Table Of ContentEXPLORING THE LIVES OF WOMEN WHO LEAD
SUSAN CLONINGER
A DISSERTATION
Submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change Program
of Antioch University
in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
June, 2017
This is to certify that the Dissertation entitled:
EXPLORING THE LIVES OF WOMEN WHO LEAD
prepared by
Susan Cloninger
is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
Leadership and Change.
Approved by:
_____________________________________________________________________
Elizabeth Holloway, Ph.D., Committee Chair date
_____________________________________________________________________
Lize Booysen, DBL., Committee Member date
_____________________________________________________________________
Harriet Schwartz, Ph.D., Committee Member date
____________________________________________________________________
Susan Adams, Ph.D., External Reader date
Copyright 2017 Susan Cloninger
All rights reserved
Acknowledgements
“People want to know how to live in this world as feminists, not just think feminism”
(bell hooks, as quoted in Jennifer Williams, 2011, p. 42). My life has been spent thinking like a
feminist instead of living like a feminist as I found myself boxed in by structural impediments.
While the analyst in me would have liked to conclude the dissertation with a simple “problem
solved,” my lived experience of feminism has served to foster a deep appreciation for its
complexity. So, it is with that respect for complexity that I keep the faith that this study will
move women just a little closer to a day when they can truly do all that they value.
I want to thank Susan Summers for being a constant companion on this long journey. She
has not only offered moral support, but countless strategies, outlines and information for
finishing the dissertation even when I am quite sure she could not comprehend my need to locate
every ounce of available knowledge on my topic. Her favorite phrase during this process was
“stop reading.”
I am extremely indebted to my chair, Dr. Elizabeth Holloway, who continues to have an
uncanny ability for understanding my unfocused way of metabolizing information. Instead of
only allowing me to drive one car in the parking lot, she allowed me to drive them all
simultaneously with success.
I am also greatly appreciative of my committee members. Dr. Harriet Schwartz who, true
to her calling of understanding and fostering learning relationships, provided an open door for
me throughout the dissertation process. She created a space for expansive personal growth in
relationship. I am incredibly appreciative to Dr. A. E. Lize Booysen for her comments at the
proposal hearing and the information she shared. Her insights created an awareness in this study
of the power of standpoint, perspective and whose experience merits study. I am also
i
appreciative of the time my external reader, Dr. Susan Adams, has taken to share information
with me during this process and practice the living of feminism by leading the Center for Women
and Business at Bentley University.
I am forever indebted to my two children, Madison and Miles, my partner, Neil, my
parents and my friends who suffered through all my dissertation deliberations and are eternally
grateful that I ended the dissertation with Chapter VI.
ii
Abstract
Scholars have identified various reasons for the underrepresentation of women in the upper
echelons of organizations. This study used grounded theory methodology enhanced by
situational analysis to explore how American women at senior levels in large organizational
contexts engage and negotiate the totality of their situation. Utilizing a predominately White,
married, middle to upper class, heterosexual sample, this study sought to understand how women
create and consign meaning around their experiences; how they experience the fluidity and
boundaries of multiple identities; and how they experience the entanglement of macro, meso, and
micro societal forces. It explores relationships among factors participants named as influential in
experience in leading. Most importantly, this study sought to elevate not just one component as
problematic, but to elucidate all interconnecting complexities that are problematic. Five key
contexts were identified in the situational analysis as spaces of influence, related to the
conditions of the dimensional analysis. Five emergent dimensions were rendered in the
dimensional analysis: Growing in Leadership, Solving for Having It All; Stalking the Unknown,
Leading in a Glass Box and Negotiating Equality. A grounded theory model was developed of
the experience of women who lead, providing an interactive model of how women interpret and
engage with the totality of their situation. Four theoretical propositions were extrapolated from
the study. The study combined a commanding view of the situation in which women lead, with
an interactive theoretical model, mapping places of entry toward resolution of gender leadership
parity. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and
OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu
ii i
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... i
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ix
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. x
Chapter I: Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 3
Rationale for the Study ............................................................................................................... 4
Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................................. 11
Situating the Topic .................................................................................................................... 12
The Historical Debate ........................................................................................................... 13
Situating the Current Debate ................................................................................................. 18
Socioeconomic Complexity .............................................................................................. 18
Family Complexity/Conflict ............................................................................................. 23
Identity Formation ............................................................................................................ 25
Gender and Feminism ....................................................................................................... 30
Political Complexity ......................................................................................................... 32
Sensitizing Concepts ................................................................................................................. 34
Sen’s Framework of Capabilities .......................................................................................... 34
Social Identity Theory and Self-Concepts ............................................................................ 35
Intersectionality ..................................................................................................................... 37
Scope and Limitations of the Study .......................................................................................... 38
Summary and Organization of the Dissertation ........................................................................ 40
Chapter II: Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 42
Is a Grounded Theory Literature Review Warranted? .............................................................. 42
The Argument for an Early Review of the Literature ........................................................... 43
Organization of the Literature Review ..................................................................................... 45
Appropriations of Gender as a System: The Impact of Feminist Thought ........................... 46
The Birth of Gender in Management Literature ................................................................... 48
First Wave Research Concepts: Gender in Management Research .......................................... 49
Second Wave Research Concepts: Gendering Organizations .................................................. 56
iv
Bringing the Early Literature Review Into the Present Study .................................................. 63
Where Does the Literature Map Leave Women? ................................................................. 65
The Future is Female ............................................................................................................ 66
Merit and Choice ................................................................................................................... 67
Intersectionality ..................................................................................................................... 67
The Role of Gender ............................................................................................................... 69
Psychological and Sociological Perspectives ....................................................................... 72
Institutional Gender Gap Explanations ................................................................................. 73
Adding Value ........................................................................................................................ 74
Testing Theories and Practice ............................................................................................... 74
Singular Impediments ........................................................................................................... 75
Reviews of the Literature on Gender and Leadership .......................................................... 76
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 76
