Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users, please click the view more button below to purchase a copy of this dissertation from Proquest.
(Some titles may also be available free of charge in our Open Access Dissertation Collection, so please check there first.)
The power of women's connections: A study of women and men in corporate-government affairs
Abstract
Women occupy an increasingly significant proportion of professional and managerial positions in the United States. This dissertation asks whether this shift translates into importance and power for women by examining their connections within a particular occupational context--corporate-government affairs management. Workplace and family ties have been characterized by social scientists and economists in gendered ways. Women's ties in the marketplace and in the home are typically characterized as "expressive," compared to men's "instrumental" connections. These characterizations are rooted in traditionally male conceptions of power that stress domination rather than influence, capacity, and strength. Drawing primarily from in-depth interviews and a mail survey of government relations officials who are their corporations' political action committee (PAC) managers, this dissertation examines the character of women's connections in the workplace and family, whether they differ from men's, and what these differences reveal. The findings indicate that, although women's and men's networks are similar in many ways, there is a significant difference in their character. This dissertation concludes that although women's connections at work and in the home are limiting in a variety of ways, they nonetheless potentially empower women by placing them in key positions to influence their own conditions as well as the character of corporate-government affairs. One of the broader implications of this study is that by studying women's connections in the context of the occupations within which they are embedded, and using a more inclusive conception of power, we can move beyond traditional dichotomies that denigrate and devalue women's work and women's connections to a better understanding of women's opportunities and power.
Subject Area
Sociology|Womens studies|Political science
Recommended Citation
Scott, Denise Benoit, "The power of women's connections: A study of women and men in corporate-government affairs" (1996). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9639026.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9639026