A Text Analysis of Meaning in Research On Gender Language and L

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2022
A Text Analysis of Meaning in Research on Gender, Language, and

Leadership
Samantha Faith Weissrock
Walden University
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Walden University
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by
Samantha F. Weissrock
has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects,

and that any and all revisions required by
the review committee have been made.
Review Committee
Dr. Marlon Sukal, Committee Chairperson, Psychology Faculty
Dr. James Herndon, Committee Member, Psychology Faculty
Dr. James Brown, University Reviewer, Psychology Faculty
Chief Academic Officer and Provost

Sue Subocz, Ph.D.
Walden University
2022
Abstract
A Text Analysis of Meaning in Research on Gender, Language, and Leadership
by
MA, Walden University, 2017
BS, Indiana University, 2012
Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Walden University
February 2022
Abstract
Focusing on gender and leadership research, the purpose of the study was to examine
discursive messages used in research text regarding gendered leadership to explore the
phenomenon of word usage and language structure. The study employed critical
discourse analysis as the framework and methodology, a specific cross discipline
approach to discourse analysis primarily concerned with language’s innate ability to
change and take on new meaning over time. Leveraging texts available in scholarly, peer-
reviewed publications dedicated to the intersection of gender and leadership in
juxtaposition to the final issue of the same publication have previously focused on
intersection of women in leadership, themes of power, performance, and gender. The
research question about what discursive messages regarding gender, performance, and
power are found in gender leadership research texts was examined at a microlevel,
mesolevel, and macrolevel. The microlevel found that gender, performance, and power
varied based on the research question applied to the text. The mesolevel found that power
was demonstrated through quantitative research design, that required the consumer to
trust the interpretation of findings or possess knowledge to interpret findings.
Westernization emerged as a macrolevel theme, that suggested the need to take on
western ideologies of success. The research question and findings of the study are
important with implications for positive social change by highlighting subtle yet powerful
messages that reinforce perceptions of inequality between men and women at work. The
findings can compel researchers to structure studies that move beyond women-focused to
reframe studies of male/female relations, expand conversations to encompass both sexes,
and move gendered leadership research towards a more unified approach.

A Text Analysis of Meaning in Research on Gender, Language, and Leadership
by
MA, Walden University, 2017
BS, Indiana University, 2012
Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Walden University
February 2022
Dedication
To my son, Zack, and daughter, Zarayah, remember to always think for
yourselves.
To my father, Bill Seymour, and brother, Bill Seymour, Jr., two of the finest men
I have ever known.
Finally, this paper is dedicated to all who question, seek, and ultimately find
meaning. The mind is a powerful thing; make sure to nourish it well.

Acknowledgments
Critical discourse analysis is a complex approach to language, and its application
is relatively uncommon in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. However, conducting
this study was extremely important to me. I want to acknowledge my committee
members Marlon Sukal, Ph.D., James Herndon, Ph.D., and Jimmy Brown, Ph.D. Thank
you for your willingness and support to go along on this journey with me. Dr.Sukal,
thank you for challenging me to stay the course despite the obstacles that came along the
way.
Also, I want to acknowledge Walden University’s staff. Specifically, Greg
Murphy, my academic advisor, my champion and my biggest cheerleader.

Table of Contents
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... v
List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study................................................................................... 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
Background ................................................................................................................... 3
Problem Statement ........................................................................................................ 5
Purpose Statement ......................................................................................................... 7
Research Question ........................................................................................................ 8
Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 9
Nature of the Study ..................................................................................................... 13
Definition of Terms..................................................................................................... 14
Assumptions, Delimitations, and Limitations ............................................................. 16
Assumptions.......................................................................................................... 16
Delimitations ......................................................................................................... 17
Limitations ............................................................................................................ 19
Significance................................................................................................................. 22
Summary ..................................................................................................................... 23
Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 25
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 25
Literature Search Strategy........................................................................................... 26
Literature Review........................................................................................................ 30
CDA… .................................................................................................................. 30
i
Feminism and Feminist Theory ............................................................................ 37
Language ............................................................................................................... 50
Gender ……………………………………………………………………………53
Leadership Theories .............................................................................................. 58
Gender, Language and Leadership at Work ............................................................... 79
Summary ..................................................................................................................... 88
Chapter 3: Research Method ............................................................................................. 90
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 90
Research Design and Rationale .................................................................................. 91
Role of the Researcher ................................................................................................ 97
Methodology ............................................................................................................... 98
Gee’s Tools of Inquiry (2014a, 2014b, 2018)..................................................... 112
Gee’s Seven Building Tasks Questions (2014a, 2014b, 2018)........................... 113
Text Selection Logic ........................................................................................... 117
Instrumentation ................................................................................................... 121
Process and Instrument Validation ..................................................................... 127
Data Analysis Plan .............................................................................................. 137
Issues of Trustworthiness .......................................................................................... 139
Credibility ........................................................................................................... 139
Transferability ..................................................................................................... 140
Dependability ...................................................................................................... 140
Confirmability ..................................................................................................... 141
ii
Ethical Procedures .............................................................................................. 142
Summary ................................................................................................................... 145
Chapter 4: Results ........................................................................................................... 147
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 147
Setting ………………………………………………………………………………147
Demographics ........................................................................................................... 147
Data Collection ......................................................................................................... 148
Data Analysis ............................................................................................................ 150
Evidence of Trustworthiness..................................................................................... 152
Credibility ........................................................................................................... 152
Transferability ..................................................................................................... 152
Dependability ...................................................................................................... 153
Confirmability ..................................................................................................... 153
Results ………………………………………………………………………………154
Microlevel ........................................................................................................... 155
Mesolevel ............................................................................................................ 182
Macrolevel .......................................................................................................... 185
Summary ................................................................................................................... 191
Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations ......................................... 195
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 195
Interpretation of Findings ......................................................................................... 197
Addresses Social Problem................................................................................... 200
iii
Interdisciplinary or Multidisciplinary ................................................................. 200
Explicit Critical Approach, Position, or Stance .................................................. 201
Reproduction or Resistance of Power, Dominance, and Inequality ................... 201
Underlying Ideologies That Shape Reproduction or Resistance ........................ 202
Strategies of Manipulation, Manufacturing, and Legitimization ........................ 202
Concern for Implicit, Hidden, or Omitted Information ...................................... 203
Seeks Solidarity or Unification of Groups .......................................................... 203
Limitations of the Study............................................................................................ 203
Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 204
Implications............................................................................................................... 206
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 207
References ....................................................................................................................... 209
Appendix A: IPSY 8755 Leadership and Leader Development: Welcome & Course
Readings .............................................................................................................. 235
Appendix B: Analytical Memo ....................................................................................... 242
Appendix C: Instrumentation Validation ........................................................................ 243
iv
List of Tables
Table 1. Text Authorship Table ...................................................................................... 122
Table 2. Text Structure Table ......................................................................................... 123
Table 3. Codebook Structure Template .......................................................................... 124
Table 4. First Cycle Coding Template ............................................................................ 125
Table 5. Second Cycle Coding Template ....................................................................... 125
Table 6. Final Codification and Summary Template ...................................................... 126
Table 7. Text Tracking Example .................................................................................... 132
Table 8. Text Authorship Example ................................................................................. 132
Table 9. Text Structure Example .................................................................................... 132
Table 10. Decomposition of Article................................................................................ 132
Table 11. Codebook ........................................................................................................ 134
Table 12. First Cycle Coding Example ........................................................................... 135
Table 13. Second Cycle Coding Example ...................................................................... 136
Table 14. Final Codification and Summary: Article 001 ................................................ 156
v
Table 29. Text Authorship .............................................................................................. 186
Table 30. Text Structure ................................................................................................. 188
vi
List of Figures
Figure 1. Text Preparation for Analysis Example....................................................... 133
vii
1
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study
Introduction
Focusing on gender and leadership research, this paper addressed a gap in the
literature, that has seldom considered the role of language used in research as an
influence on the perception of gender within leadership. In this study, I examined the
usage of text through the application of qualitative discourse analysis. Discourse analysis
has addressed authorship, gender, and leadership issues separately but has rarely brought
the topics together.
This research was significant in many ways. First, it helped identify the language
used in gendered leadership research, that may have shaped and influenced beliefs about
each sex (see Fairclough, 2016). Second, the study helped fill a gap in understanding
through investigating gendered leadership research as potentially reinforcing perceptions
of gender inequality between female and male leaders through the language selection
used in the text (see Gee, 2017). Next, this study was significant to help gendered
leadership research find equal footing for both sexes (see Baxter, 2015) by discussing
how focus on perceived inequalities is based on biological sex, yet using the term gender
may have contributed to perceptions of inequality and inability of female leadership.
Finally, with current media emphasis placed on the fluidity of gender
(Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018a), it is crucial that the research field of gendered leadership
uncouple the use of gender as female and include men equally into studies of language,
leadership, and gender. Concepts of gender in the United States and other first-world
countries have moved beyond bifurcated and binary representations of boy/girl and
2
male/female. As both sexes presence continues to grow, workplaces demand less
prescriptive expectations of men as leaders and women as caregivers. So too, the methods
for studying gendered leadership must become balanced (Subasic et al., 2018). The study
contributes to positive social change by encouraging gendered leadership researchers to
consider language selection outside of female-oriented feminist theory. Application of
theories beyond a female focus reframe male/female relations studies, expand
conversations to encompass both sexes, and move gendered leadership forward to a more
balanced approach. Furthermore, analyzing text selection in research studies has the
potential to increase awareness of the interaction of the researcher and research within
other fields of sociology and psychology (Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017).
In Chapter 1, I introduce the qualitative study that employed critical discourse
analysis to investigate language selection in research on gender in leadership, also known
as gendered leadership. The chapter begins with background information, noting the
foundational aspects of the phenomenon feminist approaches have applied to concepts of
leadership and how word usage and language structure can be employed as an actor or
active participant to shape the perception of the adequacy of female leadership ability or
that of males as better leaders (see Latu & Mast, 2016; Martin, 2015; Szymanska &
Rubin, 2018). Following the background discussion, I outline the problem statement,
purpose statement, and nature of the study. Following the nature of the study, the chapter
addresses the research question and theoretical framework. Pertinent keywords are
defined for contextual standardization, and any assumptions, delimitations, and

