Changing Corporate America from Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Workplace Rights Nicole C. Raeburn Table of Contents		$24.00 paper ISBN: 0-8166-3999-X ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-3999-1 $72.00 cloth ISBN: 0-8166-3998-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-3998-4
Winner of the American Sociological Association's Max Weber Award for Distinguished Scholarship Investigates how gays, lesbians, and bisexuals have succeeded in securing equitable benefits. Despite the backlash against lesbian and gay rights occurring in cities and states across the country, a growing number of corporations are actually expanding protections and benefits for their gay and lesbian employees. Why this should be, and why some corporations are increasingly open to inclusive policies while others are determinedly not, is what Nicole C. Raeburn seeks to explain in Changing Corporate America from Inside Out. A long-overdue study of the workplace movement, Raeburn’s analysis focuses on the mobilization of lesbian, gay, and bisexual employee networks over the past fifteen years to win domestic partner benefits in Fortune 1000 companies. Drawing on surveys of nearly one hundred corporations with and without gay networks, intensive interviews with human resources executives and gay employee activists, as well as a number of case studies, Raeburn reveals the impact of the larger social and political environment on corporations’ openness to gay-inclusive policies, the effects of industry and corporate characteristics on companies’ willingness to adopt such policies, and what strategies have been most effective in transforming corporate policies and practices to support equitable benefits for all workers. “Thorough, cogent analysis. This book is essential reading for scholars interested in policy, sexuality, organizations and organization theory, social movements, activism, and sociology of work. Those wanting to change their own institutions should read this book for the specific strategies that it recommends.” —Gender & Society “Raeburn provides a remarkably in-depth exploration of the struggle for lesbian and gay rights in corporate America. While much of social theory looks only above or below a level of observation for explanations, Raeburn goes above, below, and within and describes how each of these levels is embedded in the others.” —American Journal of Sociology “Recommended.” —Choice Nicole C. Raeburn is assistant professor and chair of sociology at the University of San Francisco. 360 pages | 2 line art, 6 tables | 5-7/8 x 9 | 2004 Social Movements, Protest, and Contention Series, volume 20 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction: Corporations as the New Frontier for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Rights 1. The Rise of the Corporate Workplace Movement 2. The Slowdown in New Corporate Organizing 3. Building and Benefiting from the Movement 4. Winds of Change outside Corporate Walls: External Factors Influence Gay-Inclusive Policies 5. Corporate Windows of Opportunity: The Impact of Internal Factors on Gay-Inclusive Policies 6.Changing the Corporation from Inside Out: The Power of Employee Activism Conclusion: Movement Success, Theoretical and Practical Appendix: The Birth of Gay Employee Networks and the Adoption of Domestic Partner Benefits Works Cited Index