Table Of ContentGlobalisation, Geopolitics,
and Gender in Professional
Communication
This edited collection investigates the linguistics of globalisation, geopolitics and
gender in workplace cultures in a range of different contemporary international
settings. The chapters examine how issues of globalisation, gender and geopolitics
affect professionals in different workplace contexts, including domestic workers;
IT professionals; teachers, university staff; engineers; entrepreneurs; CEOs of
different corporates including locally based businesses as well as multinationals;
farmers; co-operative leaders; NGO leaders; bloggers; healthcare assistants and
caregivers.
Taking different sociolinguistic approaches to exploring language and the
geopolitics of gender at work in Dubai, Kuwait, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco,
Nigeria, Malaysia, Turkey, Belgium, Switzerland, New Zealand, Uganda, the UK
and the USA, each chapter focuses on a range of salient geopolitical issues which
often have global applicability, but which may also be subject to more localised
socio-cultural variation. The chapters critically discuss issues of gendered
language, perceptions and representations of workplace cultures, discrimination,
the role of gendered stereotyping and deeply ingrained socio-cultural myths
about gender and the importance of examining the intersections of identity – all
of which continue to persist as barriers to equality and inclusion in workplaces
worldwide.
Despite the variation and diversity in professions and geopolitical contexts
captured across the chapters, remarkably similar issues of gender discrimination
and persisting inequalities are identified and critically discussed, thus pointing to
the global nature of these issues.
Louise Mullany is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Nottingham,
UK. She specialises in investigations of language, gender and equality in
professional settings in global contexts, including businesses, politics, healthcare
and the mass media. She has published books, numerous articles and book
chapters in these areas.
Stephanie Schnurr is Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Warwick,
UK. She has published widely on various aspects of leadership discourse and
gender in different professional contexts. Stephanie is the author of Leadership
Discourse at Work (2009, Palgrave), Exploring Professional Communication
(2013, Routledge), and the co-author of Language and Culture at Work (2017,
Routledge) and The Language of Leadership Narratives (2020, Routledge).
Routledge Research in Applied Professional
Communication
Globalisation, Geopolitics, and Gender in Professional Communication
Louise Mullany, Stephanie Schnurr
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Applied-Professional-Communication/book-series/
RRAPC
Globalisation, Geopolitics,
and Gender in Professional
Communication
Edited by Louise Mullany and
Stephanie Schnurr
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Louise Mullany, Stephanie
Schnurr; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Louise Mullany, Stephanie Schnurr to be identified
as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.
taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0
license.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mullany, Louise, editor. | Schnurr, Stephanie,
1975– editor.
Title: Globalisation, geopolitics, and gender in professional
communication / edited by Louise Mullany, Stephanie Schnurr.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Series: Routledge research in applied professional
communication | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022015550 | ISBN 9780367748128
(hardback) | ISBN 9781032347790 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003159674 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Business communication. | Communication. |
Intersectionality (Sociology) | Sociolinguistics. | Globalization.
Classification: LCC HF5718 .G588 2023 | DDC 658.4/5—dc23/
eng/20220625
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022015550
ISBN: 978-0-367-74812-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-34779-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-15967-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003159674
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Contents
List of contributors ix
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Globalisation, geopolitics and gender: key issues for
professional communication 1
LOUISE MULLANY AND STEPHANIE SCHNURR
2 “A financially independent woman is a gift to any
nation”: exploring the sociolinguistics of family and
work in leadership stories around the world 17
STEPHANIE SCHNURR
3 Narratives of identity and gendered leadership in
East African workplaces: intersectionality, global
development goals and challenging boundaries 40
LOUISE MULLANY AND PETER MASIBO LUMALA
4 “Gender equality discourse is the glass ceiling we hit
here”: women’s academic leadership narratives in a
gender-sensitive university context in Turkey 63
HALE IŞIK-GÜLER AND YASEMIN ERDOĞAN-ÖZTÜRK
5 Women’s empowerment, employment and exclusion.
Discourses in economic competitiveness initiatives
in Malaysia 85
MELISSA YOONG
viii Contents
6 A reversed gender bias? Exploring intersectional identity
work by Belgian women with a Turkish or Moroccan
migration background 106
CATHO JACOBS, DORIEN VAN DE MIEROOP AND
COLETTE VAN LAAR
7 The battle heads underground: unrecognised bias in
everyday workplace talk 127
JANET HOLMES AND MEREDITH MARRA
8 ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re female or male it’s the
same thing.’ Re-gendering the notion of work in agile
workplaces in Switzerland, the UK and the USA 149
JOELLE LOEW
9 Performing discipline in UK primary school classrooms.
Challenging essentialist beliefs about teacher gender 169
JOANNE MCDOWELL
10 Gender, politics and national identity stereotypes:
constructing legitimate professional identities in the UK
House of Lords 188
VICTORIA HOWARD
11 Epilogue: geopolitical lenses (and mirrors) in workplace
language and gender research 213
BRIAN W. KING
Index 224
Contributors
Yasemin Erdoğan-Öztürk
Karabük Üniversity, Turkey
Yasemin Erdoğan-Öztürk is a doctoral candidate in ELT PhD programme,
Language Studies Track at Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Turkey. She
is the founding co-convenor of Discourse and Corpus Research Group
(DISCORE). She primarily focuses on gender and language, sociolin-
guistics of globalisation, multilingualism in migratory contexts and
new media discourses.
Janet Holmes
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Janet Holmes is Emeritus Professor and Associate Director of the Language
in the Workplace Project (www.wgtn.ac.nz/lwp/). She has published
extensively in the area of sociolinguistics, specialising in workplace
discourse and language and gender. Her many books include Gen-
dered Talk at Work: Constructing Gender Identity through Workplace
Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
Victoria Howard
University of Nottingham, UK
Dr. Victoria Howard is Honorary Research Fellow in Professional Com-
munication at the University of Nottingham and Research Fellow in
Linguistics at Nottingham Trent University. Her research interests
lie principally in professional communication; equality, diversity
and inclusion; and language and identities, particularly in political
institutions.
