Becoming-Woman in Hypermasculine Organizations: The Case of Female Officers in the Corpo de Bombeiros Militar do Espírito Santo
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Abstract
Objective: this paper analyses resistance by cis female leaders in a military firefighting organization in Brazil, expanding debates around the intensity of binary gender norms in hypermasculine organizations like the military. We use Deleuze and Guattari’s theorizing on becoming-woman to apply this concept to the organizational context. Our contributions include: studying resistance by military personnel to their own organization; focusing on women leaders in a Global South military firefighting organization; and deploying becoming-woman, an under-used concept in organization studies. Methods: 17 semi-structured interviews were carried out with all the female officers of the Corpo de Bombeiros Militar in the state of Espírito Santo. Results: based on thematic analysis of the data generated, we argue that these women officers resist the gender binary through two processes: (1) the use of masculine characteristics to resignify their gendered bodies, especially physical strength; and (2) the resignification of leadership in the context of military firefighting through the feminine. Conclusions: we suggest that these instances of becoming-woman have the potential to bring about real, if subtle, organizational change; but also set an agenda for future research into leadership in hypergendered contexts.
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