Women and workplace training: Power relations positioning "the other"

This article presents selected details from an empirical study that examine d organisational practices in some Australian workplaces in relation to wom en and training. The background to the study was Australia's Training Refor m Agenda of the 1990s, which offered workers the possibility of significant gains in skill and occupational advancement. The particular focus of my st udy was training opportunities for women working in "ordinary" jobs, lower down in organisational hierarchies. Feminist poststructuralist theory infor med an examination of gender power relations within four workplaces, partic ularly in relation to training. This theoretical perspective offered insigh t into how a range of discursive practices in the organisations positioned some women as certain kinds of subjects with low work affiliation and no ca reer path and highlighted the impact of this positioning on women's trainin g opportunities. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.