Radboud University Nijmegen
Nijmegen School of Management
Field of Study: Business Administration
Master specialization: n/a
First Exam: Gender in Organizations
Date: 22nd March 2021
Time of examination: 18:00 – 21:00 hours
Total number of questions: 5 (each with a and b)
Student ID number:
Full Name:
Attention:
• Students who are not allowed to take part in this examination will have their examination
declared invalid.
• This is to be an individual, open book exam. You are allowed to make use of all your
notes, lecture slides, and the course literature.
• In order to have your exam graded, you need to upload the document with your answers to
the five questions before 21:10 on the 22nd of March 2021 via Brightspace.
• A check for plagiarism will be automatically executed.
• Some students will randomly be selected to answer some questions about the exam.
• Make a screenshot when you are uploading the assignment (and keep the email you
automatically receive after handing in the assignment).
Exam Instructions:
• Answer the examination questions in a separate document.
• Safe the document adapting the subsequent template: Exam-GiO-2021-A-
YourStudentnumber.pdf à If our student number is s1234567, the name of your document
would look like: Exam-GiO-2021-A-s1234567.
• Make sure, each page has your student number on it (e.g. in the header or footer).
• Start answering each question on a new page. Your answers to the a/b sub-questions may be
on the same page.
• In total, 50 points can be scored:
• 10 points per question, build up out of 5 points per a/b sub-questions.
• Always provide a reasoning with your answer.
Results/Post-examination Perusal:
• The results of the examination will be announced via OSIRIS.
• The post perusal of the examination will be announced (date, time and place) later via
Brightspace.
Good luck everyone!!!
, First exam: Gender in Organizations 2021
Question 1
1. In an attempt to better understand systematic gender inequality in organizations, we
have discussed several theories, perspectives and approaches throughout the course.
We have seen that many organizations are characterized by vertical gender
segregation.
a. With respect to the (re)production and maintenance of this vertical gender
segregation, the class ceiling, the glass cliff, and the glass escalator are
popular metaphors. Reflect on these three metaphors and relate them to
hegemonic masculinity in order to explain their role in the (re)production of
vertical gender segregation.
b. Everyday interactions play an important role in maintaining systematic
inequalities between men and women. This is an example shared by a woman
manager in a semi-public firm:
“For example, I left this management team meeting lately together with
one of my men colleagues. When walking in the corridor on our way to our
offices, he said to me:
- “Alice, you were really pushing it today, again…”.
- “What do you mean?”, I asked him, really not knowing what he was
referring to.
- “Well, you know”, he replied, “your comments were just very direct
and you claimed quite a lot of time during the meeting!”
I just thought to myself: - Really??? In my opinion, I was just clear in what
I wanted and why it is important to think about these things and actually
achieve these goals. And on top of this: I was responsible for two out of
three points on the agenda in today’s meeting – of course, I had quite a lot
of speaking time. This comes with the role I had in todays meeting, duh!.”
Explain which phenomenon is reflected in this excerpt. Outline two ways
through which everyday interactions like this may contribute to the
(re)production of vertical gender segregation in career systems.
1
Nijmegen School of Management
Field of Study: Business Administration
Master specialization: n/a
First Exam: Gender in Organizations
Date: 22nd March 2021
Time of examination: 18:00 – 21:00 hours
Total number of questions: 5 (each with a and b)
Student ID number:
Full Name:
Attention:
• Students who are not allowed to take part in this examination will have their examination
declared invalid.
• This is to be an individual, open book exam. You are allowed to make use of all your
notes, lecture slides, and the course literature.
• In order to have your exam graded, you need to upload the document with your answers to
the five questions before 21:10 on the 22nd of March 2021 via Brightspace.
• A check for plagiarism will be automatically executed.
• Some students will randomly be selected to answer some questions about the exam.
• Make a screenshot when you are uploading the assignment (and keep the email you
automatically receive after handing in the assignment).
Exam Instructions:
• Answer the examination questions in a separate document.
• Safe the document adapting the subsequent template: Exam-GiO-2021-A-
YourStudentnumber.pdf à If our student number is s1234567, the name of your document
would look like: Exam-GiO-2021-A-s1234567.
• Make sure, each page has your student number on it (e.g. in the header or footer).
• Start answering each question on a new page. Your answers to the a/b sub-questions may be
on the same page.
• In total, 50 points can be scored:
• 10 points per question, build up out of 5 points per a/b sub-questions.
• Always provide a reasoning with your answer.
Results/Post-examination Perusal:
• The results of the examination will be announced via OSIRIS.
• The post perusal of the examination will be announced (date, time and place) later via
Brightspace.
Good luck everyone!!!
, First exam: Gender in Organizations 2021
Question 1
1. In an attempt to better understand systematic gender inequality in organizations, we
have discussed several theories, perspectives and approaches throughout the course.
We have seen that many organizations are characterized by vertical gender
segregation.
a. With respect to the (re)production and maintenance of this vertical gender
segregation, the class ceiling, the glass cliff, and the glass escalator are
popular metaphors. Reflect on these three metaphors and relate them to
hegemonic masculinity in order to explain their role in the (re)production of
vertical gender segregation.
b. Everyday interactions play an important role in maintaining systematic
inequalities between men and women. This is an example shared by a woman
manager in a semi-public firm:
“For example, I left this management team meeting lately together with
one of my men colleagues. When walking in the corridor on our way to our
offices, he said to me:
- “Alice, you were really pushing it today, again…”.
- “What do you mean?”, I asked him, really not knowing what he was
referring to.
- “Well, you know”, he replied, “your comments were just very direct
and you claimed quite a lot of time during the meeting!”
I just thought to myself: - Really??? In my opinion, I was just clear in what
I wanted and why it is important to think about these things and actually
achieve these goals. And on top of this: I was responsible for two out of
three points on the agenda in today’s meeting – of course, I had quite a lot
of speaking time. This comes with the role I had in todays meeting, duh!.”
Explain which phenomenon is reflected in this excerpt. Outline two ways
through which everyday interactions like this may contribute to the
(re)production of vertical gender segregation in career systems.
1
