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Findings of an extensive archival study of Pan American Airways (PAA) strongly support Acker’s (1990) notion of the presence and importance of a dominant discourse of organizing logic in structuring a gendered order. Findings also demonstrate that the presence of alternative, but not necessarily feminist, discourses can serve to upset the gender order of organizations. Thus, we conclude that changing the organization’s gender substructure (Acker, 1992b) by changing the dominant discourse or introducing competing discourses may help to destabilize “truths” and interrupt the perpetuation and reification of policies, practices, and understandings that are often taken-for-granted despite their ability to silence voices and privilege some groups over others.

The purpose of this paper is to adopt a critical relational dialectics framework to identify and explore gender discursive struggles about social inclusion observed in an online gaming community, in South Africa.

The paper uses a technique called contrapuntal analysis to identify and explore competing discourses in over 200 messages on gender struggles about social inclusion posted in the local community’s gamer discussion board, based on seven threads initiated by women gamer activists.

The findings show how four interrelated gender discursive struggles about social inclusion and social exclusion animated the meanings of online gamer relations: dominance vs equality, stereotyping vs diversity, competitiveness vs cooperativeness and privilege vs empowerment.

Game designers should reinforce more accurate and positive stereotypes to cater for the rapidly growing female gamer segment joining the online gaming market and to develop a less chauvinistic and more diversely representative online gaming community. Enlightened gamers should exercise greater solidarity in fighting for gender equality in online gaming communities.

The critical relational dialectics analysis adopted in this study offers a promising avenue to understand and critique the discursive struggles that arise when online gamers from the different gender groups relate. The findings highlight the unequal discursive power and privilege of many white male gamers when discussing social inclusion. Advancing our understanding of these discursive struggles creates the possibilities for improving social inclusion in online gaming communities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the representations of male and female social actors within the subversive gendered discourse of “equal opportunities for men and women” in Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks.

From the methodological perspective, this study fused van Leeuwen’s (2003) “Social Actor Network Model” and Sunderland’s (2004) “Gendered Discourses Model”.

Data obtained from this study showed the subversive gendered discourse of “equal opportunities” was supported through such representations within a narrow perspective in line with dominant gender ideologies in Iran. The findings suggest the resistance against such subversive gendered discourse in Iranian EFL textbooks underpins gender norms and religious ideologies existing in Iran.

Such representations of male and female social actors in school textbooks show inclusive education and the discourse of “equal opportunities” have yet to be realised in education system of many countries, including Iran.

This paper focuses on how gendered processes of working life are (re)constructed and are also challenged discursively in paid and volunteer care and work in reception centers. The purpose of this paper is to show how caring work with asylum seekers can both enhance the traditional gender order and challenge it through enabling men to have opportunities to care.

The data were produced through qualitative interviews among paid workers and volunteers in reception centers, and analyzed through a discourse analysis approach.

Three discourses of care and work were identified: a discourse on solidarity and care; a discourse on control and order; and a discourse on caring men. The findings show that traditional attitudes toward gender are easily discerned in other cultures, but not as easily recognized in the everyday processes near at hand. Gender order is retained through traditional roles, which also reflects conventional attitudes in a society often seen as a model country for equality. However, change is possible, and one core issue is the need to involve men in care work and caring in general.

The findings can be applicable to the deconstruction of traditional gender order in working life; to the disclosure of gendered xenophobia in work with asylum seekers, in particular through dialogue with “Others”; and to the enabling of care by men.

Little previous research has been done on care in reception centers and care as a gendered activity with value. In the future many countries are likely to encounter increases in asylum seekers, and therefore, intersections of gender and ethnicity are of importance in societies as regards migration, work and care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resurfaced challenges to gender equality and gender relations both worldwide and in Norway. There have been massive public discussions on social media platforms, highlighting the potential of analysing public discourses in a non-reactive manner (Rauchfleisch et al., 2021). Further, discourses from social media may affect cultural representations and broad discourses in society (Rambukkana, 2015), such as that related to gender. In this article, by studying the Norwegian Twitter users' discussion on gender as related to COVID-19 pandemic, the authors will examine the everyday gendered discourses.

Data for this project were collected from the social media platform Twitter. The authors conducted the search on 16th November 2020, and that resulted in a total of 485 results, inclusive of both original tweets and replies. The data were analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis.

The thematic analysis of the tweets revealed three main categories which were mirrored in recognisable and widespread discourses about gender: (1) stereotypical gendered behaviours, (2) construction of masculinities and (3) othering. The authors argued that the stereotypes on gendered behaviour, traits and ideology together attribute to the maintenance of unequal gender structures.

This article explored discourses on gender on Twitter, the networked public sphere of Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that discourses both reflect and shape social configurations, they have the power to shape gender realities. With the transcendence of social media across geographic boundaries, the authors’ findings are relevant both for Norway and globally.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-08-2022-0482

Various studies indicate that men and certain masculinities are ascribed a normative role in innovation policies and innovation networks. This article aims to analyse which feminist approaches have been used in order to articulate and perform resistance to the hegemonic “masculinist” discourses on innovation, applying the concept of paradoxical space coined by Rose. The paper specifically focuses on Swedish gender and innovation research and development (R&D) projects, as Sweden has been depicted as progressive in the theoretical and practical development of this field.

