THE WEAVER AND THE WEB: A FOUCAULDIAN ANALYSIS OF THE DISCOURSES WHICH PRODUCE WOMEN ABUSING WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of Regina By Wendy Cheryl Shaw Regina, Saskatchewan December, 2012 Copyright 2012: W.C. Shaw UNIVERSITY OF REGINA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE Wendy Cheryl Shaw, candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education, has presented a thesis titled, The Weaver and The Web: A Foucauldian Analysis of the Discourses Which Produce Women Abusing Women in the Workplace, in an oral examination held on December 4, 2012. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material. External Examiner: Dr. Gerald Walton, Lakehead University Supervisor: Dr. Meredith Cherland, Adjunct Committee Member: Dr. Paul Hart, Curriculum & Instruction Committee Member: Dr. Carol Schick, Curriculum & Instruction Committee Member: Dr. Darlene Juschka, Women’s and Gender Studies Chair of Defense: Dr. Dongyan Blachford, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research ABSTRACT Bullying of women by other women in the workplace has rarely been the focus of research. This dissertation uses feminist poststructural theory and Foucauldian discourse analysis to problematize the belief that workplace bullying is the result of individual personality flaws, skill deficits, or psychopathology in the abuser or in the target, and to trouble the individualization of a serious social problem which has resulted in victim blaming, and turning the focus of public attention away from the consequences of gender and race. This dissertation analyzes research texts based on transcriptions of open interviews with five women who have experienced abuse by other women in the workplace, in order to illuminate the cultural discourses and humanist discursive practices that shape the women’s constructions of self and others, and their assumptions about the world. It uses discourse analysis to explain the role of discourse in the production of workplace hierarchy, gender and race; to show the construction of the subject positions made available to women; and to explore the complex configurations of power/knowledge facing women in the workplace. “Woman” is not a natural or an essentialist category. Woman is constituted in discourse. Using concepts from the work of Michel Foucault (biopower, surveillance, power/knowledge, and desire), this dissertation suggests that discourses of the good woman and the good worker offer women subject positions that are both desirable and painful, marked on the body, subject positions that sometimes conflict with each other and become impossible to reconcile. Disrupting the discourses that produce workplace bullying is complex and difficult work, because a woman’s culturally constructed desires i may keep her from resisting the “common sense” of the gendered discourses that surround her, and because she may accept and submit to discursive assumptions in order to survive. Poststructural theory, because it troubles the common sense of a vast research literature that presents bullying as individual pathology, and because it disrupts gender and racial binaries that allow for misogyny and racism, offers a new perspective on workplace bullying that can be used to help generate possibilities for change. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writing of a dissertation can be a lonely and isolating experience, yet it would be impossible without the support of many others. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank those who have contributed. To my participants who gave of their time and shared painful memories, I would like to express my deepest appreciation. I hope I have provided you with a chance to be heard. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Meredith Cherland, my advisor, for hours of proof reading multiple versions of this dissertation, for providing many stylistic suggestions and substantive challenges to help me improve my presentation and clarify my arguments. Thank you for the many hours of stimulating conversation when no one else knew what I was talking about, for sharing your knowledge and expertise, and for your patience and gentle way of directing and supporting. Not only were you readily available to me, you always read and responded to the drafts of each chapter of my work more quickly than I could have hoped. Without your guidance and assistance this dissertation would not have been possible. To the members of my committee, Dr. Carol Schick, who first introduced me to Michel Foucault, Dr. Darlene Juschka, and Dr. Paul Hart, thank you for your generous contributions to this dissertation. Your time, knowledge, expertise, guidance, careful reading of several drafts, helpful suggestions and motivating words were welcomed and deeply appreciated. iii DEDICATION I am grateful to my friends for always supporting me and encouraging me with your best wishes. I would never have been able to finish my dissertation without the support of my family and husband, Patrick Shaw. You were always there and stood by me through the good times and bad. Thank you for your years of support and understanding of the time away from you it took to attend classes and complete the several degrees that brought me to this place. Finally, it is to my daughters, Meghan, Erinn and Shannon, that I wish to dedicate this research with the hope for a different future for you and young women like you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT . i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iii DEDICATION . iv LIST OF APPENDICES . viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Introduction . 1 1.2 Bullying in Schools . 2 1.2.1 Early research . 2 1.2.2 Prevalence . 4 1.2.3 Effects and consequences . 6 1.2.4 Casual factors . 9 1.2.5 Prevention and intervention strategies . 13 1.2.6 Gender differences . 22 1.3 Bullying, Mobbing, Abuse and Violence in the Workplace . 24 1.3.1 Early research . 25 1.3.2 Definitions and categories of specific behaviours and circumstances . 28 1.3.3. Prevalence . 30 1.3.4. Effects . 31 1.3.5 Casual factors . 33 1.3.6 Prevention and intervention strategies . 35 1.3.7 Gender differences . 37 1.4 Women and Bullying in the Workplace . 40 1.4.1 Scientific theory . 40 1.4.2 Liberal feminist theory . 41 1.4.3 Grounded theory . 50 1.4.4 Structuralism . 52 1.4.5 Poststructural theory . 53 1.4.6 Habermas and critical theory . 54 1.5 Introducing a Different Perspective . 55 1.6 Summary . 58 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMES . 59 2.1 Introduction . 59 2.2 A Poststructural Framework . 61 2.2.1 Discourse and discursive practices . 63 2.2.2 Subjectivity and subject positioning . 66 2.2.3 Tropes and storylines through which gendered persons are constructed . 73 2.2.4 Binary oppositions . 75 v 2.2.5 Language . 76 2.2.6 The metaphors of everyday life . 81 2.2.7 Reflections on power and knowledge . 83 2.3 A Feminist Perspective . 93 2.3.1 Feminist research . 93 2.3.2 Troubling the public/private binary . 97 2.3.3 Empowerment . 98 2.4 Feminist Poststructural Theory . 100 2.5 Racism in the Workplace . 108 2.6 Summary . 111 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY AND METHODS . 112 3.1 Introduction . 112 3.2 Other Views of Research . 112 3.2.1 Humanism . 112 3.2.2 Positivism . 113 3.2.3 Quantitative or qualitative approaches . 114 3.3 My View of Research . 117 3.3.1 Objectivity and neutrality . 117 3.3.2 The truth . 118 3.3.3 Feminist perspective . 119 3.4 Discourse Analysis . 120 3.4.1 Varieties of discourse analysis . 129 3.4.2 Poststructural discourse analysis . 130 3.5 Method . 133 3.6 Interviews . 134 3.6.1 Follow-up interviews . 136 3.6.2 Why I did not use an interview survey . 136 3.6.3 Using an interview schedule . ..