Is it all tough talking at the top?
A post-structuralist analysis of the construction of gendered speaking identities of British business leaders within interview narratives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v2i2.197Keywords:
linguistic identities, feminist post-structuralism, transactionalAbstract
This paper uses a feminist post-structuralist approach to examine the gendered identities of a sample of British business leaders in Britain. While recent national surveys offer many material reasons why women are acutely under-represented as business leaders, the role of language is rarely addressed. This paper explores the ways in which ten senior women and men construct their sense of leadership identities through the medium of interview narratives. Drawing upon two poststructuralist models of analysis— Derrida’s (1987) theory of deconstruction and Sheldon’s (1992) concept of double-voice discourse, the paper shows how both females and males are able to shift pragmatically between interwoven corporate discourses, which demand competing cultural allegiances from one moment to the next— allegiances constantly tested by the rapid change and uncertainty that characterises global business. However, while male leaders experience a relative freedom of movement between different cultural discourses, female leaders are circumscribed by negative and reductive representations of female speech and behaviour. In sum, senior women are required constantly to observe, review, police and repair their use of leadership language, which potentially undermines their confidence and authority as leaders.
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Singh, V., Kumra, S. and Vinnicombe, S. (2002). Gender and impression management: playing the promotion game. Journal of Business Ethics, 37: 77–89.
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Swann, J. (1995) Feminising classroom talk? In S. Mills (ed.) Language and Gender: interdisciplinary perspectives. London: Longman, pp. 135–148.
Tannen, D. (1994). Talking from 9 to 5: women and men in the workplace: language and sex and power. New York: Avon.
Viinicombe, S. and Singh, V. (2002). Sex role stereotyping and requisites of successful top managers. Women in Management Review, 2002.
Watson, J. (2007). Accessed voice as part of a news report on the EOC report, Sex and Power: who runs Britain? London: The Equal Opportunities Commission.
Weedon, C. (1997). Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory. 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell
Wodak, R. (1997) ‘I know we won’t revolutionise the world with this, but....’ Styles of female leadership in institutions. In H. Kotthoff and R. Wodak (eds) Communicating Gender in Context. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 335–70.
Bass, B.M., Avolio, B.J. and Atwater, L.E. (1996). The transactional and transformational leadership of men and women. Applied Psychology: an International Review 45: 5–34.
Baxter, J. (2003). Positioning Gender in Discourse: a feminist methodology. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Baxter, J. (2006a). Putting gender in its place: a case study on constructing speaker identities in a management meeting. In Barrett, M. and Davidson, M., Gender and Communication at Work. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 69–79.
Baxter, J. (ed.) (2006b). Speaking out: the female voice in public contexts. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Bem, S. (1993). The Lenses of Gender. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.
Cameron, D. (1995). Verbal Hygiene. London: Routledge.
Cameron, D. (2000). Good to Talk? London: Sage.
Cameron, D. (2005) Language, gender and sexuality: current issues and new directions. Applied Linguistics 26 (4): 482–50.
Cameron, D. and Kulick, D. (2003). Language and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cameron, D. and Kulick, D. (2005). Identity crisis? Language and Communication 25 (2): 107–125.
Catalyst and Opportunity Now (2001). Breaking the barriers: women in senior management in the UK. Report published by New York: Catalyst.
Coates, J. (1995) Language, gender and career. In Mills, S. (ed.) Language and Gender: interdisciplinary perspectives. London: Longman, pp. 135–148.
Cooper, R. 1989. Modernism, post-modernism and organisational analysis 3: The contribution of Jacques Derrida. Organisation Studies, 10 (4): 479–502.
Eckert, P. and McConnell-Ginet, S. (2003). Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
EOC (2007). Sex and Power: who runs Britain? London: The Equal Opportunities Commission.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman.
Fairclough, N. and Chouliakari, L. (1999). Discourse in Late Modernity – rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 1999.
Fairclough, N. (2001) Language and Power. 2nd edn. Edinburgh: Pearson Educational Ltd
Fishman, P. (1978). Interaction: the work women do. Social Problems 25 (4): 397–406.
Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge. Brighton: Harvester Press.
Halford, S. and Leonard, P. (2001). Gender, Power and Organisations. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Heath, A., Steiner, R., Cave, A. and Boyle, C. (2007). Anatomy of British business. The Business, 6 January 2007, pp. 22–4.
Holmes, J. (2006) Gendered Talk at Work. Oxford: Blackwell.
Holmes, J. and Meyerhoff, M. (1999). The community of practice: theories and methodologies in language and gender research. Language in Society 28 (2): 173–83.
