Abstract
Organisational gender equality policies must address critical issues in organisations, as well as challenge hierarchies and the unequal distribution of power and resources. At the same time, they are reliant on acceptance by organisations when developing an official course of action. On the basis of a neo‐institutional perspective, this study investigates how gender equality discourses are disciplined so that they fit organisational expectations by maintaining the rationality myth of the organisation. Our empirical analysis of four Swiss organisations demonstrates that, although they intend to reduce gender inequalities, their gender equality policies are shaped by a logic of appropriateness that leads to a continuous reproduction of heteronormativity within gender equality policies. This study thus contributes to the understanding of how the logic of appropriateness protects the heteronormative matrix in organisations by disciplining gender equality discourses.
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