The business world benefits from a more disciplined approach

Stuart Crainer mentioned Elisabeth Kelan and the Lehman Brothers Centre in his recent article in The Times.

Associate Editor: Gender, Work and Organization

Elisabeth Kelan has been invited to be an associate editor of the journal Gender, Work and Organization. She is very happy to work with this excellent journal.

Diversifying Apple

Many tech companies have long been criticised for the lack of diversity at the top. Notable exceptions are Meg Whitman at eBay and Carly Fiorina at formerly at HP. This is due to change with the appointment of Andrea Jung, chairman and CEO of Avon Products, to Apple’s board of directors. Andrea Jung is said to help tapping new markets: not only does she speak Mandarin fluently, she could also be a real asset in marketing technical products to women. Avon is after all a provider of beauty products through a direct seller networks referred to as the ‘Avon ladies’. Does this mean more pink laptops for women? Hopefully not. After Millard Drexler joined Apple’s board, Apple opened its retail stores. At that time most people thought it was a crazy idea but they seem to be rather successful. Andrea Jung is an experienced marketer and she will surely come up with very creative strategies to market technology to women.

Seminar Presentation

Dr Elisabeth Kelan will be presenting a paper entitled 'Engendering MBAs' at a seminar of the Diversity and Equality in Careers and Employment Research Centre (DECERe) on 24th of January from 2-3:15 pm in Elizabeth Fry room 1.34 at the University of East Anglia. For further information please contact Dr Ruth Bridgstock (01603 591673, R.Bridgstock@uea.ac.uk).

Women are new target of electronics makers

Kevin O’Brian has written an interesting article on how women are the new traget of electronics makers. This is based on the fact that women influence most decisions to buy a consumer electronic product but consumer electronic producers just started to see them as viable customers. Kevin argues that women prefer stylish products and has some interesting examples of how consumer electronic producers try to sell to women.

Two articles published

Two of my academic articles appeared in the last week.

The first one looks at how the new soft skills in information communication technology work are gendered. It argued that even though women are said to bring the soft skills needed to ICT work, they rarely get credit for displaying them as they are seen as just natural in women.

The full reference is:

Kelan, E.K. 2008. Emotions in a Rational Profession: The Gendering of Skills in ICT work. Gender, Work & Organization, 15(1): 49-71.

The original article is available here.

The second article is about how ICT worker talk about the scarcity of women in ICT work. I show that gender is indeed something that is confusing for people. They have no easy explanations to account for the scarcity of women in ICT work as the problem is much more complex than that.

The full reference is:

Kelan, E. K. 2007. 'I don't know why' - Accounting for the Scarcity of Women in ICT Work. Women's Studies International Forum, 30: 499-511.

The original article can be downloaded here.

Earlier versions of the two article can also be downloaded from my university website (under Elisabeth Kelan and publications).

In the media

I gave two interviews with the media recently.

One on gender in management education:

Still too few women, FT, 22 October 2007

And one on gender stereotypes and the situation of working women in Germany

Developing world cracks glass ceiling, The Guardian, 15 October 2007

In the next week, I will be speaking at the event Diversity Dividend organized by World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders.

The Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business will also present its results on Innovative Potential: Men and Women in Teams.