Stead, V. orcid.org/0000-0002-4250-4333, Mavin, S. and Elliott, C. orcid.org/0000-0003-3838-4452 (2024) Angela Rayner (Member of Parliament) and the “Basic Instinct Ploy”: intersectional misrecognition of women leaders' legitimacy, productive resistance and flexing (patriarchal) discourse. Gender, Work & Organization, 31 (1). pp. 152-170. ISSN 0968-6673
Abstract
This paper interrogates a shift in patriarchal media discourse related to women leaders' recognition and legitimation in the UK. We conduct a multimodal discourse analysis of an online newspaper article about the UK politician and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner, and analyzed public responses. Understanding the media as a means to distribute power and enable the challenging of norms, we contribute a theory of intersectional misrecognition in media's representation of women political leaders. This reveals an enduring and dynamic subordinate status of women leaders, shown specifically through the intersection of gender and class. We theorize that while women leaders continue to be misrecognized in the media, destabilizing their legitimacy, there is a demonstrable flexing of patriarchal discourse combined with stronger and accelerated resistance to ongoing sexism. We identify this resistance as productive in its call for consequences and a redistribution of cultural values, reflecting a discursive shift toward a productive resistance of resilient gender norms, evident in the intersection of gender with class. Intersectional misrecognition has value in making inequalities explicit for women leaders and where there may be productive tensions with potential to mobilize for change.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Authors. Gender, Work & Organization published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | class; flexing; intersectional misrecognition; legitimation; media discourse; productive resistance; women leaders |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 04 Sep 2023 16:03 |
Last Modified: | 04 Oct 2024 15:45 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/gwao.13050 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:202964 |