3
limitations are discussed. Finally, the chapter addresses the study’s significance before
summarizing the chapter and moving forward with relevant literature in Chapter 2.
Background
At its core, the United States was built on social change. Social change begins
with a desire or call to reshape a group for all to rise to a better state. Nowhere can such a
call be seen more powerfully than the Declaration of Independence. The power and
eloquence of each word, to this day, remains the blueprint of the American identity. The
ideas conveyed within its text have become ingrained into the DNA of Americans as
profoundly as the document’s opening preamble declares: “We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”
(U.S., 1772). The authors intentionally selected each word to invoke an emotional
response in the reader and incite the desire for social change. Since that time, words have
been used to generate passion, change, and move the American nation towards common
goals. In 1963, the words written in The Feminine Mystic by Friedan (1963) started a
female revolution within the United States. Friedan’s message served as a call to arms for
what became known as the second wave feminist movement and changed the country
forever.
Since the onset of the 1960s second-wave feminist movement, advances by
women in the context of work have resulted in an unprecedented number of women
working outside the home, progressing in chosen careers, entering the upper echelons of
corporations, and stepping into leadership positions (Lord et al., 2017). As a result of the
4
growing presence of women at work, a large body of research on women in the
workplace has emerged. Feminist researchers have sought to advance women into
leadership roles with various studies and conceptual models explaining women’s ability
to lead and theories explaining women’s failure to thrive (Coats, 2016). It has been said
that research about leadership has been conducted by men, for men, and focuses on male
attributes (Northouse, 2016). On the other hand, it has been asserted that gender research
has been conducted by women, for women, and to identify women’s issues (Morgenroth
& Ryan 2018a). Feminist research and media appropriated the word gender to argue for
female advancement issues and, until recently, the terms female and gender became
synonymous and were used interchangeably (Eagly, 2018) while the term men became
conceptualized as genderless and categorized as a person or people (Coats, 2016).
According to the United States Department of Labor (Toossi & Morisi, 2018), women
composed nearly 50% of the United States workforce in 2015, a percentage that is
expected to climb to 77.6% by 2024, creating an argument that women can no longer rely
on minority status as a factor to advancement limitations. Therefore, the tone of
leadership and gender research fields should work to find a middle ground.
Research can reinforce or create cognitive beliefs about success or suppression,
ultimately creating a perception in the researcher’s mind and the reader to potentially
create a self-fulfilling prophecy (Fairclough, 2016; Gee, 2017). Ravitch and Carl (2016)
asserted that all research possesses bias due to the researcher’s interests, assumptions, and
beliefs that manifest in an interest in a given phenomenon. Sociolinguists have
acknowledged the role of the author as a participant in shaping fictional works and media
5
stories to take the reader on a journey to the desired outcome (Gee, 2014a, 2014b);
however, little research had been conducted to examine the possible impact of text used
in nonfiction gender research. Therefore, the literature gap appeared to be an analysis of
the language used in gender leadership research as a direct or indirect impact on the
researcher’s and the reader’s perception of female and male leaders.
Problem Statement
A problem existed in the lack of analysis on the language used in gender
leadership research as a direct or indirect impact on the researcher’s and the reader’s
perception of female and male leaders. The problem arose when, in response to the need
for a more balanced or inclusionary conversation regarding the influence of the biological
sex of leaders, an area of research examining the interplay of gender, language, and
leadership emerged (Baxter, 2015; Powell & Butterfield, 2015). The field of gender,
language, and leadership research is a subdiscipline of sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics
studies the relationship between society and language or, more specifically, the context in
how language is used (Holmes et al., 2016). As a subdiscipline of sociolinguistics,
gender, language, and leadership questions how concepts of gender shape workplace
conversations by examining how individuals use verbal and nonverbal language choices
that impact their ability to influence and lead others (Baxter, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2015,
2017). A problem with the field of gender, language and leadership has been the reliance
upon the framework of gendered sociolinguistics. Gendered sociolinguistics was
developed during the second wave feminist movement and has been criticized for its
framework grounded in feminist theory (Eagly, 2018).

6
It is not uncommon for individuals, including self-identifying feminists, to assume
that feminist theory sought equality between men and women; however, such an
assumption is misguided. Feminist theory is not a single entity but rather a collection of
theories that place women at the center. Feminist theory and research heavily favor
women and use the terms female and gender interchangeably (Cox, 2019). In the
gendered sociolinguistics framework and, by extension, the sociolinguistic gender,
language and leadership framework, sexism and marginalization are depicted as one
directional, meaning that each is reserved for men against women with little to no
consideration for male marginalization (Cox, 2019; Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018a). Finally,
gender, language and leadership research typically focused on verbal workplace
conversations (Baxter 2015, 2017).
The initial concept for the study was to analyze the text selection used in research
in the field of gender, language and leadership. However, the field was quite narrow, and
only a few researchers emerged having approached the phenomenon specifically. The
research problem became better defined after considerable research in gender, language
and leadership separately and combined. More than 15 years before the writing of this
study, Bucholtz (2005), a leading authority in gendered sociolinguistics, noted that
contemporary linguists tended to focus on spoken word rather than written text, and a
shift to the examination of the written word would have significant consequences to
understand concepts of gender in discourse.
As subject matter experts, sociolinguistic researchers step into a position of
authority with the ability to shape perceptions of equality, inequality, competence,

7
dominance, and oppression (Karakowsky et al., 2017). Research can reinforce or create
cognitive beliefs about success or suppression, that ultimately creates a perception in the
researcher’s mind and the reader to potentially create a self-fulfilling prophecy
(Fairclough, 2016; Gee, 2017). Ravitch and Carl (2016) asserted that all research
possesses bias due to the researcher’s interests, assumptions, and beliefs that manifest in
an interest in a given phenomenon. Sociolinguists have acknowledged the role of the
author as a participant in shaping fictional works and media stories to take the reader on a
journey to the desired outcome (Gee, 2014a, 2014b, 2017). However, little research
appeared to have been conducted on the possible impact of text used in nonfiction gender
studies (Baxter, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017). Therefore, a problem existed in the lack
of analysis on the language used in gender leadership research as a direct or indirect
impact on the researcher’s and the reader’s perception of female and male leaders.
Purpose Statement
Focusing on the paradigm of gender and leadership research, I examined the role
of language used in research as an influence on the writer and reader through the
application of qualitative discourse analysis to address issues of authorship, gender, and
leadership collectively. The purpose of this study was to explore the discursive messages
used in research text regarding gendered leadership or gender in leadership and the
phenomenon of word usage and language structure applied to research text. Text (words)
can be employed as an actor or active participant in implicitly or explicitly shaping the
reader’s perception of the adequacy of female leadership ability or that of males as better
leaders (Latu & Mast, 2016; Martin, 2015; Szymanska & Rubin, 2018). Leveraging text
8
available in a scholarly, peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the intersection of gender
and leadership in juxtaposition to the final issue of the same publication previously
dedicated to the intersection of women in leadership and later rebranded as gender
oriented, the text was analyzed to identify discursive themes that influenced the
perception of power, performance, and gender. The discursive ideas investigated were as
follows
• Power: Instances of the capacity to steer or influence others.
• Performance: Descriptions of how men and women performed their
leadership roles.
• Gender: Ways women and men were represented as leaders.
A review for themes of power, performance, and gender were selected to
understand when text selection created or reinforced a perception of leadership ability
between men and women leaders.
Research Question
The following research question guided this study to explore the phenomenon of
the gendered leadership research as an actor and active participant in the written
messages communicated through the selection of word usage and the possible creation of
themes of power, performance, and gender:
Research question (RQ): What discursive messages regarding gender,
performance, and power are found in gender leadership research text?

9
Theoretical Framework
The framework for the study was situated in critical discourse analysis theory and
drew on components of poststructuralist feminist theory and leadership theory. Discourse
analysis is the process of examining the relationship between the written or spoken word
and the word’s meaning (Gee, 2017) and can be applied to a wide variety of studies
(Amoussou & Allagbe, 2018). Discourse analysis strives to understand the relationship
between word(s) and meaning; however, when applied to research, discourse analysis
becomes generic (McMullen, 2021). Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a specific, cross
discipline approach to discourse analysis primarily concerned with the innate nature of
language’s ability to change and take on new meaning over time with a focus on one or
more social problems (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). Amoussou and Allagbe (2018)
defined CDA as
an interdisciplinary analytical viewpoint that looks into the relationship between
power and discourse, and particularly it investigates the way in which authority,
dominance and social inequality are constructed, sustained, reproduced and
resisted in the discourse of written text and spoken words. (p. 13)
CDA’s theoretical proposition suggests language acts as an everchanging agent
for the production and reproduction of ideology (Fairclough, 2016) and serves as a
theoretical framework and methodology that must be applied in tandem (Sriwimon &
Zilli, 2017; Wodak & Meyer, 2016). Jørgensen and Phillips (2002) explained the overlap
of theory and method:

10
Confusingly, the label “critical discourse analysis” is used in two different ways:
Norman Fairclough (1995a, 1995b) uses it both to describe the approach he has
developed and as the label for a broader movement within discourse analysis of
which several approaches, including his own, are a part. (p. 60)
Wodak and Meyer (2016) stated, “Critical Discourse Studies, as in all social
research, theory, methods, and analysis are closely interrelated, and decisions about one
affect the other” (p. 14). CDA’s theoretical underpinning, that lends to its uniqueness, is
the eight points defined to qualify as CDA research (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018):
• CDA addresses a problem or issue that is oriented to social problems such as
sexism, racism, or social inequality.
• CDA must approach a topic from an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary
view, with special focus on discourse and society.
• CDA is positioned as the primary foci and does not perform as a subdiscipline
of discourse analysis; instead, CDS is an explicit critical approach, position, or
stance to study talk or text.
• CDA’s focus is on relations of power, dominance, and inequality and how
each is reproduced or resisted by social group members.
• CDA seeks to understand the underlying ideologies that shape reproduction or
resistance within a social group.
• CDA directly points out strategies of manipulation, manufacturing, and
legitimization of discursive power, dominance, and inequality through the

