The discursive maintenance of gender inequality: Analyses of student and internet discussions. PEACE, Paul. Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/20778/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/20778/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. REFERENCE ProQuest Number: 10702881 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 The Discursive Maintenance of Gender Inequality: Analyses of Student and Internet Discussions Paul Peace A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2001 Abstract This thesis contributes to a relatively small but burgeoning body of feminist and critical discourse analytic research into the social construction of gender and gender inequality conducted within critical social psychology. It begins by critically discussing the various theories of gender within the discipline. The thesis is an explicitly political endeavour. As is discussed, all work is political even if it fails to acknowledge this. This research aims to be openly reflexive about its ideological underpinnings and the historical and cultural climate in which the work emerges. Feminist theories of gender are also critically discussed. Having explored the various theories of gender and their relative de/merits, the adopted feminist social constructionist approach is explicated. Such an approach addresses the main failings of other approaches which are variously centred around, for example, inattention to power, language, multiplicity of identities and genders, essentialism, self-contained individualism and the historical, cultural and contextual relativity of meaning. These issues are explicitly attended to through the chosen methodology of critical discourse analysis. Three studies were carried out. All utilise the same analytical methodology but vary in terms of context, focus and data collection method. The first study analyses the interview talk of male psychology undergraduates at a northern English university. The men were found to present themselves, and men generally, as 'victims'. The second study aims to address a wide-scale problem in social constructionist work on gender which also afflicts the first study presented here. Whilst theory has shifted away from essentialism, both theoretical and empirical work continues to promote an implicit essentialism by assuming that the biological sex of participants should correspond to the gender of interest (e.g. studying 'men and masculinity1). The second study includes both male and female volunteer interviewees from a similar sample population as the first study. Both sexes were found to be bolstering inequality by constructing a picture of equality between the sexes. This was achieved through three repertoires. One overtly constructed 'equality as imminent/achieved'. Another, the 'women as oppressors/men as victims' repertoire, presents instances of women's capability of inverting men's general power. The third, 'women as manipulators', was only utilised by the women and suggests women have a more covert power which counterbalances men's overt power. This greater focus on discourses and shift away from essentialism, evidenced in the diminished interest given to embodiment and identity, is more fully embraced in the third study which concentrates on an internet discussion board. In this context, embodiment and identity cannot be known with confidence. The discussion board contributors construct men and women as internally homogeneous and oppositional groups. Two repertoires are discussed: 'communication difficulties' and 'the spokesperson'. Men and women are said to find communication between them incredibly difficult. Contradictorily, men and women are solicited for, or take it upon themselves to offer, 'insider' views on their particular sex group. Taken together, the three studies therefore represent quite different contexts, samples, and methodological approaches to the problem of the net inequality between the sexes, and contribute to a growing body of research on how inequality is maintained through linguistic practice in particular contexts. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people for their advice, support and input throughout my research endeavours. My director of studies, Dr Brendan Gough, and second supervisor, Dr Majella McFadden, deserve special thanks for their thorough approach and consistently sound advice. Thanks to Professor Peter Ashworth and the Learning and Teaching Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University for funding the research and giving me a life opportunity afforded few, and for permitting the thesis to wander away from its initial emphases. A special thank you to all the participants. Most of all, thanks to Karen, a true partner and ceaseless believer: someone who, at various points, wanted to travel the world but waited, wanted to move in pursuit of a career or a band but selflessly settled, wanted some of the time I afforded my books and computer but got 'in a minute', wanted fun but got 'not now', wanted so little and received even less. It is not without a sense of guilt and contradiction that I pursued feminist research, whilst, it could be argued, expecting a dutiful partner who put my needs first. It could so easily have been the other way around. In one way or another, no doubt one day it will. Contents Preface vi 1 PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF GENDER 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Biological Approaches 4 1.3 Psychometric Approaches 12 1.4 Cognitive Approaches 15 1.5 Social Learning Approaches 19 1.6 Psychoanalytic Approaches 22 1.6.1 The Freudian Psychoanalytic Approach 22 1.6.2 The Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach 23 1.7 Conclusions 26 2 FEMINIST THEORIES OF GENDER 27 2.1 Introduction 27 2.2 Liberal Feminism 29 2.3 Radical Feminism 30 2.4 Marxist Feminism 33 2.5 Socialist Feminism 35 2.6 Psychoanalytic Feminism 37 2.7 Existentialist Feminism 43 2.8 Multiracial Feminism 45 2.9 Postmodernist Feminism 50 2.10 Poststructuralist Feminism 55 2.11 Feminism and the Social Construction of Gender 61 2.12 The Current Political Climate in the UK and USA 67 3 ANALYTICAL APPROACH 72 3.1 Introduction 72 3.2 Language and Gender 72 3.3 Ideological Analysis 78 3.4 Discourse Analysis 85 3.5 Reflexivity 88 3.5.1 Men in Feminism 91 iv 4 THE DISCURSIVE MAINTENANCE OF GENDER INEQUALITY BY MEN AT UNIVERSITY 96 4.1 Introduction 96 4.2 Context 98 4.3 Analysis 100 4.4 Summary and Conclusions 109 5 THE DISCURSIVE MAINTENANCE OF GENDER INEQUALITY BY WOMEN AND MEN AT UNIVERSITY 112 5.1 Introduction 112 5.2 Context 115 5.3 Analysis 119 5.4 Summary and Conclusions 132 6 THE DISCURSIVE MAINTENANCE OF GENDER INEQUALITY BY WOMEN AND MEN ON INTERNET DISCUSSION BOARDS 136 6.1 Introduction 136 6.2 Context 143 6.3 Analysis 149 6.4 Summary and Conclusions 169 7 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION 173 7.1 Summary of Findings 173 7.2 Future Directions - Going Digital 179 7.3 Unattended Reflexive Concerns 181 7.3.1 Contradictions 181 7.3.2 Does This Thesis Make a Difference? 183 7.3.3 Writing Up and Institutional Power 184 REFERENCES 189 APPENDICES 217 Appendix 1: Transcription Notation 217 Appendix 2: Doing Discourse Analysis: A Worked Example 218 Appendix 3: A Sample of Data from Study 1 223 Appendix 4: A Sample of Data from Study 2 239 Appendix 5: A Sample of Data from Study 3 254 Appendix 6: Discussion Board Rules 269 Appendix 7: 'Reconstructing Gender at University: Men as Victims' (co-published Paper) 270 v Preface The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The first two chapters serve both as an introduction to the thesis and to locate it within a theoretical framework. Chapter 1 begins with a broad overview of theories of gender that have been influential in social psychology. The chapter serves to position the chosen social constructionist approach in relation to the critique of these alternatives. Chapter 2 examines feminist theories of gender. Again, by way of critique, it serves to position the thesis, this time in terms of overtly politically motivated critical theory. Having toured and critiqued psychological and feminist theories of gender, Chapter 2 arrives at the chosen social constructionist approach. It is argued that this approach offers both a strong theoretical base and a means of moving towards change of power inequalities between the sexes. Empirical work is given fuller attention in Chapters 4, 5 and 6 as it relates to the various contexts and aims of the individual studies. Chapter 2 ends by considering the current political climate as it relates to gender and feminism in the UK and USA. Chapter 3 begins by outlining some of the analytical methods on offer to those studying language and gender (the data collection method of each study is discussed in individual study chapters - 4.2, 5.2 and 6.2).