THE EM/DIS EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN: A CASE STUDY OF TWO PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE IN THE CITY OF MOSTAGANEM

Abstract

Several Algerian institutions have recently witnessed the empowerment of women offering them decision-making positions. This dissertation attempts to check whether women with institutional power use their positions to exert power, and thus, reproduce patriarchal practices in the workplace. It further explores the ways and manners of institutionally-empowered women. The target Communities of Practice (CofPs) in this study are two companies and two educational institutions. The former is male-dominated while the latter is female-dominated, yet they all have female managers/directors. A questionnaire was administered to the workers of both CofPs. Two interviews were conducted, the first with the coworkers and the second with the female managers. The findings of the study indicated that institutionally-empowered women reproduce some acts of bullying and discrimination. Besides, coworkers perceived woman’s authoritativeness as unjustified as most of female managers exert their institutional power unfairly.