11
examination of implicit, hidden, or omitted information to influence the
consumer of text or speech.
• CDA’s concern for implicit, hidden, or omitted information positions research
as critical or in opposition to those who abuse their power.
• CDA seeks solidarity or unification of groups by providing alternative
perspectives and possible solutions to address and resolve the social wrong
through counter-ideologies.
A CDA framework was appropriate to this study due to its approach of language
as a primary driver for the production and reproduction of ideologies to such an extent
that language reinforces beliefs until beliefs become dogmatic and taken without question
(Fairclough, 2016). Furthermore, CDA has frequently been applied to the examination of
fiction and nonfiction gendered text in conjunction with and drawing upon the conceptual
models of feminist theory and poststructuralism (Baxter, 2017; Fairclough, 2016).
Finally, CDA strives to assist the oppressed and underrepresented.
As discussed, from a theoretical framework perspective, CDA examines text for
power, dominance, and inequality, that can be applied to a wide number of topics,
making it necessary to draw upon aspects of other theories to investigate instances of
linguistic strategies to manipulate, legitimize, or assert social wrongs. Gendered studies
using CDA as a framework have reassigned the term gender to be synonymous with
female and have omitted men as an active component of gender (Coats, 2016). Therefore,
a component of the conceptual model was the application of poststructural feminist
theory with an emphasis on poststructuralism. Poststructuralism suggests that knowledge

12
and meaning are not fixed or concrete. Instead, knowledge and meaning are built on prior
or historical knowledge (Hansson et al., 2019). More directly stated, everything we think
or think we know is based on previous experience(s). Poststructuralism aims to reject the
feminist argument of male power by stressing that knowledge is attained through social
interaction, thereby making power shared throughout a given social group (Baxter, 2017).
Men cannot hold power over women without consent and vice versa. Through the
inclusion of poststructuralism, CDA’s emphasis on change was fully utilized, and
poststructuralist feminism moved beyond the assertion of discrimination and oppression
by men.
Finally, leadership theory has celebrated a long history of research. Leadership
has been conceptualized from varying perspectives and attempts to explain effective
leadership provides numerous approaches (Northouse, 2016). Leadership theory seeks to
understand a particular aspect of the ability to influence others and is traditionally
classified in four categories: traits, behavior and motivation, contingency, and integrative
leadership theories (Lussier & Achua, 2015). More recently, leadership research has
begun to acknowledge the positive relationship between feminine attributes and
transformational behavior, ensuring future studies will continue to support the qualities of
an effective leader identified by skill rather than biological sex (Morgenroth & Ryan,
2018a).
Each theory’s central theme discussed above acknowledges change (Baxter, 2017;
Fairclough, 2016; Powell & Butterfield, 2015). Alone, each theory addresses aspects of
social change that are needed in gendered leadership research. Collectively, CDA,
13
drawing on poststructural feminist theory and leadership theory, created a robust
framework to significantly contribute to the advancement of language applied to gender
and leadership research to a more holistic conversation. Based on the literature reviewed
and evidence to support implicit or explicit bias that manifested in research (Gee, 2017;
Lee et al., 2020; Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017) alongside the prevalence of female-feminist in
the field of gendered leadership research, I hypothesized that I would find instances that
generated messages asserting that women were at a leadership disadvantage through the
cross contamination of the terms of gender and direct or indirect female relationship.
Nature of the Study
The nature of this study was qualitative. My goal was to analyze the text of
gendered leadership research for ways discursive messages have shaped the social
understanding regarding gendered leadership and have potentially contributed to the
leadership gender gap.
The study was conducted as a CDA of existing literature on gender and leadership
to uncover themes that may have contributed to the perception of masculine or feminine
leadership’s goodness of fit. Qualitative research design, specifically CDA, is consistent
with understanding the effects of stylized text in written discourse (Fairclough, 2016;
Wodak & Meyer, 2016) and helped me to identify instances when stylized text was used
as a linguistic strategy to position gender in discourse (Baxter, 2014, 2015, 2017).
In this study, I examined the discursive messages used in research text regarding
gendered leadership and explored the phenomenon of word usage and language structure
applied to research text. Text (words) can be employed as an actor or active participant,
14
implicitly or explicitly shaping the reader’s perception (Gee, 2017; Wodak & Meyer,
2016) of the female leadership ability or males as better leaders.
CDA served as both a theoretical framework and methodology, meaning the
study’s nature demanded both be executed in tandem (see Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017;
Wodak & Meyer, 2016). CDA was performed by asking questions that looked beyond
reading text at face value to look past obvious information in a transcript to the many
factors involved in creating and consuming the text itself (see Gill, 2009; Fairclough,
2016). The methodological steps involved in the study consisted of four stages and
subsequent steps. First, a social wrong was identified that could be approached in a
transdisciplinary way, focusing on dialectical relations between semiotics. Next,
appropriate text meeting the criteria of gender, leadership, and language were analyzed.
Third, consideration was made whether social order needed the social wrong. Finally,
possible ways past the obstacles were identified (see Fairclough, 2016). Appropriate
instruments were created to capture, categorize, and synthesize the data, culminating in
microlevel, mesolevel, and macrolevel comparison of themes of power, performance, and
gender.
Definition of Terms
The following definitions are for key terms and phrases used in the study and are
offered to encourage shared meaning:
Critical discourse analysis (CDA): A specific, cross discipline approach to
discourse analysis, primarily concerned with the innate nature of language’s ability to
change and take on new meaning over time, with a focus on one or more social problems
15
and with an emphasis on the relationship between power and discourse to investigate the
way in which authority, dominance, and social inequality are constructed, sustained,
reproduced, and resisted (Amoussou & Allagbe 2018; Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999).
CDA’s theoretical proposition suggests that language acts as an everchanging agent for
the production and reproduction of ideology (Fairclough, 2016) and serves as a
theoretical framework and methodology that must be applied in tandem (Sriwimon &
Zilli, 2017; Wodak & Meyer, 2016).
Discourse: A collection of conversations over time to create a lasting meaning
(Gee, 2017).
Discourse analysis: The process of examining the relationship between the
written or spoken word and the word’s meaning. The relationship between words and
meaning ultimately shapes, sustains, or changes specific social patterns (Gee, 2017;
Hansson et al., 2019).
Feminist theory: Encompasses a set of ideas and scholarship in various disciplines
due to the feminist movement and focuses on women’s issues and women’s liberation
from positions of disadvantage within various social, political, and economic systems
(Cox, 2019).
Gender: Refers to the social differences between women and men. While often
used synonymously with sex, in feminist theory, gender is considered a social
construction and is distinguished from biological sex (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018b).
16
Language: Represents a collection of agreed upon symbols, both verbal and
nonverbal, in which members of a group share concepts, ideas, opinions, and emotions
(Gee, 2017).
Leadership: A process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to
achieve a common goal (Northouse, 2016).
Performance: How and how well leadership roles are enacted (Northouse, 2016).
Poststructuralism: A philosophical movement that suggests that knowledge and
meaning are not fixed or concrete; instead, knowledge and understanding are built on
prior or historical knowing (Hansson et al., 2019).
Power: The capacity or ability to steer and affect others’ beliefs, attitudes, or
course of action through a social contract between leaders and followers. Power may be
welded by followers as equally as leaders and can be legitimate, cohesive, reward based
by possessing desirable information, expert, or referent (Northouse, 2016).
Sex: The physical differences between men and women, such as reproductive
systems, that are considered biological facts (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018a).
Assumptions, Delimitations, and Limitations
Assumptions
The following assumptions were applied to the text regarding gender and
leadership: (a) Participants and authors analyzed within the text possessed bifurcated
gender as male or female, (b) male and female participants were equally qualified in
leadership roles, (c) researchers adequately disclosed conflicts of interest, (d) researchers
construct vetted research studies, and (e) researchers took active steps to mitigate
17
personal bias. The assumptions about the text and research analyzed were essential due to
the need to assume that men and women possessed equal positions and opportunities to
enact their leadership. Assumptions regarding the structure of studies and objectivity of
the text were essential to draw equal conclusions across studies about the data’s qualities
that were analyzed.
Delimitations
Given women’s advances in obtaining leadership positions within many
organizations, yet despite the ongoing evidence and prevailing perception that women
continue to lag behind their male counterparts, the question begged consideration to
identify contributing factors that promoted and sustained the ideology. The research
problem I identified was the lack of analysis on the language used in gendered leadership
research as a direct or indirect impact on the researcher’s and the reader’s perception of
female and male leaders. The decision to focus on how gender, language and leadership
manifests in research meant that other facets of experience that shape reality were
excluded. Due to the multiple ways text could be approached and the need for a
manageable number of data analyzed, delimitations were made, and factors such as race,
socioeconomic status, gender expression, sexual orientation, the nation of origin, and
organizational culture were excluded.
The specific focus of understanding the direct or indirect impact of text in
research was made due to my interest in how word selection could generate or sustain
ideologies. As an industrial-organizational psychologist, data scientist, heterosexual,
White, female, and leader of people within a Fortune 500 company, I noticed messages
18
regarding inequality were prevalent alongside efforts to encourage equality. More clearly
stated, initiatives to promote women in leadership often included direct research that
supported evidence of female disadvantage despite many advancements having been
made (Eagly, 2018). The interest in messages received and interpreted by women
encouraged me to question where inequality messages originated. A natural shift from
female-focused to gender-focused occurred when literature provided strong evidence of
the blurring of the term gender to be synonymous with female (Coats, 2016), and early
unsubstantiated research intentionally and incorrectly positioned women as inferior to
men (Lakoff, 1975).
Although I considered other study constructs, textual analysis as a contributor to
female workplace inequality’s ideology remained the best framework. A quantitative
approach to the text was possible; for example, by computer assisted methods (Stubbs,
2018), but the approach was discarded due to the limitations of purely counting the
variables’ frequency. Simply put, a quantative focus Focus on what and how many would
not have provided the level of intimacy with the text afforded by a qualitative research
approach (see Gee, 2017). Content analysis was considered as a mixed method approach
but was determined to be subpar due to the methodological approach of predetermined
search words or phrases, that would have significantly limited my insights gained through
repetitive reading of text (see McBee-Black & Ha-Brookshire, 2020). On the other hand,
qualitative research wants to understand how a particular phenomenon affects the people
involved, either individually or as a group (Ravitch & Carl, 2016). Qualitative research
included a level of rigor and awareness of text as a consumer and producer of data.
19
Furthermore, a qualitative approach leaned hermeneutically as an iterative approach to
understand the experiential aspects of everyday life.
The theoretical and methodological approaches to this study leveraged CDA.
Although other approaches were considered, CDA was the most appropriate due to the
multiple ways and perspectives text could be examined, that created the opportunity for a
broader understanding of a social phenomenon such as gender in leadership research and
allowed for a more robust understanding of shared experience (see Fairclough, 2016).
CDA is framework and method (van Dijk, 2018); therefore, Chapter 3 provides an in-
depth review of the various theoretically married methodological approaches considered
and justifies the specifics of the study design.
To reiterate and conclude, I considered one of a countless combinations of
attributes that could have been applied to the examination of text for meaning (see
Fairclough, 2016), that made the study highly transferable to other focuses of interest,
which provided limitations, but also provided a wide berth of perspectives to be explored.
Limitations
In essence, the study’s scope was limited to normative, bifurcated aspects of
gender, and consideration regarding race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and
gender identity were delimited as factors within the study. Instead, I focused on how
aspects of the generalized concepts of gender were used in research and ways that
squarely placed maleness or femaleness as a factor in leadership within leadership text.
Consistent with the assertion that gender research has been conducted by women, for
women, and about women (Bucholtz, 2005; Coats, 2016), the most significant limitation
20
to this study was the small number of researchers who publish within the field of
gendered leadership. Compounding the limited number of researchers available in the
field appears to be predominately feminist females writing on women’s workplace issues
(i.e., Baxter, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017).
The limitations noted above could have presented risks to the study. First, the
limited number of researchers in the gendered leadership field created risk and
anticipation of redundancy or themes in the research scope. As researchers, it is not
uncommon and understandable that careers are shaped through specialization in a given
topic, which creates a potential for similar studies in type, design, and theoretical models
to be conducted over time or reanalysis by a different yet complementary perspective
(Eagly, 2018). For example, Baxter’s (2007, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017) published work
focused on the intersection of women, leadership, and language usage. Contrastingly,
Hurst working with others (Hurst et al., 2016; Hurst et al., 2017, 2018a, 2018b) appeared
to have analyzed a data set on gender and leadership from multiple angles and produced
four individual, yet interrelated, studies.
The second limitation and, by extension, the risk was researchers in the field
appeared to be predominantly female-feminists. In all areas of academia and research,
informal networks manifest as researchers seek out others with similar ontological and
epistemological views or findings that align with and support their research (Lee et al.,
2020; Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017). Furthermore, selecting a research paradigm and
correlating ontology, epistemology, methodology, and methods are driven by the
researcher’s personal beliefs about the nature of reality. In discourse analysis, it is

