HON ÄR EN JOBBIG TJEJ: Om könshierarkier på ett svenskt startupföretag

Abstract

Startup companies and their company culture influenced by Silicon Valley tech companies are becoming more and more popular. This paper aims to see how a startup company like this, that prioritise a flat organization, benefits such as ping pong tables and free beer as well as striving towards diversity, perceive gender hierarchies. The paper investigates the experience of women working in a Swedish startup company as well as how gender hierarchies and gender roles reproduce within the organisation and how these relate to the idea of a flat organisation that has a diverse and open company culture. It is a qualitative study based on an ethnographic field work in a Swedish startup company. In studying this issue the paper shows that women experience obstacles within the organisation and that gender hierarchies and gender roles are being reproduced through ideas about female and male coded knowledge, behaviours, and characteristics. The conclusions have been reached through analysing the material with the theory of performativity as well as three papers with concepts relating to masculine management styles, dualisms between gender roles and the reproduction of gender hierarchies and male norms within organisations. The study is made with qualitative methods, both participant observation but mainly semi-structured interviews conducted with employees and managers.