Chapter III: Methodology ............................................................................................................. 79
Defending Methodological Fit .................................................................................................. 80
Coding and Constant Comparative Canons .......................................................................... 82
Situational and Dimensional Analyses ................................................................................. 83
Study Design ............................................................................................................................. 84
The Purposeful Sample ......................................................................................................... 85
The Theoretical Sample ........................................................................................................ 86
Interviewing Process ............................................................................................................. 89
Coding and Constant Comparison Processes ........................................................................ 91
Dimensional and Situational Analysis .................................................................................. 93
Dimensional Analysis ....................................................................................................... 93
Situational Analysis .......................................................................................................... 95
Positional Map ...................................................................................................................... 99
Ethical Issues ............................................................................................................................ 99
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 102
Chapter IV: Findings of the Study—Dimensional Analysis. ...................................................... 103
Dimensional Analysis ............................................................................................................. 104
Core Dimension: Growing in Leadership ............................................................................... 107
Summary of Core Dimension: Growing in Leadership ...................................................... 114
v
Introduction to the Primary Dimensions ................................................................................. 114
Dimension: Solving For Having It All................................................................................ 114
Dimension: Stalking the Unknown ..................................................................................... 115
Dimension: Leading in a Glass Box ................................................................................... 116
Dimension: Negotiating Equality ....................................................................................... 117
Summary of Primary Dimensions ....................................................................................... 118
Dimensional Analysis and Explanatory Matrices ................................................................... 118
Solving For Having It All : Dimension and Explanatory Matrix ....................................... 119
Conditions for Solving For Having It All ....................................................................... 119
Strategies/Processes for Solving For Having It All ........................................................ 121
Consequences of Solving For Having It All ................................................................... 123
Solving For Having It All: Summary of Explanatory Matrix ......................................... 125
Stalking the Unknown: Dimension and Explanatory Matrix .............................................. 126
Conditions for Stalking the Unknown ............................................................................ 127
Strategies/Processes for Stalking the Unknown ............................................................. 127
Consequences of Stalking the Unknown ........................................................................ 129
Stalking the Unknown: Summary of Explanatory Matrix .............................................. 132
Leading in a Glass Box: Dimension and Explanatory Matrix ............................................ 133
Conditions of Leading in a Glass Box ............................................................................ 133
Strategies/Processes for Leading in a Glass Box ............................................................ 137
Consequences of Leading in a Glass Box ....................................................................... 136
Leading in a Glass Box: Summary of Explanatory Matrix ............................................. 138
Negotiating Equality: Dimension and Explanatory Matrix ................................................ 139
Conditions for Negotiating Equality ............................................................................... 140
Strategies/Processes for Negotiating Equality ................................................................ 142
Consequences of Negotiating Equality ........................................................................... 145
Negotiating Equality: Summary of Explanatory Matrix ................................................. 147
Summary of Dimensional Analysis ........................................................................................ 147
Chapter V: Findings of the Study—Situational Analysis ........................................................... 149
The Situational Analysis ......................................................................................................... 151
Key Context Areas of the Situational Analysis ...................................................................... 158
Key Context: The Culture of Work .................................................................................... 160
v i
Progressive Work Culture ............................................................................................... 161
Intolerant Work Culture .................................................................................................. 170
Anchoring the Culture of Work in the Situation ............................................................. 174
Summary of the Key Context: The Culture of Work ...................................................... 180
Key Context: Foreclosure ................................................................................................... 180
The World Economic Forum and the Business Case for Gender Equity ....................... 198
Summary of Foreclosure ................................................................................................. 199
Key Context: The Work-Home Performance Ratio ............................................................ 200
Summary of the Work-Home Performance Ratio .......................................................... 209
Key Context: the Heft of Marriage ..................................................................................... 210
Summary of the Heft of Marriage Key Context ............................................................. 214
Key Context: Malleable Me ................................................................................................ 215
Summary of Key Context: Malleable Me ....................................................................... 221
The Positional Map ................................................................................................................. 222
Summary of Situational Analysis ........................................................................................... 223
Chapter VI: Discussion and Conclusion ..................................................................................... 226
The Theoretical Model ............................................................................................................ 227
Theoretical Model Overview .............................................................................................. 229
Theoretical Model Detail .................................................................................................... 237
Summary of Theoretical Model .......................................................................................... 240
Theoretical Propositions ......................................................................................................... 241
Proposition 1: No Women’s Land is the Only Route to Sustain Growth, Purpose
and a Hope of Belonging .................................................................................................... 242
Returning to the Literature: Relational Cultural Theory ................................................. 244
Proposition 2: A Bridge is Needed Between the Culture of Work and the Culture
of Marriage That Allows for Caravan Travel ..................................................................... 251
Masculine Hegemony and the Power of Paradigm ......................................................... 253
Deconstructing Masculine Hegemony and Silence ........................................................ 258
Proposition 3: Women Seek Peace As A Third “P” Between Personal and
Professional ......................................................................................................................... 259
Proposition 4: Women Are Holding the Paradox of Hope and Hopelessness as
They Live One Day at a Time ............................................................................................. 262
The Locus of Hope .......................................................................................................... 265
vi i
