Abstract
This study explores how female academics use dress creatively and symbolically to produce
alternative social spaces of belonging within the business school. We aim to contribute to the
body of feminist organization literature, in expanding the understanding of female business
academics experience of belonging and to the ongoing conversations in organization studies,
and management studies more generally about gendered body work, dress and social space.
The study adopts qualitative research methods, and feminist modes of qualitative analysis
inspired by new materialism which allows us to use Lefebvre’s understanding of the
production of space while recognizing the gendering of those constructions. We demonstrate
how everyday dressing enables women to negotiate institutional norms of professionalism, as
they navigate the tension between feminine gender roles and masculine organizational roles,
while simultaneously creating alternative spaces of belonging within a predominantly
masculine academic environment.