Using the Lamp Instead of Looking Into the Mirror

Book excerpt: This book focuses on the enigmatic relationship between men and women, and in particular on the subordination of women by men in the work place. The main points of departure are that subordination is a relational phenomenon and should therefore be approached in a relational context and that the dynamics of relational behaviour primarily evolve through dialogue. The project facilitated and encouraged women and men to engage in more than 100 discussions about their daily relationships, carried out in the context of an intra- and inter-organizational action research project involving three organizations: a nuclear power plant, a school district and a postal district in a province of Sweden. The object was to allow for better mutual understanding and respect from an Irigarayan view where a substrate allows men and women to regard each other in their subjectivity without 'reducing the other to same'. The reflective and analytical nature of this study shows the dynamics of the discussions and their effects on the interpersonal and organizational level.Ingrid Ljungberg van Beinum, D. Soc. Sc., studied at the universities of Uppsala and Leiden. She has lived and worked in Sweden, England, Holland, India and Canada.