21
essential to consider what is not said as much as what is said (Fairclough, 2016) through
the examination of the selection of words, variables, and research paradigm selected by
the researcher(s) (Rehman & Alharthi, 2016). Given the field of gender leadership,
research appeared to consist of female-feminist, and primarily created a risk for research
bias and potentially added to the lack of research on male leaders.
From a study design perspective, the research was limited to binary concepts of
gender. Therefore, the study excluded other factors that could have been considered, such
as race, gender identity, or gender reassignment, that might have added to the research’s
discourse identities and voices (see Gee, 2014a, 2014b, 2017). For example, a
transsexual, female researcher whose academic career and research focuses on
hegemonic masculinity and gender, would bring a deep understanding of masculinity as
having lived a portion of her life as a man. Using transsexuality as an example, restricting
the study to a binary focus on gender alongside performance and power demonstrated the
opportunity for transferability to future studies, considering other attributes that add to
experience and knowledge. However, the current study limited the understanding of those
very attributes as a factor, meaning had research from a transsexual researcher appeared
in the texts included in the formal study, the discourse identity would have been lost.
As noted, the field of gender and leadership research appears limited, and
familiarity with the authors’ prior research work could have presented itself. However,
the study design employed rigorous protocols and systematic analysis that mitigated bias
through methodological triangulation and building tasks discussed in depth in Chapter 3.
A brief description of methodological triangulation and building tasks means to look at

22
data from multiple perspectives through the application of multiple, predefined questions
to provoke thought and generate data. Triangulation and building tasks are traditional
strategies used by critical discourse analysts (Fairclough, 2016; Gee, 2016; van Dijk,
2016).
Significance
This research was significant in many ways. First, it helped identify the language
used in gendered leadership research that could shape and influence beliefs about each
sex (see Gabriel et al., 2018; Hansson et al., 2019; Liben & Bigler; 2015). Second, the
study helped fill a gap in understanding as I investigated gendered leadership research as
potentially reinforcing perceptions of gender inequality between female and male leaders
through the language selection used in the text (see Gee, 2017). Next, this study was
significant to help advance gendered leadership research find equal footing for both sexes
(see Baxter, 2015) through a discussion of how focus on perceived inequalities based on
biological sex, yet using the term gender, may have contributed to perceptions of
inequality and inadequacy of female leaders.
Finally, with media emphasis placed on the fluidity of gender (Morgenroth &
Ryan, 2018a), it is crucial that the area of gendered leadership uncouple the use of gender
as solely female and include men in the study of language, leadership, and gender.
Concepts of gender in the United States and other first world countries have moved
beyond bifurcated and binary representations of boy/girl and male/female. As both sexes
presence continues to grow, the workplace demands less prescriptive expectations of men
as leaders and women as caregivers. So must the methods for studying gendered
23
leadership become balanced (Subasic et al., 2018). The results of this study helped
contribute to positive social change by highlighting the need of researchers in gendered
leadership to consider applying frameworks and models outside of female-oriented
feminist theory. Applying theories beyond women-focused feminist theory could reframe
studies of male/female relations, expand conversations to encompass both sexes, and
move gendered leadership towards a more unified approach. Furthermore, analyzing text
selection in research studies has the potential to increase awareness of the interaction of
the researcher and research within other studies in the fields of sociology and psychology.
Summary
The preceding pages addressed the second wave feminist movement’s impact in
creating opportunities for women to enter the workplace and take up careers. As a result,
researchers have sought to understand women’s unique challenges in the workplace. The
sociolinguistic subdiscipline of gender, language and leadership emerged to provide a
greater understanding of how female language usage has shaped females’ ability to lead
or reach leadership roles. However, feminist theory reassigned the term gender to be
synonymous with females, causing discussions surrounding gendered leadership to focus
on the needs of women and excluded men. The initial concept for the study was to
analyze the text selection used in research in the field of gender, language and leadership.
However, the field was relatively narrow, and only a few researchers emerged, having
approached the phenomenon specifically. After considerable research in gender, language
and leadership separately and combined, the research problem became better defined.
The need to focus on the written word and the importance of understanding gender was
24
identified more than 15 years ago (Bucholtz, 2005). Therefore, a gap in the literature was
identified as an examination of the language used in gender and leadership research as a
direct or indirect influence on the researcher’s and reader’s perception of female and
male leaders. The RQ was shaped into the following: What discursive messages
regarding gender, performance, and power are found in gender leadership research text?
The study was outlined as qualitative using CDA. The study’s significance was provided,
the development of the study’s RQ was reviewed, and the assumptions, delimitations, and
limitations of the study were discussed.
Chapter 2 begins with an overview of feminism and feminist theory as a crucial
influence on the literature and research on gender and leadership. The chapter continues
with a literature review on theories regarding gender, language and leadership
individually. Then a review of literature on the intersectionality of gender, language and
leadership is conducted. The chapter concludes with a review of CDA as a theoretical
framework appropriate for identifying underlying themes or messages in research text
within gendered leadership studies.

25
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Introduction
In Chapter 1, I identified a problem in the lack of analysis on the language used in
gender leadership research as a direct or indirect impact of the researcher’s and the
reader’s perception of female and male leaders within the context of work. The purpose
of the study was to address the need to examine discursive messages used in research text
regarding gendered leadership and to explore the phenomenon of word usage and
language structure applied to research text. The need to focus on the written word to
understand gender was identified more than 15 years ago (Bucholtz, 2005). Yet, there
was little found on the phenomenon of stylized text and discursive messages in research
(Gee, 2014a, 2014b). The negative impact of cognitive internalization of messaging has
perpetuated perceptions of inequality in both sexes (Eagly, 2018; Karakowsky et al.,
2017. Therefore, the following RQ was explored: What discursive messages regarding
gender, performance, and power are found in gender leadership research text?
Chapter 2 begins with a review of the literature research strategy employed for
gathering scholarly works for this project. The section then addresses feminism and
feminist theory as an influence on the emerging literature and research on gender,
language and leadership. Next, I review the literature on theories regarding gender,
language and leadership individually and follow with a review of literature on the
intersectionality of gender, language and leadership. The chapter concludes with a review
of CDA as a theoretical framework appropriate for identifying underlying themes or
messages in research text in gender and leadership studies.

