Discourse and Enactment: Gender Inequality in Text and Context

Abstract

This paper examines the discourse surrounding a major U.K. initiative designed to increase the “quality and quantity” of women's participation in the workforce and in managerial roles. Texts are studied to explore ways in which the persistence of inequalities may, without apparent intention, be encoded in language. Our analysis suggests that cognitive schemata are framed by the dominant discourse, here of “target-setting” within organizations. We find from commentaries that even potential critics of the campaign were drawn into acceptance of a common agenda and have been thereby diverted from addressing other pressing issues affecting women's opportunities. This analysis draws upon a conceptual scheme which is concerned with ways in which cycles of cognition, action, and outcome collectively actualize social structures, a process referred to as social enactment. We explore how a conventional discourse reinforces enactment processes supporting prevailing structures while new discourse offers the potential for change.

‘Trapped’ by metaphors for organizations: Thinking and seeing women’s equality and inequality

“…Accordingly, the values of organizations and organization praxis were embedded and enacted in business discourse associated with a man's world (Garnsey and Rees, 1996;Koller, 2004a, b;Wilson, 1992). A female employee remarked, 'I don't feel my career is a journey, it has no meaning' (Robinson, 2010: 909 [quotation marks in original]).…”

The construction of the older worker: privilege, paradox and policy

“…Accordingly, this study uses discourse analysis to examine the construction of this identity and the policy implications that follow from it. Building on earlier discursive work on prejudice in relation to gender and race/ethnicity (Edley and Wetherell, 1997;Garnsey and Rees, 1996;Gill, 1993aGill, , 1993bKleiner, 1998;Van Dijk, 1997;Wodak, 1996); and on the contradictions that arise from the mixing of different discourses in contemporary texts (Fairclough, 1995), we show how age discrimination intersects with other discourses to produce a particular kind of older worker. By examining the discursive processes that construct identity, particularly struggles around comparative disadvantage, we are able to show how certain versions of older worker identity are privileged; identify a number of paradoxes that are embedded in the process; and discuss the policy implications that have material outcomes not only for individuals categorized as older workers, but also those who fail to make this category.…”

Deconstructing the ‘older worker’: Exploring the complexities of subject positioning at the intersection of multiple discourses

“…To unmask deeply entrenched inequalities in the workplace, and to expose employers' taken-for-granted assumptions about older workers, several studies have followed the example of prior research on gender (Garnsey and Rees, 1996;Gill, 1993;Mumby and Clair, 1997;West, Lazar and Kramarae, 1997) and race (Kleiner, 1998;van Dijk, 1996;Wetherell and Potter, 1992;Wodak, 1997;Wodak and Reisigl, 1999) and adopted discourse analysis as a key methodology. Discourse, in fact, constructs social identity through a process of differentiation whereby certain groups such as, for instance, 'older workers', are defined by their relative interests and position in society vis-à-vis other groups (van Dijk, 1997;Wodak, 1996).…”