The Language of Female Leadership

Could language be a reason why women are under-represented at senior level in the business world? The Language of Female Leadership investigates how female leaders actually use language to achieve their business and relational goals. The author proposes that the language of women leaders is shaped by the type of corporation they work for. Based on the latest research, three types of 'gendered corporation' appear to affect the way women interact with colleagues: the male-dominated, the gender-divided and the gender-multiple. This book shows that senior women have to carry out extra 'linguistic work' to make their mark in the boardroom. In male-dominated and gender-divided corporations, women must develop an extraordinary linguistic expertise just to survive. In gender-multiple corporations, this linguistic expertise helps them to be highly regarded and effective leaders.

JUDITH BAXTER is Lecturer in the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Reading, UK.

List of Figures	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Map of the Book	p. x
Leading Talk	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
The economic background	p. 5
The significance of language	p. 7
Leadership and language	p. 11
Gendered discourses	p. 13
Gendered corporations	p. 16
The Malt-Dominated corporation	p. 17
The Gender-Divided corporation	p. 19
The Gender-Multiple corporation	p. 21
Speaking in the Male-Dominated Corporation	p. 23
The Male-Dominated corporation	p. 23
Linguistic construction of leadership	p. 24
Masculinised cultures	p. 27
Terms for women	p. 31
Masculinised metaphors	p. 37
The gender-neutral guise	p. 40
Gendered discourses	p. 43
Discourse of female emotionality/irrationality	p. 44
Discourse of femininity: image and sexuality	p. 46
Speaking in the Gender-Divided Corporation	p. 51
The Gender-Divided corporation	p. 52
Popular literature	p. 53
'A woman's language'	p. 54
Gender difference theory	p. 57
Different goals	p. 57
Miscommunication	p. 63
The language and gender perspective	p. 64
The leadership perspective	p. 67
Two genders, two leadership styles	p. 67
Critique of the 'gender difference' perspective	p. 72
Speaking in the Gender-Multiple Corporation	p. 76
The Gender-Multiple corporation	p. 76
Value of discourse theory	p. 78
Discourses in the corporation	p. 78
Social construction of gender identities	p. 82
Communities of practice (CofPs)	p. 85
Leadership language	p. 87
The feminisation of the male leader?	p. 87
Female leadership and linguistic repertoire	p. 93
Competing discourses	p. 97
Case Study 1: Linguistic Work in the Corporation	p. 101
Introduction	p. 101
Theoretical approach	p. 102
Methodology	p. 104
Findings of the study	p. 106
Discussion	p. 112
Case Study 2: Language of Female Leadership in Action	p. 116
Introduction	p. 116
Map of the chapter	p. 117
Methodology	p. 118
Chairing skills	p. 120
Opening phase	p. 122
Debating phase	p. 124
Closing phase	p. 126
Enacting authority	p. 129
Managing female subordinates	p. 134
Interacting with discourses	p. 140
How to Achieve an Effective Language of Leadership	p. 147
Introduction	p. 147
Individual linguistic strategies	p. 148
Doing authority	p. 150
Doing politeness	p. 151
Doing humour	p. 152
Corporate linguistic strategies	p. 153
Contesting use of sexist language	p. 156
Contesting use of terms to describe women	p. 157
Contesting masculinised use of metaphors	p. 158
Contesting the use of generalisations	p. 160
Contesting gossip and 'mean talk'	p. 161
The Linguistic Landscape of Female Leadership	p. 164
Review of the broader discursive context	p. 165
The language of female leadership	p. 168
The Male-Dominated corporation	p. 169
The Gender-Divided corporation	p. 170
The Gender-Multiple corporation	p. 172
Effective linguistic practices for female leaders	p. 173
Appendices	p. 176
References	p. 179
Index	p. 188
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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The Language of Female Leadership

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Table of Contents

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The Language of Female Leadership

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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