26
Literature Search Strategy
A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted to address critical
components of the study’s primary RQ: What discursive messages regarding gender,
performance, and power are found in gender leadership research text? A systematic
strategy was formulated and rigorously followed based on the RQ, that contained aspects
of gender, language and leadership. In order to thoroughly address the components, it was
necessary I understand existing literature independently and, where possible, synthesize
gaps across concepts. The systematic review of literature allowed me to include work
from various authors and allowed for a more robust understanding of the phenomenon
under scrutiny, identification of gaps in the literature, and creation of the RQ to explore
research on the topic (see Grewal et al., 2016). Additionally, a literature review was an
important exercise that supported the assertation of a gap in the literature as it allowed me
to identify relevant research and advance understanding of the phenomenon
(Onwuegbuzie et al., 2016; Onwuegbuzie & Weinbaum, 2017).
There are multiple approaches to an effective literature review. For example, a
protocol driven review manually searches journals and electronic databases (Grewal et al.
2016). Snowballing is the process of reviewing references used by researchers in the field
in question to identify additional works. A researcher may have personal knowledge,
contacts, or experience with the topic, that can be leveraged. Finally, a researcher may
stumble over a viable paper while searching. J.W. Creswell and J. D. Creswell (2018)
provided step-by-step guidance and encouraged researchers to (a) identify keywords; (b)
search multiple databases; (c) use a thesaurus to identify terms to search; (d) locate an
27
article similar to the topic for terms used to describe it; (d) search databases that provide
full text articles; start with broad syntheses of the literature, such as overviews and
summaries of the literature; (e) work backward from the most recent article; (f) find a
book on the topic; (g) look for conference papers; and (h) contact authors.
As with other researchers, I came to the topic at hand due to interest (see Eagly,
2018) and possessed prior knowledge of the influence of language to shape perceptions
of the reader and writer (see Gee, 2017). Therefore, two notable strategies were avoided
to remain as subjective as possible. First, I chose to set aside personal and professional
research and authorship conducted in prior works. Except for Baxter (2011, 2014, 2015,
2017) and Tannen (1990,1994), whose works spurred my initial interest and desire to
investigate the relationship between language, gender, and leadership, research was
conducted fresh and without assumptions of potential findings. Second, snowballing was
avoided. While snowballing or chasing citations could have been helpful, I avoided the
process to prevent unintentional bias due to social networks that manifest within research
communities investigating similar phenomena using similar conventions (see Lee et al.,
2020; Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017). Consideration was made in the research strategy of the
negative aspects of informal networks. Researchers may align, seek out, and cite other
researchers whose research, concepts, interests, or results mirror their own within
academic disciplines. Such network citation trends significantly influence which
advancements and research topics are further explored, extended, or published (Williams,
2018). Lee et al. (2020) found that nine of the top 10 most cited leadership journals
remained consistent from 2008 through 2017. Therefore, they found articles retrieved
28
from the following journals proved to be the most often cited: The Leadership Quarterly,
Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal; Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management,
Journal of Organizational Behavior, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organizational
Behavior, and Human Decision Processes, and Psychology Bulletin. Upon closer
examination, they found thematic trends prevalent in the top 10 cited journals:
transformational leadership, LMX theory, implicit leadership theories, charismatic
leadership, and complexity leadership. However, the intersection of gender and
leadership was found elsewhere. Although literature may have been published across
journals, specialized research on gender and language targeted researchers interested in a
specific field such as Sex Roles, Gender in Management and Journal of Sociolinguistics.
In consideration of the effects of social networks and following guidance from J.
W. Creswell and J. D. Creswell (2018), the primary research strategy employed for this
study was protocol driven with hand searches that used multiple electronic library
databases and search engines including Google Scholar, Walden University’s Thoreau,
PsychINFO, SocINDEX, SAGE Premier, Emerald Insight, Elsevier, Research Gate, and
Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Preliminary search keywords included gender,
language, leadership, discourse, and sociolinguistics to cast a wide net. Emphasis on
locating literature published between 2015 and 2020 was applied to meet expectations for
a majority of publications cited within the 5 years before the literature review. However,
as a crucial component of the study, I investigated historical reliance’s influence (see
Reisigl & Wodak, 2016) as a key metric for current research, and original or founding
29
articles were read for the origin of source, meaning, intent, and context, and were cited in
the literature review where appropriate. The strategy helped me understand the possible
meaning that may have been lost, repurposed, or weakened due to repetitive or threaded
citations. For example, the concept of gender fluidity is a popular topic in mainstream
media. Butler’s (1990) seminal work Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of
Identity is considered the requisite literature for gender fluid discussions and entry of the
term into academia. A Google Scholar (2020) search of citations of the term gender
fluidity between 2015 and 2020 resulted in 23,100 citations. However, in the introduction
to the reprint of her work, Butler noted that her research has been misinterpreted and the
importance overemphasized as she was a graduate student writing her thesis paper and
chose a topic that allowed her to explore the questioning of her sexuality (as cited in
Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018b).
As the literature search continued, it became necessary to create a more granular
or targeted focus. Combinations of keywords were applied using search criteria using
AND or NOT, such as gender AND leadership or gender NOT female. Filters were
applied to retrieve only peer-reviewed, full text, scholarly journals available in English.
Keywords were broadened to include CDA, critical discourse analysis, men, women, sex,
gender, workplace, and organization. Alerts were set for immediate notification of new
research published. Despite the methodological search, each area of interest possessed
large bodies of work that could approach each topic from multiple aspects, causing
articles to be discarded due to lack of fit for the study. For example, keywords gender
AND workplace returned Bhuyan’s (2018) peer-reviewed, full text, English research the
30
Politics of the Workplace: Gender and Ethnic Identities at Work – A Study of Select
American Novels, that analysed the writing of four novels “to examine whether the
sociological theories regarding workplace politics find a parallel representation in
[fictional] literature” (p. 73).
Finally, due to the sheer size and years of study in gender, leadership, and
language (see Baxter, 2017; Northouse, 2016; Wodak & Meyer, 2016), emphasis was
placed on western cultures due to cultural considerations that shaped the use and meaning
of language within the workplace, advancement of feminist ideologies, and available
literature.
All told, over 240 articles were retrieved and audited for potential inclusion in the
review. An additional 18 book chapters and 39 books were reviewed, notated, and
considered for inclusion: 163 of the texts audited are referenced, 115 are within 5 years of
the study’s start in 2018. As a foundation of the study included messages being carried
forward through repeated citation and informal networks, discussed later in this chapter,
reference to approximately 50 seminal or historically significant works are noted. The
following section reviews the existing literature on CDA gender, language and leadership
were grouped by theme and ends with a collective review of available literature on the
intersection of gender, language and leadership.
Literature Review
CDA
Discourse analysis is the process by which the relationship between the written or
spoken word and the word’s meaning or implications is considered (Hansson et al.,
31
2019). Discourse analysis takes an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approach to
explore different social domains and can be applied to a wide variety of studies
(Fairclough, 2016; Wodak & Meyer, 2016). Although there is no single agreed definition
of terms or approaches, all contain key features (Fairlclough, 2016):
• A critical stance towards taken-for-granted knowledge and skepticism towards
observation of the world yields its true nature.
• A recognition that the ways people understand the world is based upon
historical and cultural information specific and relative to the world.
• A conviction that the world is socially constructed and understood, not by the
world’s true nature, rather than social processes.
• A commitment to exploring how knowledge is linked to people, phenomena,
or problems by actions or practices.
In the context of discourse analysis, discourse refers to all forms of speech and
text that take place (Wodak & Meyer, 2016); as such, discourse analysts are interested in
text and how the text is organized. How and what is communicated between individuals
is made by choice from many possibilities depending on the situation, creating a need for
interpretive context. For example, how I speak about the interplay of biological sex and
leadership will vary according to the audience. How I write on the same topic and the
word selection I choose will be dependent upon the anticipated reader’s familiarity with
the material and the need to create more or less of a persuasive argument (see Gee, 2017).
On a more practical level, if asked, “How was your day?” your response will vary if I am
in the role of your intimate partner, your best friend, or your boss. Discourse analysts use
32
interpretive context to consider the more subtle aspects of the text, critically review what
is reported and, notably, what is omitted within the given context (Fairclough, 2016).
CDA is a theoretical framework and methodology that investigates the social
world’s construction through discourse and is situated in critical theory. CDA as theory
and method are profoundly intertwined, and one cannot be conducted without the other.
Jørgensen and Phillips (2002) explained the overlap of theory and method:
Confusingly, the label “critical discourse analysis” is used in two different ways:
Norman Fairclough (1995a, 1995b) uses it both to describe the approach he has
developed and as the label for a broader movement within discourse analysis of
which several approaches, including his own, are a part. (p. 60)
Wodak and Meyer (2016) stated, “Critical Discourse Studies, as in all social
research, theory, methods, and analysis are closely interrelated, and decisions about one
affect the other” (p. 14). The interconnectedness of theory and methodology demonstrates
that each can be thought of as circular, iterative, and intertwined. The theory required the
selection of concepts and relations and assumptions that led to the research’s organization
and assisted in the development of procedures and instrumentation that informed the
analysis.
An additional reason for the overlap of theory and methodology could be
attributed to the relative newness of the formalization of CDA and followed by the
preeminent discursive analysts’ collaboration (Wodak & Meyer, 2016). As recently as
1991, a group of discourse researchers met in Amsterdam to establish a cohort of

33
discourse analysts. Although the analysts’ interests focused on different topics, they
agreed upon the application of their craft (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002).
The combination of the recent emergence of the field alongside the contemporary,
networked cohort of analysts has had positive and negative impacts on the study of
discourse. From a negative perspective, the field has had a relatively small number of
linguistic experts available for reference. However, due to the group’s collaborative
nature, CDA has been applied to a plethora of topics with consensus by experts across
fields as to the approach and steps of analysis to identify power relationships and social
wrongs through the systematic investigation of discursive text. For example, discourse
historical approach (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016) focused on a triangulation of discourse,
text, and context to produce ideologies. A sociocognitive approach (van Dijk, 2016) was
concerned with the relationship between discourse and social structures. Fairclough’s
(2016) dialectical relational theory suggested that social wrongs can be addressed by
analyzing their causation and assertion that language changes over time. Discourses and
dispositives (Jager & Maier, 2016) theorized that knowledge contained in linguistically
conducted practices such as verbal and written speech and nonverbal linguistics naturally
materializes or produces an outcome. Van Leeuwen (2016) took the discourse approach
as the recontextualization of social practice by theorizing the repetition of social actions
modes, styles, semiotic outcomes, and actions in one area are reperformed in other social
actions through recontextualized fashion. Corpus linguistics analyzed word or phrase
usage and repetition to identify themes. CDA theory can also be applied to visual and
multimodal texts (Jancsary et al., 2016) and social media (Khosravnik & Unger, 2016).
34
CDA is predominantly shaped by its emphasis on the innate nature of language’s
ability to change over time and take on new meaning alongside examination of instances
of power, dominance, and inequality (Amoussou & Allagbe, 2018). CDA stresses the
intertextuality of words as possessing historical connotations, that are drawn on to make
sense in the current space (Hodges, 2018). The general philosophical assumptions and
underpinnings of CDA are as follows (Fairclough, 2016; Hansson et al., 2019):
• Knowledge of the world is only accessible through categories, so the
understanding and representations of the world are products of the ways of
categorizing the world.
• Discourse is a form of social interaction playing a part in producing the social
world (including knowledge, identities, and social relations) and maintaining
specific social patterns.
• Knowledge is created through social interaction in which people construct
common truths and compete with what is true and false.
Different social understandings of the world lead to various social actions, and
therefore, the social construction of knowledge and truth has social consequences. CDA
seeks to understand ways that social power can enact, reproduce, or abuse through the use
of language (van Dijk, et al., 2018). CDA draws upon the Marxist view of capitalism that
characterizes a society through ideology, that creates imaginary relations between people
and social formation (Hansson et al., 2019). However, research must align with CDA’s
theoretical underpinnings that lend to its uniqueness in the eight-points defined to qualify
as CDA research (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018):

