Affiliate Researcher; Doctorate in Education Open University, UK
Abstract: Despite significant progress, women are still underrepresented at senior management level in many organisations. Equitable and inclusive learning and development for women is crucial to achieve gender equality at senior level. However, current training theory and models fail to recognise the role of sex/gender in training, while training practice assumes that treating everybody the same equals sex/gender equity. This study examined how sex/gender impacts the experiences and outcomes of corporate training and discussed improvements to firms’ training programmes to enhance their sex/gender equity and inclusion. A multidisciplinary literature review first showed that sex/gender significantly impacts access to training, how the training is experienced, and the outcomes of training programmes. A case study was also conducted, including three training programmes designed and delivered in a multinational firm. The research lens was critical socioculturalism, which views training as an enculturation in the company’s ways of working. The research methodology was qualitative, using semi-structured interviews with training programme participants, training organisers, and trainers as well as document analyses. Thematic analysis and gender subtext analysis highlighted that the discourse on sex/gender neutrality in training programmes not only risks maintaining the status quo of the underrepresentation of women but can actually produce sex/gender inequity itself. Future training research, theory, and practice should thus recognise and address the impact of sex/gender to ensure social justice.
