A (Post)Feminist Kaleidoscope: A Study Interrogating Gender in Swedish Management Education

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to critically interrogate gender in Swedish management education, with the objective of making it more gender equal. Following a multi-paradigmatic approach, shifting between interpretative and critical feminist knowledge interests, we developed a qualitative study simultaneously working with theory and empirical material. We got to our findings by analyzing business case studies, and by conducting two focus groups with ten students and seven single interviews with teachers. We found that management education remains gendered in several ways, but students and teachers are reluctant to recognize that as a problem for themselves. Rather, students make sense of gender using discourses of individualism and voluntarism, and teachers express an ’ontological flexibility’ where gender is important in theory, but not as relevant in practice. Further, we found dis agreement among participants as to whether management education has a role to play in working towards gender equality. Our findings support scholars arguing that management education is gendered, and contributes to the underdeveloped field studying postfeminism in educational settings. We further contribute ’triangular insights’ to how postfeminist discourses obstruct gender equality in management education.