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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Sharon MavinORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This article offers insights into the dynamic and complex nature of moral taint, specifically taint that emanates at the individual level, triggered by gender, and the trajectory of this moral taint at work. Through a qualitative study of women church leaders, it explores how gender might serve as a trigger of moral taint to dirty the work. The women church leaders are perceived to be morally questionable and a source of disgust. Their gender triggers moral taint. This moral taint creates the risk of a reverse trifecta of taint contagion from the women towards the occupation, institution, and stakeholders. Others respond to the women with disgust, deflecting and protecting against contamination. The women leaders perform gendered dirty work in this sacredly masculine context and their leadership privilege is unstable, immoral, and contested because of their gender. We offer a conceptualization of gendered dirty work(ers) and suggest research avenues for women in leadership.
Author(s): Grandy G, Mavin S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Gender Work and Organization
Year: 2024
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 07/10/2024
Acceptance date: 29/08/2024
Date deposited: 17/10/2024
ISSN (print): 0968-6673
ISSN (electronic): 1468-0432
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13196
ePrints DOI: 10.57711/ee09-9615
