Perceptions of organizational culture in the Prince Edward Island public sector: Through the eyes of women in senior management

This qualitative study explores perspectives on women's equality through an examination of organizational culture in a public sector organization in Prince Edward Island. From 1990 to the present, a pervasive assumption that women's equality has been achieved has diminished receptivity to program and policy initiatives, to workplace accommodations of women into senior roles, and to social discourse about continuing gender inequalities. Eleven female senior public administrators from among a population of 20 participated in either a focus group, or 1 of 6 semi-structured interviews of 1 hour or more. The study incorporates postmodern feminist and gender theory to substantiate the inequalities that have gone underground in a neo-conservative and individualist age. Joan Acker connects theory to organizational practices, processes, and performance to define gender as a relational entity which operates to subordinate women. The study also demonstrates the key role of language and discourse in fixing the identities and positions of women and men into binary relationships. The study describes the active role of the 10 participants in incrementally shaping their organizational culture. It concludes with an identification of perspectives and strategies that advocates might use in intransigent situations, to preserve a sense of self.