Holmes, J. and Stubbe, M. (2003). Feminine workplaces: stereotypes and reality. In J. Holmes and M. Meyerhoff (eds), The Handbook of Language and Gender. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 573–99.
Holmes, J. and Marra, M. (2004) Relational practice in the workplace: women’s talk or gendered discourse? Language in Society 33, pp. 377–98.
Holmes, J. and Schnurr, S. (2005). Politeness, humour and gender in the workplace: negotiating norms and identifying contestation. Journal of Politeness 1 (1): 121–49.
Johnson, R. 2007. ‘You can keep the jobs, guys.’ The Sunday Times News Review, 7 January 2007, p. 4.
Kamuf, Peggy (ed.). (1991). A Derrida Reader: between the blinds. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Kendall, S. and Tannen, D. (1997). Gender and language in the workplace. In R. Wodak (ed.) Gender & discourse. New York: Longman, pp. 81–105.
Koller, V. (2004). Metaphor and Gender in Business Media Discourse. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Litosseliti, L. (2006a). Gender and Language: theory and practice. London: Hodder & Arnold.
Litosseliti, L. (2006b). Constructing gender in public arguments: the female voice as emotional voice. In J. Baxter (ed.), Speaking Out: the female voice in public contexts. Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 240–60.
Marra, M., Schnurr, S. and Holmes, J. (2006). Effective leadership in New Zealand: balancing gender and role. In J. Baxter (ed.), Speaking Out: the female voice in public contexts. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
McConnell-Ginet, S. (2000). Breaking through the glass ceiling: can linguistic awareness help? In J. Holmes (ed.), Gendered Speech in Social Context: perspectives from town to gown. Wellington: Victoria University Press, pp. 259–82.
McElhinny, B. (1998). ‘I don’t smile much anymore’: affect, gender and the discourse of Pittsburgh police officers. In J. Coates (ed.) Language and Gender: a reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 309–327.
Mills, S. (2003). Third wave feminism and the analysis of sexism. Discourse analysis online refereed interactive e-journal: www.shu.ac.uk/daol.
Mills, S. (2006). Gender and performance anxiety at academic conferences. In J. Baxter (ed.), Speaking Out: the female voice in public contexts. Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 61–80
Mullany, L. (2004). An examination of the discourse strategies of female and male Chairs in managerial business meetings. In C. Gouveia and C. Silvestre (eds) Discourse, Communication and Enterprise. Lisbon: Lisbon University Press.
Mullany, L. (2007). Gendered Discourse in Professional Communication. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Riley, S., Frith, H. Archer, L. and Veseley, L. (2006) Institutional sexism in academia. The Psychologist 19 (2), pp. 94–7.
Schegloff, E. (1997). Whose text? Whose context? Discourse & Society 8 (2): 165–187.
Sheldon, A. And Johnson, D. (1991). Gender differences in double-voice discourse as a conflict talk style in early childhood. Paper presented at the American Association for Applied Linguistics, New York City.
Sheldon, A. (1992). Conflict talk: sociolinguistic challenges to self-assertion and how young girls meet them. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 38 (1): 95–117.
Singh, V. (2002). Diversity: think different. Director, July 2002.
Singh, V., Kumra, S. and Vinnicombe, S. (2002). Gender and impression management: playing the promotion game. Journal of Business Ethics, 37: 77–89.
Sunderland, J. and Litosseliti, L. (2007).Theoretical and methodological approaches to gender and language study. In K. Harrington, L. Litosseliti, H. Sauntson and J. Sunderland (eds) Gender and Language Research Methodologies. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Swann, Joan (2002) Yes, but is it gender? In L. Litosseliti and J. Sunderland (eds) Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 43–67.
Swann, J. (1995) Feminising classroom talk? In S. Mills (ed.) Language and Gender: interdisciplinary perspectives. London: Longman, pp. 135–148.
Tannen, D. (1994). Talking from 9 to 5: women and men in the workplace: language and sex and power. New York: Avon.
Viinicombe, S. and Singh, V. (2002). Sex role stereotyping and requisites of successful top managers. Women in Management Review, 2002.
Watson, J. (2007). Accessed voice as part of a news report on the EOC report, Sex and Power: who runs Britain? London: The Equal Opportunities Commission.
Weedon, C. (1997). Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory. 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell
Wodak, R. (1997) ‘I know we won’t revolutionise the world with this, but....’ Styles of female leadership in institutions. In H. Kotthoff and R. Wodak (eds) Communicating Gender in Context. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 335–70.
Published
2008-11-17
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Baxter, J. (2008). Is it all tough talking at the top? A post-structuralist analysis of the construction of gendered speaking identities of British business leaders within interview narratives. Gender and Language, 2(2), 197-222. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v2i2.197