The paper analyses feminist approaches used in the “margin to the mainstream” of innovation R&D. The analysis is conducted on research and evaluation – where the authors have been involved as “outsiders within”. The empirical material is gathered through literature searches and interviews.

The paper concludes that three approaches to feminist resistance, outlined by Rose, are used in the analysed material: movements between the centre and margin; reaching beyond representation and definition, and paradoxical spaces used as separatism. A fourth approach – using paradoxical space for recognising differences in terms of, for example, “race”, class and sexuality – is mainly lacking in the material, except in a few cases. The theoretical contribution lies in clarifying and delineating the occurrence of different approaches to the application of a gender perspective on innovation R&D, and in highlighting the implication for gendered innovation discourses in policy, research and practice.

Implications based on the analysis include the need for applying different approaches to feminist resistance against the masculinist central discourse on innovation, since different approaches are able to perform resistance against the different aspects of the masculinist discourses. The findings indicate that policy support and specific calls in the field of gender and innovation are necessary for the development of this field. Further, policy support should enable various approaches to feminist resistance.

The article contributes by providing an overview of programs, projects and studies concerning gender and innovation R&D in Sweden – thus delineating the forefront of the scientific and practical field of gender and innovation. It also links feminist theories to practical efforts, identifying different approaches to feminist resistance towards a masculinist central discourse on innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore research on the inclusion of women and discourses on gender in the social studies curriculum, with the goal of promoting gender equality.

To gauge how issues on gender are being taken up in classrooms around the world, the process started by exploring Compare, Comparative Education, Comparative Education Review and International Journal of Educational Development. Initially, studies related to the social studies curriculum were examined. The research then expanded beyond the social sciences and these journals. The next level of research used a mixture of the key search terms “inclusion,” “gender discourse,” “women,” “gender equality” and “curriculum.” Studies conducted around the world were examined to broaden the understanding of global research on women and gender discourses in the curriculum.

Although progress is evident, reform measures are necessary to ameliorate the inclusion of women and gender discourses in the curriculum. Implementing these strategies in social studies education may be effective steps to achieve gender equality: (1) consistently encourage students to critique power structures and systems of oppression; (2) include the exploration of gender fluidity, masculinity and the fluidity of masculinity in the curriculum; (3) examine intersectional identities such as race, gender and sexuality; and (4) utilize teacher education programs and professional development as key sites to help educators improve the amount of and approach to gender discourse in the classroom.

After reviewing these studies, the combined findings offer potential steps to achieve gender equality.

Purpose – A crucial discussion within the feminist discourse in consumption studies concerns the role of the marketplace in women's emancipation. While some theorists argue that women in contemporary society employ marketplace resources to construct individual, multiple identities, critics call attention to the fact that this argument may be applicable exclusively to Western, white, middle-class women, who possess sufficient capital to participate fully in the consumer culture. Our aim is to demonstrate that non-Western women with limited capital resources can benefit from the self-realizing modern woman discourse criticized by the second wave feminist research stream.

Methodology/approach – In support of the above perspective, we analyze depth interviews with fourteen Romanian women, aged 23–51, who had been living in Italy for one to twelve years at the time of the interview.

Findings – The internalization of the modern woman discourse featured in the marketplace is closely and interactively connected to the acquisition of cultural capital, leading eventually to the adoption of a self-reflexive cosmopolitan strategy that allows women to individuate and effectively resist the dominating discourses in the home and host societies.

Originality/value of paper – Our chapter adds a global dimension to the second wave and postfeminism discussions of the role of the marketplace in women's gender role negotiation. We illustrate that the modern woman discourse featured in the marketplace may act as an emancipating force for women who originated in a patriarchal society. By doing so, we also offer an overlooked gendered perspective on the discourse of global consumer culture.

This paper aims to examine the discursive constitution of leadership identities by senior women leaders working in the City of London. This study draws on postfeminism as a critical concept to explore this constitution, as it has produced the cultural conditions for the reconfiguration of masculine and feminine gender norms in leadership.

In a qualitative study, 13 women leaders in positions of power in the City of London were interviewed. Discourse analysis techniques were used to unpack the postfeminist shaping of leadership identities

At the heart of the leadership identities that senior women leaders construct is a gendered hybridity that is a multifaceted calibration of masculine and feminine attributes and behaviours. Postfeminist discourses of individualism, choice and self-improvement are entangled with discourses of authenticity, relatability and connectivity as particular leadership assets. The gendered hybridity of leadership identities unfolds the possibility for a fundamental makeover of leadership by opening-up space for a transformative change that accommodates women leaders.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the very few studies that foreground the leadership identities that women leaders construct within the confines of postfeminist gender regimes. It shows how these women invoke authenticity, unfolding possibilities for the transformational change of and political challenge to traditional gendered leadership in their organizations.