Introduction

The motivation for this book is our frustration, and sometimes anger, about the gaps between organizational rhetoric and the affective, embodied experiences of women in leadership roles. While there are those who say that gender equity has been achieved, pointing to evidence such as a greater number of women-identifying students in higher education (NCES, 2020), and the increase in women leaders across different sectors, these statistics do not tell the full story. These and other quantitative measures do not help us understand the reasons why gender inequities persist in many workplaces. A biennial review of gender challenges facing organizations in the United Kingdom (Pecis et al., 2022), for instance, shows how inequalities in the labor market between men and women persist with continuing gender gaps evident in pay, insecure employment, decision-making and leadership roles. As researchers and practitioners, we need new tools to help us deal with these persistent problems. The concept of genderwashing can help us interrogate these ongoing gender inequities, and the ongoing social, political, and cultural reasons why gender inequities persist.