35
• CDA addresses a problem or issue that is oriented to social problems such as
sexism, racism, or social inequality.
• CDA must approach a topic from an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary
with special focus on discourse and society.
• CDA is positioned as the primary foci and does not perform as a subdiscipline
of discourse analysis; instead CDS is an explicit critical approach, position, or
stance to study talk or text.
• CDA focus is on relations of power, dominance and inequality and how each
are reproduced or resisted by social group members.
• CDA seeks to understand the underlying ideologies that shape reproduction or
resistance within a social group.
• CDA directly points out strategies of manipulation, manufacturing, and
legitimization of discursive power, dominance and inequality through the
examination of implicit, hidden or omitted information to influence the
consumer of text or speech.
• CDA’s concern for implicit, hidden or omitted information positions research
as critical or in opposition to those who abuse their power.
• CDA seeks solidarity or unification of groups by providing alternative
perspectives and possible solutions to address and resolve the social wrong
through counter-ideologies.
As discussed, CDA also served as a methodological approach that will be
discussed in Chapter 3. In short, CDA was performed by asking questions that look
36
beyond reading text at face value. Analysts are committed to looking past obvious
information in a transcript to the many factors involved in creating and consuming the
text itself (Gill, 2009). From a methodological perspective, CDA consists of four stages
and subsequent steps (Fairclough, 2016, pp. 92-94):
• Stage 1: Focus upon a social wrong from the semiotic aspect.
• Step 1: Select a research topic that relates or points to a wrong that can be
approached in a transdisciplinary way with a particular focus on dialectical
relations between semiotics and other moments.
• Step 2: Construct objects of research for initially identified research topics
by theorizing them in a transdisciplinary way.
• Stage 2: Identify obstacles to addressing the social wrong.
• Step 1: Analyze dialectical relations between discourse and other social
elements, between orders of discourse and other elements of social
practice; and between text and other elements of events.
• Step 2: Select texts, and focuses, and categories for their analysis, in light
of and appropriate to the constitution of the object of research.
• Step 3: Carry out an analysis of the text, both interdiscursive and linguistic
semiotic analysis.
• Stage 3: Consider whether the social order needs the social wrong.
• Stage 4: Identify possible ways past the obstacles.
To conclude, CDA, as a theoretical framework, is transdisciplinary. CDAwas
used as the skeleton on which to build to shed light on themes that may reinforce
37
perceptions through the sequencing of topics, word selection, sentence structure, or
omission of data. Therefore, CDA’s theoretical approach required it to be used in
conjunction with one or more theories, such as this project’s emphasis on repetitive
invisible themes found in leadership, gender and language that link to social ideologies
that may have manifested in the workplace and position women as less capable leaders
(Hansson et al., 2019; Martin, 2015; Latu & Mast, 2016; Szymanska & Rubin, 2018).
Feminism and Feminist Theory
Feminism, feminist movements, and feminine concerns are complex and tangled
web. A literature review on the feminist component of this study was no small task when
contemplating which themes warrant inclusion or exclusion. For example, sexual assault
and victim shaming remain real and significant challenges for many women and men;
however, relevance to the study at hand was nominal. Therefore, consideration of which
threads to incorporate and where feminism and feminist activism diverge remained under
scrutiny throughout the study’s development.
In antiquity, protofeminism referred to the earliest forms of feminism and was
suspected to have emerged in Greece. The primary argument of protofeminism was to
assert that women were equally as intelligent as men and should have equal opportunities
for education (Caffery, 2018). Similarly, Wollstonecraft, the mother of modern day
feminism, criticized societies’ treatment of women in her 1792 book, The Vindication of
the Rights of Women, with a heavy emphasis on females’ educational rights
(Wollstonecraft & Brody, 2020). In modern times, feminism and feminist theory are
typically conceptualized in waves. Marsha Lear first applied the narrative in her 1968
38
New York Times article, The Second Feminist Wave. There are three, arguably four,
feminist waves that have developed within the United States. Briefly stated, the first
wave focused on women’s right to vote; the second wave aimed to achieve equal pay and
autonomy of the female body; the third wave sought inclusivity for minorities such as
queer and color; and the fourth wave transitioned feminist activism and theory to social
media (Evans & Chamberlain, 2015).
Regardless of the number of waves that feminism has enjoyed, the application of
a wave narrative presents a complex dichotomy. In one sense, the constraint of a
specified era brings a perceived political slant and irrevocably entwines the wave with the
politics of the timeframe that sustains it. In another sense, the wave hopes for its own and
future waves extinction (Chamberlain, 2016). The focus of feminism on the past is
needed to sustain its future which creates a disconnect from the present. The literature
reviewed by Evans and Chamberlain (2015) suggested there are additional flaws with the
concept of waves in they create generational barriers, exclude women of color, favor
Western feminists, cause confusion when waves are combined, and create dissonance
when women are faced with no option that fits their experience. Furthermore, while
feminism is a transnational social movement that has been widely studied by academia
and heavily politicized, the emergence of feminist movement waves varies by country,
including a disparity of waves between first world countries such as Europe and the US
(Dean & Aune, 2015).
Temporal waves metaphors of feminist theory and feminism can be approached
from concepts of thinking and doing. Feminist theory and scholarship heavily rely on
39
activism and vice versa, but both create limitations when applying waves as a part of the
narrative. First, each wave is temporal and generationally divided. Second, each wave has
attempted to fix the former wave’s problems while members of the prior wave castigate
errors, discount advancements, and hold onto grudges. Finally, the older generation feels
they possess more wisdom while the younger feel they are more relevant to current issues
(Chamberlain, 2016).
Nonetheless, feminist theory formalized the feminist movement into a semi-
structured theoretical philosophy. However, feminist theory is not a single theory;
instead, it refers to a set of theories that are concerned with explaining the relative
position of women in society by placing women at the center of the concern and can be
applied in tandem with complementary theories such as political, race, and organizational
psychology. As often asserted by feminists and feminist theorists, personal is political
(Calder-Dawe & Gavey, 2019; Chamberlain, 2016), as shown to be the case in a review
of each temporal wave.
First Wave Feminist Movement
The first wave feminist movement categorically lumps any efforts for gender
equality between the mid-1800s and the 1960s and includes many changes in the political
and social landscape of the United States (Caffery, 2018). The first wave feminism
movement included the women’s suffrage movement, that called for the right of women
to vote, own property, and have educational opportunities (Cameron, 2015). In the United
States, the wave boasted highly recognized women such as Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner
Truth, Ida B. Wells, and Margaret Fuller. While these women were significant and
40
crucial to the United States’ development, an in-depth review of literature into antiquity
was outside this project’s scope.
Second Wave Feminist Movement
The most widely known effort for female equality stemmed from the women’s
liberation movement, later coined the second wave feminist movement (Caffery, 2018).
The women’s liberation movement was spurred by Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine
Mystic (Friedan, 1963) and the feminist and journalist Gloria Steinman (Bloch, 2019;
Eagly, 2018). Although the women’s liberation movement’s demands were multifaceted,
the call for women’s ability to enter the workforce made the movement and resulting
theories deeply intertwined with gender, language and leadership concepts. The women’s
liberation movement or second wave feminist movement (SWFM) has been criticized as
a platform for bored, educated, wealthy White women to lament their unhappy,
unfulfilling lives as wives and mothers (hooks, 1987). Citing the desire to enter the
workforce and the inability to do so, the movement failed to consider that many lower-
class, single, or minority women were already employed and required to provide
economically for their families. It was not until minority activists such as bell hooks (who
took on the lowercase capitalization of her name in honor of her grandmother) raised the
concept of race, sex, and class as interrelated aspects of sexism (hooks, 2015) that other
aspects of womanhood were considered. Prejudice arose during the SWFM when radical
feminists called for men’s subrogation, and middle class White women dismissed Black
and Latino women from conversations and rallies. However, hooks noted the sentiment
was not one sided as Black women railed against association with a group who could not
41
relate to their struggle as Black and female. The movement splintered into, at times,
hostile groups at odds with each other making a negative aspect of the movement the
prejudice that was given to and received by women from other women (hooks, 1987).
Internal friction and fragmentation resulted in many women agreeing equality was
needed but felt the movement was too radical for them to call themselves feminist.
The primary assumption of SWFM feminist theories was women’s victimization
by men and implied the men were White, heterosexual, and free (hooks, 2015). The
initial catalyst to spur the movement was not heavily researched, documented, planned,
or even implemented. According to Eichler (1985), modern feminist approaches
developed during the 1960s as a by-product of the women’s liberation movement when
women came forward as a self-proclaimed oppressed group and demanded equality for
women in all areas of social, political, economic, cultural, and sexual matters. Feminist
theorists and female academics began to look closely at theories in many areas to
understand how strongly the theories supported or increased patriarchy. Within a decade
and a half, four themes in feminist approaches emerged (a) focus on women; (b) focus on
sex roles (including gender roles, gender relations); (c) development of feminist
approach; and (d) focus on epistemological concerns. Feminism and feminist theory have
been interwoven with many aspects of research, including politics, employment,
leadership, and gender, to name only a few (Chamberlain, 2016), and significant research
continues to be conducted from a multitude of perspectives, including gender equality
and gender leadership (Baxter, 2015, 2017; Powell & Butterfield, 2015). Feminist and
feminist theories have encountered a longstanding problem and issue in agreeing on “who
42
are we fighting” and remain at odds with internal bickering (Evans & Chamberlain,
2015). Feminist research has been argued to be made by women, for women, and on
behalf of women (Coats, 2016), making arguments against themselves on a topic that is
unclearly defined. Feminists across theories have not and cannot agree on a definition of
“woman” due to arguments that the concept of “woman” is a social construct. Kristeva
(as cited by Alcoff, 1997, p. 418) explains, “A woman cannot be; it is something which
does not even belong in the order of being. It follows that a feminist practice can only be
negative, at odds with what already exists so that we may say ‘that’s not it’ and ‘that’s
still not it’.”. Evans and Chamberlain (2015) agreed and noted feminism inherently
evokes political problems with the assumption that all women possess a common
identity.
From an academic perspective, early SFWM feminist scholars relied upon
Marxism as an existing framework for feminist theory (Beetz & Schwab, 2018). Marxism
and feminism were akin as methods and calls to action in that both have sought to
understand and change the world. However, feminist scholars using Marxism were, at
times, criticized due to Marxism’s male-dominated orientation (Eichler, 1987). Marxism
and feminism have held a longstanding love-hate relationship as each is equally
theoretical and saturated in politics. Marxism theorized that class was the fundamental
organizing principle of capitalism. Early feminism theories built on the concept of
capitalism but argued that sex was also a factor as women were a part of yet separate
from the men within their class (Cox, 2019). For example, a woman may be the wife of
an upper-class male; however, she is still only the wife and not afforded the same
43
privileges as her male counterpart. Marxist and non-Marxist approaches to feminist
theory placed family as the key component to female oppression, whether that be a
component of domestic labor, human reproduction, socialization, hegemonic ideology, or
the family related to a woman’s role as wife and mother. Unfortunately, feminism theory
and other research fields have fallen prey to the effects of reductionism by failing to look
at a woman as a whole and complex being; instead, feminist theories have created a
thinly sliced view of varying aspects of a woman (Flax, 1982)
Because views of feminist theory were so often approached from a personal
perspective and there lacked a unified female experience, second wave feminist scholars
developed a wide variety of theoretical approaches. A structural feminist approach united
women through a common wound suggesting all women are oppressed by men (Eichler,
1985). Structural approaches such as Marxist feminists argued gender difference is rooted
in social or economic disparities between men and women with no fundamental
difference between the sexes. Radical feminists are another structural approach in which
members believed that women experience common oppression, that provided women
with a privileged position to expose the subordination of women, that women are better
served by separate, women only organizations, and have gone so far as to write stories of
utopian worlds in which men were entirely removed from society (Mellor, 1982).
Marxists and radical feminists found common ground in the argument that women see the
world differently from men; women are more intuitive than men and are in touch with the
world. The common thread between structural approaches is that women are
multifaceted, multivoiced, and possess fractured identities, suggesting that men are not.
44
Structuralist approaches have been argued to be “the construction of theory of women, by
women, and for women” (p. 718), making women separate from men. Structural
approaches have also been criticized for portraying a superior White account that ignores
the influence of race, class, and socioeconomics. In many ways, feminists have been
argued to be their own worst enemy because acknowledging being a woman is a
necessary component of feminist theory (Alcoff, 1997). By noting the differences in a
female’s life, feminists created separateness or otherness that may not have been
intended.
Through the self-classification of women as a component of marginalization,
feminists face a problem in acknowledging their role in marginalization or admit they are
a victim powerless against men as the superior sex. As Alcoff (1997) noted, feminists
must self-reflect on a society built on the control of women where all evidence of what it
means to be a woman is built on misogyny and sexism. Alcoff further suggested men
have defined women, yet, men are not subject to defined script and have the luxury of
free will. A counterargument to Alcoff can be made that a woman’s role has been
constructed by other women such as Emily Post for proper manners and socialites for
fashion. Cultural feminists have defined women based on previous social constructs that
were purely determined and enforced by men who have different views, interests, fear,
and potential hatred for women (Mellor, 1982). Cultural feminists believe men attempt to
dominate women due to male jealousy or hatred attributed to the male inability to give
birth. Cultural feminists consider themselves separate from radical feminism due to
cultural feminists’ belief of their theory as fully formed.

