Teaching managers about masculinities: Are you kidding?

The way forward in the understanding of gender relations in organizations i s to turn from a focus on women to a broader focus on men and the construct ion of masculinities in management. Research on this task has made a substa ntial and growing contribution, yet management education and teaching poses additional challenges. This article reports the author's experiences in in troducing; to management development activities, a focus on masculinities. It describes the author's teaching journey through gender, including the te mptation to stay with the 'short agenda' of gender education with its focus on equal employment opportunity or palatable arguments for 'diversity: Con vinced that teaching gender needs to encompass masculinities, the author ex amines the obstacles to doing so. The first set of obstacles concerns the c ontent of curricula and, in particular, the apparent incomprehensibility an d invisibility of 'masculinities: The second set of issues centres on pedag ogies in management education. The author argues that good teaching is, con trary to received wisdom, a full-bodied and sexualized experience which fac ilitates a process of student identification. However, a female teacher tal king about masculinities with a predominantly male group complicates and co nfounds accepted pedagogical practices. Can masculinities be taught to mana gers and can they be taught within the framework of management education ? And can a woman do it?.