Crafting the Elastic Self: Gendered Experiences of Senior Management

Abstract

Senior management was defined as an all-consuming activity across all sectors of education. It was framed within an individualistic dis-course that placed the burden of impact and change on the shoulders of each of the senior managers. In spite of the differences across the sectors in how new managerialism was being implemented, however, the intensity of reforms required a project of self-realization in which commitment to the organization — be it a school or higher education institution — was paramount. Given that there are gender differences in patterns of recruitment and retention in senior management across the education sectors, in this chapter we consider how the experience of elasticity in management is gendered by the need to ‘do’ and ‘undo’ gender identities in line with organizational cultures.