ABSTRACT
This heading seems like a contradiction. How can organizations be constructed without bodies when the building blocks of organizations are people with bodies? Yet research on work and organizations has to a great extent given us a picture of working life as being without bodies and gender (Acker, 1992; Adkins, 1996). It is, however, our body that locates us in a specific historical and cultural context. Work organizations are examples of such contexts. These differ depending on what part of working life they belong to, and also on the structure and culture in the particular organization. Organizations also vary according to the national contexts they are part of. This is what my point of departure in this chapter will be. I will discuss the processes of embodying Norwegian male employees as fathers through the introduction of a parental leave system that is based on giving fathers a special right, the 'father's quota'.
