Unsilencing silence on business school sexism: A behind‐the‐scenes narration on regaining voice

Abstract

Unsilencing sexism‐related silence is not a new need, particularly in academic institutions heavily imbued with patriarchy, where sexist events are often ignored or denigrated. In this paper, we draw on a sexist cyberbullying attack unleashed against part of our academic work to extend a critique to the silence culture surrounding business school sexism. Through an embodied discussion of the various faces and phases of silence, silencing, and unsilencing that we experienced following this sexist event, we show the behind‐the‐scenes relational process that led us from silence to activism in regaining our voices and speaking out against academic sexism. We discuss the emancipating potential of feminist “wor(l)ds,” relationality, and communal support in unsilencing sexism‐related silence and articulate possible ways of unsilencing silence at the individual, community, and institutional levels.

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