Maintaining the Status Quo: The Discursive Construction of Gender Inequality in Work Organisations

The literature on creating more equitable and inclusive and therefore more effective organisations focuses on the gendered basis of organisational and management structures, practices and the existence of gendered organisational cultures. This paper uses a post-structuralist discourse perspective to argue that an examination of organisational discourses holds the key to understanding gendered organisational processes that produce unequal employment outcomes for women. The paper draws on data from three organisational case studies to demonstrate the power of discourse analysis in unveiling hitherto difficult to identify and challenge gendered organisational processes that exclude or marginalise women in paid employment.