Gender Theory

The Gender Theory entry includes sections that define the theory, explore developments in the theory, demonstrate specific application of the theory to HRM, and provide suggested topic areas for future research. This entry argues that gender studies offer opportunities for enriching theoretical discussions on human resource management (hereafter HRM). Specifically, the entry shows how gender can be understood as “done” rather than as an assemblage of essential traits or fixed characteristics of men, women, and others (; see also e.g., ; ). The “doing” theoretical lens views gender as a social accomplishment. Focusing on practices, or recurring actions and activities where people get together to do things helps analyse how and why differences and inequalities (arising from taken-for-granted assumptions) are maintained and reproduced in organisations and in society.