This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Edley, P. P. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Discursive Essentializing in a Woman-Owned Business

Gendered Stereotypes and Strategic Subordination

Bowling Green State University

The purpose of this project is to illustrate how the cultural practice of discursive essentializing in a woman-owned and operated business accomplished simultaneous agendas of power and resistance. Utilizing Foucault’s (1980) conceptualization of power and resistance and Fuss’s (1989) and Spivak’s (1988) views of essentializing as a political move, the author illustrates how the performance of gendered stereotypes, rather than having expected negative consequences, allowed organizational members to suppress conflict and to reproduce the owners’ concept of the ideal workplace for women. The women’s essentializing discourse created a community of support, flexibility, and loyalty while simultaneously suppressing dissent and strategically subordinating the employees’ interests to the owners to achieve larger goals for themselves in the long term.

Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 2, 271-306 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/0893318900142003


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. T. Fairhurst Considering context in discursive leadership research Human Relations, November 1, 2009; 62(11): 1607 - 1633. [Abstract] [PDF]