Metaphorically speaking
Constructions of gender and career in the Danish financial sector
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v1.i1.17189Keywords:
metaphor, discourse, career, gendered languageAbstract
The Danish financial sector is one in which the male occupation of managerial positions still predominates, with women tending to occupy lower-ranking jobs. Previous studies in this field have pointed to biological and cultural forces as determining factors in men’s and women’s unequal positions. However, this position has been partly rejected by recent research within social constructivism which holds that in interaction men and women are positioned in certain ways due to dominant gendered discourses that can either be upheld or negotiated through the adoption of gendered subject positions. The article takes its starting point in this discussion, presenting an analysis of how in the pursuit of careers, men and women in the financial sector may metaphorically and discursively construct career possibilities and constraints, and with that the concepts of sex and gender. Furthermore, the article assesses the extent to which this construction may influence their chances of obtaining managerial positions. The data for the analysis consist of three focus group interviews conducted in a large Danish bank.
References
Butler, Judith (2006 [1990]) Gender Trouble. New York and London: Routledge.
Cameron, Lynne (2003) Metaphor in Educational Discourse. London: Continuum.
Cameron, Lynne and Deignan, Alice (2006) The emergence of metaphor in discourse. Applied Linguistics 27, 4: 671–690.
Charteris-Black, Jonathan (2004) Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London and New York: Palgrave.
Chilton, Paul A. (1996) Security Metaphors – Cold War Discourse from Containment to Common House. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Eckert, Penelope and McConnell-Ginet, Sally (1998) Communities of practice: Where language, gender and power all live. In Jennifer Coates (ed.) Language and Gender: A Reader, 484–494. Oxford and Malden: Blackwell
Ellehave, Camilla F. and Søndergaard, Dorte M. (2006) Køn i den Finansielle Sektor – Forestillinger,Fikseringer og Forandringer. VIFA 2. delrapport. Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitet.
Eubanks, Philip (2000) A War of Words in the Discourse of Trade – The Rhetorical Constitution of Metaphor. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Fairclough, Norman (1992) Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Goatly, Andrew (2007) Washing the Brain – Metaphor and Hidden Ideology. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Hines, Carol (1999) Rebaking the pie: The ‘WOMAN AS DESSERT’ metaphor. In Mary Bucholtz, A. C. Liang and Laurel A. Sutton (eds) Reinventing Identities: The Gendered Self in Discourse, 145–162. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Holmes, Janet (2006) Gendered Talk at Work – Constructing Gender Identity through Workplace Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
Holmes, Janet and Marra, Meredith (2004) Relational practice in the workplace: Women’s talk or gendered discourse. Language and Society 33, 3: 377–398.
Holmes, Janet and Meyerhoff, Miriam (2003) Different voices, different views: An introduction to current research in language and gender. In Janet Holmes and Miriam Meyerhoff (eds) The Handbook of Language and Gender, 1–17. Oxford: Blackwell.
Holmgreen, Lise-Lotte (2006) September 11, neo-liberalism and discourse: The cohering function of metaphor. In Júlia Todolí, Maria Labarta and Rosana Dolón (eds) Quaderns de Filología. Estudis Lingüístics, vol. XI: Critical Discourse Analysis, 95–111. University of Valencia.
Holmgreen, Lise-Lotte (2008) Biotech as ‘biothreat’?: Metaphorical constructions in discourse. Discourse and Society 19, 1: 99–119.
Holmgreen, Lise-Lotte and Vestergaard, Torben (2009) Evaluation and audience acceptance in biotech news texts. Journal of Pragmatics 41, 3: 586–601.
Johnson, Mark (1987) The Body in the Mind – The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Koller, Veronika (2004) Metaphor and Gender in Business Media Discourse: A Critical Cognitive Study. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave.
Korpus 90 and Korpus (2000) http://ordnet.dk/korpusdk_en/front-page/view?set_ language=en
Kövecses, Zoltan (2002) Metaphor – A Practical Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Lakoff, George (1993) The contemporary theory of metaphor. In Andrew Ortony (ed.) Metaphor and Thought (2nd edition), 202–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark (2003 [1980]) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Lakoff, George and Turner, Mark (1989) More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Litosseliti, Lia (2006) Gender and Language: Theory and Practice. London: Hodder Arnold.
Litosseliti, Lia and Sunderland, Jane (2002) Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Mullany, Louise (2007) Gendered Discourse in the Professional Workplace. Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Reddy, Michael (1993) The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In Andrew Ortony (ed.) Metaphor and Thought (2nd edition), 164–201. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Spender, Dale (1980) Man Made Language. London: Routledge.
Sunderland, Jane (2004) Gendered Discourses. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tannen, Deborah (1990) You Just Don’t Understand. London: Virago.
Van Dijk, Teun A. (1997a) Discourse as interaction in society. In Teun A. van Dijk (ed.) Discourse as Social Interaction. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Vol. 2, 1–37. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Van Dijk, Teun A. (1997b) The study of discourse. In Teun A. van Dijk (ed.) Discourse as Structure and Process. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Vol. 1, 1–34. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Van Dijk, Teun A. (2002) Political discourse and political cognition. In Paul A. Chilton and Christina Schäffner (eds) Politics as Text and Talk – Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse, 203–237. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Wenger, Etienne (1999) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wirth, Linda (2002) Breaking through the Glass Ceiling: Women in Management. Palo Alto: Ebrary.
Wilson, Fiona (1992) Language, technology, gender, and power. Human Relations, 45, 9: 883–904.
Wodak, Ruth (1997) Gender and Discourse. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Wodak, Ruth and Meyer, Michael (2002) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage.
Cameron, Lynne (2003) Metaphor in Educational Discourse. London: Continuum.
Cameron, Lynne and Deignan, Alice (2006) The emergence of metaphor in discourse. Applied Linguistics 27, 4: 671–690.
Charteris-Black, Jonathan (2004) Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London and New York: Palgrave.
Chilton, Paul A. (1996) Security Metaphors – Cold War Discourse from Containment to Common House. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Eckert, Penelope and McConnell-Ginet, Sally (1998) Communities of practice: Where language, gender and power all live. In Jennifer Coates (ed.) Language and Gender: A Reader, 484–494. Oxford and Malden: Blackwell
Ellehave, Camilla F. and Søndergaard, Dorte M. (2006) Køn i den Finansielle Sektor – Forestillinger,Fikseringer og Forandringer. VIFA 2. delrapport. Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitet.
Eubanks, Philip (2000) A War of Words in the Discourse of Trade – The Rhetorical Constitution of Metaphor. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Fairclough, Norman (1992) Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Goatly, Andrew (2007) Washing the Brain – Metaphor and Hidden Ideology. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Hines, Carol (1999) Rebaking the pie: The ‘WOMAN AS DESSERT’ metaphor. In Mary Bucholtz, A. C. Liang and Laurel A. Sutton (eds) Reinventing Identities: The Gendered Self in Discourse, 145–162. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Holmes, Janet (2006) Gendered Talk at Work – Constructing Gender Identity through Workplace Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
Holmes, Janet and Marra, Meredith (2004) Relational practice in the workplace: Women’s talk or gendered discourse. Language and Society 33, 3: 377–398.
Holmes, Janet and Meyerhoff, Miriam (2003) Different voices, different views: An introduction to current research in language and gender. In Janet Holmes and Miriam Meyerhoff (eds) The Handbook of Language and Gender, 1–17. Oxford: Blackwell.
Holmgreen, Lise-Lotte (2006) September 11, neo-liberalism and discourse: The cohering function of metaphor. In Júlia Todolí, Maria Labarta and Rosana Dolón (eds) Quaderns de Filología. Estudis Lingüístics, vol. XI: Critical Discourse Analysis, 95–111. University of Valencia.
Holmgreen, Lise-Lotte (2008) Biotech as ‘biothreat’?: Metaphorical constructions in discourse. Discourse and Society 19, 1: 99–119.
Holmgreen, Lise-Lotte and Vestergaard, Torben (2009) Evaluation and audience acceptance in biotech news texts. Journal of Pragmatics 41, 3: 586–601.
Johnson, Mark (1987) The Body in the Mind – The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Koller, Veronika (2004) Metaphor and Gender in Business Media Discourse: A Critical Cognitive Study. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave.
Korpus 90 and Korpus (2000) http://ordnet.dk/korpusdk_en/front-page/view?set_ language=en
Kövecses, Zoltan (2002) Metaphor – A Practical Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Lakoff, George (1993) The contemporary theory of metaphor. In Andrew Ortony (ed.) Metaphor and Thought (2nd edition), 202–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark (2003 [1980]) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Lakoff, George and Turner, Mark (1989) More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Litosseliti, Lia (2006) Gender and Language: Theory and Practice. London: Hodder Arnold.
Litosseliti, Lia and Sunderland, Jane (2002) Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Mullany, Louise (2007) Gendered Discourse in the Professional Workplace. Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Reddy, Michael (1993) The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In Andrew Ortony (ed.) Metaphor and Thought (2nd edition), 164–201. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Spender, Dale (1980) Man Made Language. London: Routledge.
Sunderland, Jane (2004) Gendered Discourses. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tannen, Deborah (1990) You Just Don’t Understand. London: Virago.
Van Dijk, Teun A. (1997a) Discourse as interaction in society. In Teun A. van Dijk (ed.) Discourse as Social Interaction. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Vol. 2, 1–37. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Van Dijk, Teun A. (1997b) The study of discourse. In Teun A. van Dijk (ed.) Discourse as Structure and Process. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Vol. 1, 1–34. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Van Dijk, Teun A. (2002) Political discourse and political cognition. In Paul A. Chilton and Christina Schäffner (eds) Politics as Text and Talk – Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse, 203–237. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Wenger, Etienne (1999) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wirth, Linda (2002) Breaking through the Glass Ceiling: Women in Management. Palo Alto: Ebrary.
Wilson, Fiona (1992) Language, technology, gender, and power. Human Relations, 45, 9: 883–904.
Wodak, Ruth (1997) Gender and Discourse. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Wodak, Ruth and Meyer, Michael (2002) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage.
Downloads
Published
2013-04-22
Issue
Section
Virtual Issue Articles
How to Cite
Holmgreen, L.-L. (2013). Metaphorically speaking: Constructions of gender and career in the Danish financial sector. Gender and Language, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v1.i1.17189
