‘This is not necessarily a gender thing’: Gender-blind talk of organisational leaders

How do organisational leaders attend to gender in discussions of men’s flexible work and what are the implications for men’s flexible work? Twelve organisational leaders were interviewed to understand organisational factors that may affect men’s access to and use of flexible work. Workplace gender inequality is related to uneven gendered divisions of work and care. Flexible work has the potential to allow for more equal sharing of care, but it is underused by men. Participants displayed an unexpected pattern during interviews – they avoided talking about men. Inductive qualitative analysis was undertaken, using thematic discourse analysis. Two broad themes were developed from the data, with participants avoiding talking about men, or discussing men and women with regard to traditional gender roles. The themes were found to conform to the theory of gender-blind sexism. Furthermore, we propose an extension of the theory due to a novel finding of gender being maximised. Gender-blind sexism contributes to current understandings of gender inequality, particularly in situations purporting to be gender-neutral, such as modern organisations. We suggest that leaders consider adopting gender sensitive language in order to acknowledge gender, address gender inequality, and facilitate men’s flexible work.