45
In contrast, radical feminists continue to struggle to define their approach’s goals
beyond separation from men (Mellor, 1982). On the other hand, cultural feminism has
been criticized for creating an overly generalized definition of a woman. Regardless of
the internal strife between feminism, attitudes about feminism are improving. Doyle
(1976) conducted a reexamination of Kirkpatrick’s scale initially developed in 1936 to
measure attitudes towards feminism. Doyle administered Kirkpatrick’s 180-item self-
reporting scale to 75 female and 75 male university students and found a substantial shift
towards profeminism in attitude occurred nearly equally between men and women alike.
Due to the fractured and often negative view of feminism and the changes in attitudes
towards feminism, soon thereafter, the SWFM gave way to the third wave movement
intending to heal wounds inflicted from the fracturing of the SWFM.
Third Wave Feminist Movement
The third wave feminist movement (TWFM) sought to distance itself from the
SWFM feminist, which was perceived as white, middle class, and exclusionary (Aune &
Holyoak, 2018). Academia influenced the understanding and perception of TWFM;
however, much of the research conducted on the wave was published in academic
journals that were not available to the public creating a skewed and blurred view of a
successful demarcation between the respective wave (Evans & Chamberlain, 2015). The
TWFM argued that emphasis needed to be made on the intersectionality of gender,
ethnicity, class, sexuality, and disability (Calder-Dawe & Gavey, 2017; Dean & Aune,
2015); however, the wave had been criticized as still exclusionary of color, lesbians,
46
bisexuals, working class, disabilities and transgender women and men. (Evans &
Chamberlain, 2015).
Often referred to as the TWFM of feminism, poststructural feminist approaches
agree with structuralist approaches that gender is constructed, fragmented, and complex
but departs by adding that gender and sexuality go beyond the duality of boy and girl in
that gender is performed or enacted based on an individual’s interpretation of their gender
(Robnett et al., 2018). Much like the SWFM, the TWFM has been criticized for its
disregard for the history of the feminist movement and favoring white, well-educated
young women (Evans & Chamberlain, 2016). However, poststructural feminists distance
themselves from structural theories by arguing that power is shared, optimistically
removing the concept of victimization exclusively by men yet still experience uniquely
female challenges (Baxter, 2017). In the poststructural approach, the fight is against
social ideologies regarding the female’s ability to achieve. The intersectionality of the
female experience became focal and, at times, self-destructive with the proliferation of
foul language, hyper-femininity, and lipstick lesbians (Caffery, 2018).
Nevertheless, structural and poststructural feminist theories can be difficult to
accept because of their positioning, which suggests that separateness, otherness, and
social construction of gender are attributed only to women and that men are not subject to
the pressures of the social construction of gender. Some feminist theorists have turned to
poststructuralist discourse theory (Hansson et al., 2019). Poststructuralist discourse
theorists such as Foucault and Derrida argue that gender enactment is not undetermined
47
rather overdetermined by social constructs, and the construct known as the woman is a
fiction that must be dismantled.
In addition to poststructural feminism, liberal feminism developed during the
TWFM era. Liberal feminists agree that men and women are essentially the same, and
each sex is subject to stereotyping and prejudice requiring the removal of gender
distinctions. A prime example of liberal feminism, and most relevant to this paper, argues
to remove barriers that prevent women from competing for leadership roles in the context
of work should include empowering men to move into more nurturing positions as a
caregiver within the home through the redistribution of gender norms, roles, and
expectations (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018a). Poststructural and liberal feminist theories
appear to be among the more applied theories to workplace studies (Baxter, 2007, 2011,
2014, 2015, 2017; Baxter & Al-A’ali, 2014).
Fourth Wave Feminist Movement
There is debate whether the fourth wave of feminism (FWFM), that gained
attention in the 2010s and is noted by its use of social media, warrants consideration as a
wave. While critics question if a new wave is needed or if the introduction of technology
is sufficient to consider a new movement, proponents make a compelling argument.
Technology, social media specifically, has changed and accelerated communication
between feminists and provides an opportunity for a feminist to engage when they cannot
physically attend events (Chamberlain, 2016; Evans & Chamberlain, 2015). Arguments
in favor of a new wave suggest feminism is losing momentum and interest among the
younger generations of women due to their inability to identify with issues that have been
48
resolved or advanced by feminists of the FWSM, SWFM, and TWFM. A fresh wave,
fully demarcated from prior waves with themes and objectives that are relevant today,
would spark current youth and upcoming generations’ interest. (Evans & Chamberlain,
2015) especially in light of current feminist efforts, which have shifted towards gender
over sex with the emergence and inclusion of LGBTQA. the internet and social media
Conclusion
Waves are discussed by their differences rather than similarities (Chamberlain,
2016). Due to waves’ temporal nature, members must choose an era they best identify
with, that creates a separate identity and causes conflict as well as friction. For example,
SWFM proponents view TWFM members as wave materialistic, while FWFM identifiers
view the earlier waves as exclusionary. The only agreement between the various
movements is that each views the others as self-centered while they are altruistic. Until
feminists cease clinging to a wave metaphor that manifests in a specific wave narrative, a
cohesive identity will not be attained (Evans & Chamberlain, 2015)
Feminist and feminist research has been typically approached from negativity rather
than embracing female advances (Winegard et al., 2015). However, Alice Eagly (2018,
pp. 879-880) provided compelling data based on peer-reviewed research supporting the
female progress towards equality:
• Women occupy the presidency of 30% of U.S. colleges and universities.
• Women are 28% of the CEOs when all U.S. organizations are considered, and
45% of the CEOs of nonprofit organizations.

