Legacies, Present, and Futures: Introduction to the Special Issue on Feminist Organizational Communication

Abstract

In this introduction to the Special Issue, we foreground our feminist journeys, discuss legacies of feminist organizational communication, and introduce the articles of the Special Issue. In the process, we imagine future possibilities of feminist work, thus charting directions for research and praxis.

Politics of Transnational Feminism to Decolonize Feminist Organizational Communication: A Call to Action

“…However, despite this large body of feminist work in organizational communication, we note that there remain some critical absences in feminist engagement (Cruz & Linabary, 2021). We argue that the assumptions of neoliberal hegemony and imperial legacy remain largely unchallenged, posing a challenge to “an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist decolonial praxis” (Mohanty, 2017, p. viii).…”

“…A surge in feminist scholarship in organizational communication work can be traced back to the essay titled “Gaining a Voice: Feminist Organizational Communication Theorizing” (Buzzanell, 1994), which called for an examination of gender in organizational experiences and practices and offered an extensive agenda for feminist research (Cruz & Linabary, 2021). In the three decades since the call was issued, feminist research grew considerably in the field (Buzzanell, 2021).…”

“…We hope transnational feminism further crystallizes social justice agendas central to feminist organizational research (Buzzanell, 2021; Cruz, 2015; Cruz & Linabary, 2021; Linabary et al, 2021; Parker, 2020; Walker & Muñoz Rojas, 2021).…”

“…Scholars have initiated conversations on complex analysis of the gendered nature of global economic processes (Dempsey, 2011) and multi-layered facets of transnational feminist networks (Dempsey et al, 2011; Linabary & Hamel, 2015). However, without much uptake of the paradigm, it has not quite delivered on its decolonial potential (Cruz & Linabary, 2021). In order to invoke the radical impulses of transnational feminism, it is important we interrogate what the category of the transnational entails in today’s economy, and more importantly, today’s academy.…”

Suzhi,Guanxi, and the Abject Body: Nonhuman Agents of Paradox that Perform Identity Work Together With Chinese Women Political Leaders

“…Seeking this voice, the present study delves into the identity construction of women political leaders in China. In so doing, I respond to the recently reissued call for feminist organizational communication studies in which experiences from non-White and/or non-Western worlds are sought (Cruz & Linabary, 2021). This inquiry draws from the idea of occupational identity / identity of work , “the shifting, material, and discursive framing of image and practices associated with a particular type of work” (Meisenbach, 2008, p. 363), rooted in collectively upheld alignment between work and physical and symbolic bodies (Ashcraft, 2013).…”