Gaslighted

How the Oil and Gas Industry Shortchanges Women Scientists
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-0-520-38528-3
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 262 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 211 mm x 140 mm, Gewicht: 310 g

The oil and gas industry is one of the richest and most powerful industries in the world. In recent years, company avowals in support of diversity, much-touted programs for "women in STEM," and, most importantly, a tight labor market with near parity in women pursuing geoscience credentials might lead us to expect progress for women in this industry's corporate ranks. Yet, for all the talk of "the great crew change," the industry remains overwhelmingly white and male. Sociologist Christine L. Williams asks, where are the women?

To answer this question, Williams embarked on a decade-long investigation—one involving one hundred in-depth interviews, a longitudinal survey, and ethnographic research—that allowed her to observe the industry in times of boom and bust. She found that when the industry expands, women may be able to walk through the door, but when the industry contracts, the door becomes a revolving one, whirling ever faster, as companies retreat to their white male core. These gendered outcomes are obscured by firms' stated commitments to diversity in hiring and the language of merit. The result is organizational gaslighting, a radical dissonance between language and practice that Williams exposes for all.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Williams, Christine L.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Energie- & Versorgungswirtschaft Öl- und Gasindustrie
• Geowissenschaften Geologie Geologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. Gender, Geology, and the Oil and Gas Industry
2. The Oil and Gas Pipeline
3. The Stayers
4. Voluntary Separations
5. Corporate Downsizing
6. Organizational Gaslighting

Methodological Appendix

Notes
References

Illustration Credits
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Christine L. Williams is Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Inside Toyland and Still a Man’s World.