Investigating the undoing of gender: Introducing three methodological tools

This paper presents three methodological tools for the empirical investigation of undoing gender derived from an ongoing feminist action research project. Building on my previous research on idealised femininities, organisational culture and women’s distress, the project is based on the view that women’s experiences of micro-marginalisations at work produces particular ways of doing (or practising) gender that are harmful for women which I call the make-it-work woman (Chowdhury, 2020). I propose that undoing gender can usefully be understood and empirically investigated as (i) the affective-discursive subversion of identity practices associated with the make-it-work woman ideal, and (ii) instances of critical reflexivity which challenge the common sense status of postfeminist and neoliberal logic. Furthermore, I propose that for organisational change initiatives to be effective, it is vital to identify and address (iii) affective-discursive resistances to the undoing of gender. A thorough, empirically grounded understanding of commonly found patterns of resistance, e.g., the rhetorical devices which are mobilised to justify the (unequal) status quo, allows us to devise strategies for countering them.