Narratives of sex-segregated professional identities

Abstract

Building on recent investigations of the role of gendered discourses in constructing and maintaining sex-segregated professions this article highlights the significance of small story analysis for the identification of positioning acts which function as rhetorical warrants for career choices and trajectories. It analyses small stories told by Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) and investigates the tensions expressed in the negotiation and performance of their gendered professional identities. Small stories act as a medium of professional identity construction, rapport-building and as a site of contestation, employed to (re)appraise the social order, particularly with respect to 'women's' and 'men's' work. Gendered discourses are shown to impact not only on the amount of men entering the SLT profession but also the specialisms and progression routes that men and women pursue. The analysis points to the reproductive and regulatory power of gendered discourses on individuals' experience of their gendered subjectivity and professional identity.

Women in Masculinized Occupations, Men in Feminized Occupations: Experiences of Gender Occupational Minorities and Their Roles within the Occupational Group

“…Moreover, in many societies, femininity is "a set of characteristics which hinder (due to, e.g., tradition and convictions of what women should do and how) participation in the labour market, obtaining the same income as men or access to career advancement on full and equal terms with men" (Krzyżanowska, 2012: 97). These gender stereotypes are persistent and shared in different national and occupational contexts (Ku, 2011;Huppatz, Goodwin, 2013;Litosseliti, Leadbeater, 2013;Didham, 2015;McEntee-Atalianis, Litosseliti, 2017;McDowell, 2019). Pierre Bourdieu lists three practical principles of gender occupational segregation, combining both horizontal and vertical aspects.…”

Postfeminism as a critical tool for gender and language study

“…This section seeks to illustrate how the notion of postfeminismin its critical iteration as a sensibilitycan contribute an additional and valuable analytical lens for language and gender scholars. Building on some of our previous research on gendered discourses in the talk of professionals within sex-segregated workplaces (Litosseliti and Leadbeater 2013;McEntee-Atalianis and Litosseliti 2017), we draw on our current work in progress on the discursive resources through which gender equality, diversity and inclusion policies are enacted within workplaces. In particular, we examine some of the discursive resources through which gender equality workplace policy is framed and reconfigured in line with postfeminist and postcritique sensibilities.…”

Critical Perspectives on Using Interviews and Focus Groups

“…Petraki, 2005;Tilbury and Colic-Peisker, 2006); and others focus explicitly on the interplay between these aspects (e.g. McEntee-Atalianis and Litosseliti, 2017;Litosseliti, 2006). A final reason for exercising caution over the dismissal of interviews and focus groups centres on the legitimacy of the very distinction between 'natural(istic)' and contrived or 'got up' data.…”