Rosenthal, Caitlin
Allison Elias. The rise of corporate feminism: Women in the American office, 1960–1990 - Administrative Science Quarterly - 69(2), Jun, 2024: p.NP31-NP30
Allison Elias’s valuable new book, The Rise of Corporate Feminism, uses the history of secretarial work to explore the complex relationship between capitalism and feminism. Covering the period 1960–1990, Elias argues that although many feminists began with a broad agenda, they ultimately embraced merit-based, gender-blind strategies that aligned with capitalist claims about success and hierarchy. This strategy offered new opportunities for the (mostly White, college-educated) women who were positioned to climb the managerial ladder. Yet, it also allowed occupational segregation by gender to persist, and, along with it, low pay and prestige. Instead of bridging clerical and managerial work, the “feminist principle of equality of opportunity . . . hardened the low-status of the American secretary” (p. 9).- Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00018392231222913
Allison Elias. The rise of corporate feminism: Women in the American office, 1960–1990 - Administrative Science Quarterly - 69(2), Jun, 2024: p.NP31-NP30
Allison Elias’s valuable new book, The Rise of Corporate Feminism, uses the history of secretarial work to explore the complex relationship between capitalism and feminism. Covering the period 1960–1990, Elias argues that although many feminists began with a broad agenda, they ultimately embraced merit-based, gender-blind strategies that aligned with capitalist claims about success and hierarchy. This strategy offered new opportunities for the (mostly White, college-educated) women who were positioned to climb the managerial ladder. Yet, it also allowed occupational segregation by gender to persist, and, along with it, low pay and prestige. Instead of bridging clerical and managerial work, the “feminist principle of equality of opportunity . . . hardened the low-status of the American secretary” (p. 9).- Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00018392231222913