Getting a Glimpse of the Otherness of the Other

Discussions between women and men about men and women form the focus of this article, These discussions took place in the context of an inter-organizational action research project. The position of women in organizations and the subordination of women in general is seen as a relational phenomenon. The relationship between women and men is considered paradigmatic and therefore constitutes the critical unit of analysis as well as the strategic unit of action in this study. The participating organizations had no difficulty in initiating collaboration between women and men and to get them to engage in a joint action to develop a program aimed at improving gender relationships. However, ambiguity emerges as the basic characteristic of gender relationships in view of the fundamental otherness of the other. Dialogue between men and women is not only shaped by the relationship between women and men, but is also forming and transforming it. Dialogue is both means and end, it is the subject as well as the context. Therefore, the criteria for an ethics of mediation, necessary for managing the inevitable ambiguity in the relationship between women and men through mutual respect for their differences, have to come from within the dialogue.