed through a discourse analysis approach.

Three discourses of care and work were identified: a discourse on solidarity and care; a discourse on control and order; and a discourse on caring men. The findings show that traditional attitudes toward gender are easily discerned in other cultures, but not as easily recognized in the everyday processes near at hand. Gender order is retained through traditional roles, which also reflects conventional attitudes in a society often seen as a model country for equality. However, change is possible, and one core issue is the need to involve men in care work and caring in general.

The findings can be applicable to the deconstruction of traditional gender order in working life; to the disclosure of gendered xenophobia in work with asylum seekers, in particular through dialogue with “Others”; and to the enabling of care by men.

Little previous research has been done on care in reception centers and care as a gendered activity with value. In the future many countries are likely to encounter increases in asylum seekers, and therefore, intersections of gender and ethnicity are of importance in societies as regards migration, work and care.

This chapter draws from research on aesthetic labour, gender, management and organisation studies and research on women's careers. We base our analysis on two empirical data sets, namely interviews with women mid-managers in Finland and Scotland, and interviews with highly positioned expert women in Finland in knowledge work. Women in different phases of their careers and life experience manifold pressures on appearances, and are increasingly aware of the demands to ‘look good and sound right’. We address how these pressures impact on women managers' and experts' well-being and career plans.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Finland is a country that enjoys an international reputation for gender equality, but across the data, women recounted numerous examples of how they navigate working life to manage sexualized and discriminatory encounters and comments. Women reported feeling under constant surveillance for their looks, dress sense, and behaviors in- and outside the workplace. Further, ageing brought with it challenges to remain energetic and youthful and enhance the image of the organization.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.