Daughters of Themis is a network for women scholars in all areas of scholarship pertaining to business, including law, economics, management and administration, political science, sociology, and natural sciences.
Workshop theme
Many areas of research concerning business have an overly narrow focus leaving stark gaps with feminist approaches. Some fields see themselves as ‘gender neutral’, even regarding gender as irrelevant (see e.g. Cornell 2022), while other areas are starting – often with women authors – to engage in the rethinking of fundamentals in the field employing feminist perspectives (e.g. Choike, Rodrigues and Williams 2023).
Feminism and business, when discussed, is often limited to the position of women in the workplace, concerning discrimination and other forms of unfair treatment. Suggested solutions are often liberal individualist or liberal structuralist approaches; encouraging women to be more assertive and working to get more women on boards, etc. (e.g. Sjåfjell and Lynch Fannon 2018), which risk merely reproducing corporate power hierarchies (e.g. Russell 2018).
Women on boards and in leadership and the treatment of women in business in general are important topics in themselves. Yet, we are also interested in the broader themes of feminism and business, theoretical developments as well as discussions of practice, concerning the situation within businesses, the governance of business and the position of business in society in light of the grand challenges of our time.
This year’s Nobel Laureate in the Economic Sciences, Claudia Goldin, has demonstrated the importance of Feminist Economics through her analysis of 200 years of data regarding women’s earnings and the labour market participation through the centuries. This is a hopeful indication of how gender research is becoming gradually more recognised, and has the potential to transform the calibre of our areas.
We invite contributions spanning across theory, new and old, as well as contributions on business practice, especially where this is informed by (feminist) theory. We welcome abstracts across all academic disciplines relevant to business, including but not limited to:
- Law and legal theory
- Business and management
- Organisational studies
- Economics
- Social sciences
- Psychology
- Physical and natural sciences
- Sustainability science and sustainability research
Submission of abstracts and working papers
The title of your paper and an abstract of no more than 500 words should be submitted via this online form by 10 January 2024. Successful participants will be notified by 21 January 2024. The selection of participants will be competitive, based on the quality and thematic fit of the submitted abstract with the workshop theme.
Timely submission of working papers is a precondition for participation in the workshop. Short working papers of a maximum of 2,500 words, including footnotes, will be due by 12 May 2024. The word limit for the short working papers is chosen to enable all workshop participants to read all papers in preparation for the workshop, and to give space for developing the themes of the individual papers after the workshop, based on the comments and discussion. The limit for the full-length papers will be communicated at a later stage.
A peer-reviewed joint publication of selected workshop papers is envisaged. We will therefore only accept original research, which is not submitted for publication elsewhere, and we request that the workshop participants commit to this publication process within a reasonable timeline, to be agreed upon with the workshop participants.
About the workshop
The Daughters of Themis annual workshops are deliberately designed to be small, welcoming, and in-depth. Our annual workshops are a warm and supportive space in which constructive, critical, and inspiring dialogues can take place between participants, whilst nourishing the mind and body in a peaceful and idyllic natural setting.
Workshop spaces are limited to 12 participants, so that each participant can benefit from extended discussion of their work. The workshop sessions are shaped to ensure interactive discussion with two commentators assigned to each paper.
The workshop will be held from Tuesday 4 June to Friday 7 June 2024 at the Cavo Perlevos Guesthouse on the Greek island of Kea. We offer an optional networking day on Kea on Monday 3 June 2024 and an optional reflection day on Saturday 8 June 2024.
Further details about travel and accommodation will be given to the selected participants. A reasonable self-cost workshop fee will be payable by the selected participants. The workshop fee will cover accommodation at Cavo Perlevos as well as lunches and dinners from Tuesday 4 June 2024 to Friday 7 June 2024. The workshop fee and other travel and accommodation costs are to be funded by the scholar herself.
Funding
The network, unfortunately, has no general funding available for participants. However, we have managed to secure funds to contribute to costs for one or two participants. We wish to include women business scholars from lower-income countries in our network, and especially encourage submissions from existing or potential new members in such countries, while the possibility to apply for financial assistance is open to all members. Please provide a short justification in the financial hardship section of the online form and let us know whether funding is a prerequisite for your attendance.
Academic organising committee for the 2024 workshop
Sarah Cornell, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
Beate Sjåfjell, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo