Article
| Title: | Media representations of gender and leadership: from a discourse perspective |
| Author: | |
| Source document: | Brno studies in English. 2013, vol. 39, iss. 1, pp. [89]-105 |
| Extent: | [89]-105 |
| ISSN: | 0524-6881 (print); 1805-0867 (online) |
| DOI: | 10.5817/BSE2013-1-5 |
| Type: | Article (English) |
| Stable URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/129153 |
| License: |
PDF
Abstract(s):
This article explores the media representations of gender and leadership by examining the interactional data drawn from the U.S. reality TV show The Apprentice. By taking a discourse perspective, this article looks at the ways in which two project managers "do leadership" as portrayed in the TV show. The analysis shows that both managers draw upon elements of a masculine speech style as well as feminine discourse features for the performance of leadership. However, while the use of "mixed" gendered discourse features by the male manager is portrayed in a positive light in the reality TV show, similar verbal behaviours by the female manager are viewed rather negatively by other contestants. It is suggested that owing to the stereotypical expectations of gender-appropriate behaviours and the traditional association of leadership with masculinity, the female manager may be under more constraints when using "mixed" gendered discursive strategies in "doing leadership", while the male manager may be allowed to use a greater range of acceptable verbal behaviours when enacting the role of a leader.
Keywords:
gender; leadership; discourse analysis; sociolinguistics; media; reality TV
References:
[1] Barrett, Mary (2004) " Should they learn to interrupt? Workplace communication strategies Australian women managers forecast as effective". Women in Management 19 (8), 391–403. | DOI 10.1108/09649420410570207
[2] Baxter, Judith (2010) The Language of Female Leadership. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[3] Bergvall, Victoria (1996) " Constructing and enacting gender through discourse: Negotiating multiple roles as female engineering students". In: Bergvall, Victoria, Janet Bing and Alice Freed (eds.) Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice. New York: Longman, 173–201.
[4] Butler, Judith (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.
[5] Cameron, Deborah (2003) " Gender and language ideologies". In: Holmes, Janet and Miriam Meyerhoff (eds.) The Handbook of Language and Gender. Oxford: Blackwell, 447–467.
[6] Cameron, Deborah (2007) " Dreaming of Genie: Language, gender difference and identity on the web". In: Johnson, Sally and Astrid Ensslin (eds.) Language in the Media. London: Continuum, 234–249.
[7] Case, Susan (1993) " Wide-verbal-repertoire speech: Gender, language, and managerial influence". Women's Studies International Forum 16 (3), 271–290.
[8] Case, Susan (1994) " Gender differences in communication and behaviour in organizations". In: Davidson, Marilyn and Ronald Burke (eds.) Women in Management: Current Research Issues. London: P. Chapman, 144–167.
[9] Coates, Jennifer (1997) " One-at-a-time: The organization of men's talk". In: Johnson, Sally and Ulrike Meinhoff (eds.) Language and Masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell, 107–129.
[10] Coates, Jennifer (2004) Women, Men, and Language: A Sociolinguistic Account of Gender Differences in Language. Harlow and New York: Pearson Longman.
[11] Evans, Jessica (2005) " Celebrity: What's the media got to do with it?" In: Evans, Jessica and David Hesmondhalgh (eds.) Understanding Media: Inside Celebrity. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 1–10.
[12] Gill, Rosalind (2006) Gender and the Media. Cambridge: Polity Press.
[13] Hearn, Jeff and Wendy Parkin (1989) " Women, men, and leadership: A critical review of assumptions, practices, and change in the industrialized nations". In: Adler, Nancy and Dafna Izraeli (eds.) Women in Management Worldwide. London: M. E. Sharpe, 17–40.
[14] Holmes, Janet (1995) Women, Men and Politeness. London: Longman.
[15] Holmes, Janet (2006) Gendered Talk at Work: Constructing Gender Identity through Workplace Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
[16] Holmes, Janet and Maria Stubbe (2003) Power and Politeness in the Workplace. London: Pearson.
[17] Holmes, Janet and Meredith Marra (2010) " Femininity, feminism and gendered discourse". In: Holmes, Janet and Meredith Marra (eds.) Femininity, Feminism and Gendered Discourse. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 1–18.
[18] Holmes, Janet, Stephanie Schnurr, Angela Chan and Tina Chiles (2003) " The discourse of leadership". Te Reo 46, 31–46.
[19] Jule, Allyson (2008) A Beginner's Guide to Language and Gender. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
[20] Litosseliti, Lia (2006) Gender and Language: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Arnold.
[21] Marra, Meredith, Stephanie Schnurr and Janet Holmes (2006) " Effective leadership in New Zealand workplaces". In: Baxter, Judith (ed.) Speaking Out: The Female Voice in Public Contexts. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 240–260.
[22] Martin Rojo, Luisa and Concepcion Gomez Esteban (2005) " The gender of power: The female style in labour organizations". In: Lazar, Michelle (ed.) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Palgrave, 61–89.
[23] Matheson, Donald (2005) Media Discourses: Analysing Media Texts. Berkshire: Open University Press.
[24] Ochs, Elinor (1992) " Indexing gender". In: Duranti, Alessandro and Charles Goodwin (eds.) Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 335–358.
[25] Peck, Jennifer (2006) " Women and promotion: The influence of communication style". In: Barrett, Mary and Marilyn Davidson (eds.) Gender and Communication at Work. Hampshire: Ashgate, 50–66.
[26] Ross, Karen (2010) Gendered Media: Women, Men, and Identity Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
[27] Schnurr, Stephanie (2009) Leadership Discourse at Work: Interactions of Humour, Gender and Workplace Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[28] Schnurr, Stephanie (2010) " Decision made – let's move on: Negotiating gender and professional identity in Hong Kong workplaces". In: Muehleisen, Susanne, Markus Bieswanger and Heiko Motschenbacher (eds.) Language in its Socio-cultural Context. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 111–136.
[29] Sinclair, Amanda (1998) Doing Leadership Differently: Gender, Power and Sexuality in a Changing Business Culture. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
[30] Sunderland, Jane (2004) Gendered Discourses. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
[31] Sung, Chit Cheung Matthew (2011) " Doing gender and leadership: A discursive analysis of media representations in a reality TV show". English Text Construction 4 (1), 85–112. | DOI 10.1075/etc.4.1.05sun
[32] Sung, Chit Cheung Matthew (2012) " Exploring the interplay of gender, discourse, and (im)politeness". Journal of Gender Studies 21 (3), 285–300.
[33] Sung, Chit Cheung Matthew (2013) " Language and gender in a US reality TV show: An analysis of leadership discourse in single-sex interactions". Nordic Journal of English Studies 12 (2), 25–51.
[34] Talbot, Mary (2010) Language and Gender: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
[35] Tannen, Deborah (1987) " Repetition in conversation: Towards a poetics of talk". Language 63 (3), 574–605. | DOI 10.2307/415006
[36] Thimm, Caja, Sabine Koch and Sabine Schey (2003) " Communicating gendered professional identity". In: Holmes, Janet and Miriam Meyerhoff (eds.) The Handbook of Language and Gender. Oxford: Blackwell, 528–549.
