Diversity management has been gaining increasing attention, mainly due to the perceived benefits it has been promising to organizations. There have been criticisms however on the manner in which diversity is advocated, presented as a few simple steps helping organizations ‘do’ diversity. There is a need to engage deeply with the rhetoric of diversity management and the reality of implementing diversity policies and initiatives in organizations. There is an even more urgent need for a better understanding of the methodological issues in conducting research within the diversity management arena. This paper uses recent research on ethnic minority women's career experiences and opportunities in British organizations as a framework within which to discuss methodological considerations in conducting work across gender, ‘race’, ethnicity and culture, focusing on questions around reflexivity, identity and difference. It was deemed important to place these discussions within a relevant historical and social contex...

Methodological considerations in conducting research across gender, ‘race’, ethnicity and culture: a challenge to context specificity in diversity research methods

This thesis examines the career experiences and opportunities of ethnic minority women through a critical review and analysis of the current literature and new empirical work. It seeks to give visibility to ethnic minority women's experiences by adopting a qualitative
methodology, which provides the participants with the time and space to convey, and reflect on, their views. The focus is placed on the participants' perceptions, attitudes or concerns with regard to their careers and how their career choices may impact on other aspects of their lives, such as family and community expectations and responsibilities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ethnic minority women as the main sample, with managers in two case study organisations and with a smaller sample of ethnic minority men, white women and men. The rationale for this was to provide an insight into the broader organisational context ethnic minority women work and strive to succeed.

It is argued that ethnic minority women's experiences at work has been an under-researched area, where research involving women in management has been generalised to include all women regardless of 'race', ethnicity or class. The theoretical framework adopted for this study acknowledges an interaction between the dimensions of structure, culture and agency in the analysis of career experiences and opportunities. The structural dimension includes organisational and family structure, and culture is divided into organisational and social group culture. Agency is the final dimension of the framework, where the effect of strategies and personal determination on career experiences and opportunities is examined. Ethnic minority women are seen as social actors within organisational and social group structures and cultures, which may affect their strategies and plans and may also be affected
by them.

The empirical work undertaken for this study has indicated that the majority of ethnic minority women participants occupy lower levels of the organisational hierarchy, they face racial and gender stereotypes which are often exacerbated by stereotypical perceptions concerning their culture and religion, they have problems identifying mentors and are often excluded from influential networks. If these women ascribe to their cultural or religious
expectations, they face tensions between balancing work and private life expectations. Ethnic minority women's agency, in the form of career strategies and determination, IS
deemed to be a crucial factor in their career experiences and opportunities.

Ethnic minority women in English organisationscareer experiences and opportunities

Feminist theory and research has made a distinction between
heterosexuality as a practice and heterosexuality as an institution and the line
between the two is an area of confusion and contradiction. Discussions have been
hampered by an unnecessary binary that hinders and limits theorising, working to
silence the debates from either side, produce unnecessary divisions within feminism
and inhibit the development of links between theory and practice. In examining
heterosexuality as either an institution or a practice, it has been constructed as
dangerous or pleasurable, victimising or agentic, oppressive or liberating, social or
sexual. Missing between these two is a link that would suggest how these liberating
activities challenge the heterosexual institution or how the analysis of the institution
can make a material impact on women's sexual relationships. Women who identify
as feminist and heterosexual are situated at the intersection of these two discourses
where heterosexuality as an institution is defined as dangerous and oppressive, and
heterosex as a practice is seen as pleasurable and liberating. To consider the
intersection of institution and practice, the research asked 40 self-identified
heterosexual feminists, between the ages of 19 and 68, about their sexual practice
in the light both of feminist theorising around heterosexuality and its construction in
the media. Taking the media as an institution that may both sustain and reinforce a
discourse of heterosexuality, the research explores the mediation of women's
heterosexuality and the potential for a feminist practice of resistance through the
pleasurable consumption of media images. Employing a broad analysis of the
media the thesis adopts a multi-methodological approach in the range of data
collected, the methods employed and the analysis undertaken. It addresses three
aims. First, to contribute to the wider literature within feminism. about heterosexuality
and sexual practice. Second, to understand the role of the media in formulating
feminist and heterosexual identities. Third, to consider the use and application of a
range of different methods for a feminist cultural politics. Drawing on data from
qualitative and quantitative media reviews, a questionnaire study; and diaries, focus
groups and telephone interviews with the participants, I discuss the construction of
heterosexuality and feminism, and the women's talk about their sexual practice.

Pleasure and resistance?: feminism, heterosexuality and the media

Conducting research within one's own community can present challenges that are rarely addressed by graduate education, articles, or books on research design. Binary notions of insider and outsider are too simplistic; rather insider/outsider positions exist on a continuum. This article explores how the researcher's shifting position affects every aspect of a study of lesbian, bisexual, and/or queer women. Helpful theoretical frameworks include feminist research principles and intersectionality, and the article ends with lessons learned about tackling taboo topics, sensitivity to language, embracing diversity, researcher reputation, and looking upstream for solutions.

Inside/out: Challenges of conducting research in lesbian communities.

Characterizations of feminist identities are presented, represented and, arguably, misrepresented within current public debates and popular media. Issues of sameness and difference have come to the fore as both timely and politically relevant. This paper aims to address issues arising from engagement with feminisms, in particular those which we experience as 'other' but which, concurrently, resonate with many of our concerns. Conflicting views revolve around the viability of constructing stable political identities for women who elect to include the term 'feminist' in their selfdescription. These debates become increasingly complex when contextualized within relative power positionings of knowledge production in differing arenas. Drawing on the literature around the legitimization of gender and political identities, the authors reflect in this paper on the possibilities of engaging with these identities, both in our capacity of 'others', but also as individuals whose theoretical positioning resonates with the issues under consideration.

If I am woman, who are 'they'? The construction of 'other' feminisms

Speaking of representing the other

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Speaking of representing the other