49
• A meta-analysis of studies on the emergence of leaders from leaderless groups
showed a steady decline in the tendency of men to emerge more than women.
• Research on sexual harassment in the U.S. federal workforce found a marked
decrease in everyday harassment between 1994 and 2016 (e.g., sexual teasing,
suggestive looks).
• In academic science, observational data from actual hiring at 89 U.S. research-
intensive institutions for recent cohorts indicated that women who applied for
positions had a better chance of being interviewed and receiving offers than did
male job candidates.
• Experimental simulations of academic hiring found a strong favoring of women
over equally qualified men in STEM.
• Female and male professors in recent U.S. cohorts in psychology departments
have progressed at similar rates from assistant to associate to full professor after
securing a tenure track position.
• In recent years, high potential female job candidates have enjoyed a wage
premium over men because of their diversity value within U.S. businesses.
A final note on feminism and feminist theory before moving forward with a
literature review on language, gender, and leadership is to reassert feminist research and
media appropriated the word gender to argue for female advancement (Eagly, 2018).
Until recently and still, predominately, the terms female and gender have been used
interchangeably while men became conceptualized as genderless and used
interchangeably with person (Coats, 2016). Although feminism self-reports the inclusion
50
of all, considerable research and support for feminism and feminist research are directed
towards women, as evidenced in the preceding pages. There remains little research,
support, or framework to acknowledge men or men as gendered. Men’s studies and issues
are typically discounted, as evidenced by the American Psychological Association,
founded in 1892, for the first time in its 129-year history, acknowledged males and
announced guidelines for counseling men and boys in 2019 (Pappas, 2019).
Language
Language provides the ability to connect with another to create a common goal or
meaning and sets humankind apart from all other animals on this planet. Language is
composed of agreed upon symbols, both verbal and nonverbal, shared concepts, ideas,
opinions, emotions, and what it means to be human (Ochs, 2012; Fairclough, 2016; Gee,
2016). As such, it cannot be sufficiently stressed that language is purely symbolic and
subjective. For example, every word written within this paper’s confines is a symbolic
representation of a concept established in the tongue of an American native to American
English and written to an audience of fellow, highly educated academic individuals.
Understanding the text written within this paper is dependent upon the reader possessing
a commonly shared meaning of the symbols of letters, words, sentence structure, and
some prior subjective exposure to content or ability to translate and transform abstract
concepts based upon previous abstract thinking (Hurst et al., 2018b; Smith, 2018).
Since humans learn over time, it is quite understandable to rely on the general
knowingness of language as representational without consciously thinking of abstract
symbolism’s complexity to concrete thought. A word, composed of symbolic

51
representation we know of as letters, is a concept that will not typically visually relate to
the intended object’s structure or function. Our understanding level is built on prior
experience, and it is the prior experience that allows meaning to manifest (Fairclough,
2016; Smith, 2018). Philosophers and theologians discuss language’s symbolic nature in
challenging and abstract ways, such as etymology or esoterically, that are not relatable to
the typical person. A more relevant example of the symbolic nature of language is a small
child learning to speak. A toddler sees a cow and says “moo,” a duck and says “quack,” a
pig and says “oink,” and so on. Much like Old MacDonald’s farm, the child refers to
every animal as the sound it makes. A more auditory-visual aligned word for cow would
be “moo” because the noise generated more closely aligns with the mental image than the
seemingly random word “cow,” that we have come to know in the English language. In
French, the same creature is known as “la vache”; “die Kuh” in German; and baqara or
‫ بقرة‬in Arabic. Ultimately, the association we make with the phonetic sounds of “cow,”
“vache,” “Kuh,” or “baqara” marry to our mental image of a creature that generates the
sound “moo.” Each word represents the same creature but is vocalized differently and is
received differently by individuals who either do or do not speak the same language.
Subjectivity comes into play as a visual representation of conceptual meaning that must
be shared by participants (Ochs, 2012; Fairclough, 2016; Gee, 2017). For example, an
American may view the cow as a potential dinner, where a Hindu may see it as a sacred
creature, and a Muslim may not recognize the English alphabet’s structural shapes.
Discourse is the level of language in which symbols through sound are strung
together into words and syntax (Wodak & Meyer, 2016) into a collection of
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conversations that, over time, create meaning (Gee, 2017). Discourse continues over time
until each participant forms a mental impression that becomes ingrained within their
mind based on their interpretation of the exchanges. In theory, each person within the
group will have the same mental image, but that is not necessarily the case because of the
influence of other instances of discourse from previous interactions with other people.
Every conversation has the power to shape our minds, how we think, influence how
others think, and create a level of belief in ourselves (Karawoksky et al., 2017). Much
like the image of a cow is a cow, what we hear and see in the world around us becomes
our truth through repetitive exposure.
Sociolinguist and feminist Robin Lakoff first suggested an individual’s biological
sex as a factor in using language within a short publication titled Language and a
Woman’s Place (Lakoff, 1975). Lakoff outlined what became known as woman’s
register, which describes a communication style that is communal. Arguably the
groundbreaking foundation of gendered sociolinguistic theory, Lakoff’s work has been
heavily criticized due to the positioning the female manner of speech as inferior to that of
men and that male styles of expression are that which are ideal in Western cultures (Hall
& Bucholtz, 1995). Additional criticism has been made based on Lakoff’s lack of
scientific research to form the theoretical framework. Lakoff acknowledged data was
obtained from introspections of her use of language, those around her, and media.
Finally, contemporary researchers noted Lakoff’s writing style took on an air of
hyperbole that was, at times, overly defensive rather than scientific and “embarrassingly
self-indulgent” (Showalter, 1975). Lakoff unwittingly set the stage for future research to
53
position female speech and thereby position women as the lesser sex. Nonetheless,
Lakoff’s observations of the female use of language and the terminology she outlined
within the 1975 publication remain an intricate part of gender sociolinguistics and gender
leadership research.
Lakoff’s successors took steps to create a more scientific approach to collecting
and analyzing linguistic data (Baxter, 2007; Bucholtz, 2005; Butler, 1990; Cameron,
2015; Coats, 2016; Holmes, 1995). Linguist and professor Deborah Tannen (1990)
brought the concept of gendered sociolinguistics to the mainstream’s attention,
laypersons by writing numerous accessibly written books, including You Just Don’t
Understand, to bring light to male/female communication strategies. Tannen included the
phenomenon of gendered discourse in the workplace in Talking from 9 to 5 (Tannen,
1994). More recently, feminist and sociolinguist Judith Baxter applied poststructural
feminist discourse analysis to women’s communication styles in leadership positions,
fully bringing a feminist perspective to understanding women’s language while leading in
organizations (Baxter, 2014, 2015, 2017; Baxter & Al-A’ali, 2014).
Gender
To fully appreciate the intersection of gender, language and leadership, it is
essential to understand the differences between sex and gender. Sex is physical
differences between men and women, such as reproductive systems, that are considered
biological facts (Cox, 2019). Sex is deemed to be binary or bifurcated as male or female,
with the rare exception of hermaphrodites, that possess both male and female
reproductive organs (Roughgarden, 2017). Through evolutionary biology, other

54
observable differences between males and females include physical stature in that men
are typically larger than women and women possess physical structures required for
gestation and nourishment of offspring (Cameron, 2015). Interestingly, it has been
suggested that due to evolutionary biology and the need to reproduce, identifying and
placement into male or female sex categories is the first and foremost effort expended by
the brain when encountering others (Liben & Bigler, 2015).
Gender is considerably more complicated as a combination of nature and nurture.
In addition to cognitive (Bem, 1981) and neurological variations (Cameron, 2015;
Plumlee et al., 2016), Cameron (2015) argues gender is the social, cultural, psychological
constructs that are imposed on each biological sex that suggests gender is binary
alongside sex. Adding to the complexity of gender are the numerous approaches applied
to gender studies. Gender can be applied to social roles, social norms, gender identity,
and gender roles, to name only a few. Each vantage point will add to the overall concept
of gender, but such a multifaceted approach creates disconnected views and meanings of
maleness and femaleness. Gender norms are cultural ideas about how men and women
are supposed to act (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018b). Gender roles are the learned behavior
about how to be a woman or man (Karakowsky et al., 2017). Taken together, the
concepts of gender norms and gender roles oversimplify gender. Gender identity is the
personal and individualistic sense of one’s gender and how it correlates to biological sex
within a given context, situation, or community (Szymanska & Rubin, 2018). The
combination of perception of biological sex and how sex overlays with concepts of
gender categories are the foundation of a person’s social identity (Lortie et al., 2017).
55
Cameron (2015) suggests that gender refers to psychsociocultural constructs imposed on
the normative biological binaries of maleness and femaleness, making gender a learned
system of knowledge that is varied, fluid, attitudinal, and based on an individual’s
interpretation of cultural meaning. More simply and popularly received by the public,
some researchers argue that gender is how children are taught to behave as boy or girl
within a given culture, making gender identity shaped by social categories and
expectations or traits of men and women, typically referred to as masculinity or
femininity (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018a). According to McDowell (2015), how one sees
oneself as a man or woman in gender identity is not something one is born into; it is what
one does.
Gender has been said to be fluid, but the concept of gender as a spectrum is more
accurate. Judith Butler (1990) published her seminal work on gender as performative and
introduced the concept of gender as performed. The performative theory postulates that
gender is fluid (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018b). The term fluidity was applied to mean how
gender is perceived and applied changes as an individual grows older (Butler, 1990).
Infants are unaware of their maleness or femaleness yet play with gender-specific toys
within a few years. Small children will hold hands and hug one another only to one day
find the other sex is repulsive. At the onset of puberty, hormones begin to produce
pronounced physical, mental, and psychological differences in the young male or female
(Cameron, 2015). Changes in gender enactment continue throughout life. For example,
female career development will emphasize varying aspects of work based on her gender
identity in different life phases. At the same time, the hard-nosed, career-driven male may
56
one day soften into a loveable grandfather. To that end, Butler was not suggesting the
fluidity of gender as an idea that we can change our gender preference or gender identity
at will. Gender is wired in the brain as strongly as any other aspect of a person’s
personality (Jenkins & Finneman, 2018); it is the perceptions of how to enact gender that
changes over a lifetime (Butler, 1990).
Much like Butler, Sandra Bem, U. S. psychologist, has contributed considerably
to the body of knowledge regarding gender (Starr & Zurbriggen, 2017). Bem’s (1981)
seminal work adds to the discussion of gender by asserting that in every culture, the
distinction between male and female serves as an organizing method and that assignment
to one sex or another allocates adults to a role based on biological sex, including
culturally anticipated behavior. Bem’s gender schema theory states the phenomenon of
sex-typing arises from a cognitive need, rather than social need, to classify concepts as a
form of processing information, and those concepts are translated into current meaning
based on historical knowledge (Bem, 1981; Liben & Bigler, 2015). Schemas are
cognitive networks of associations that organize and guide an individual’s perception and
serve as a standard to compare their adequacy against the prescribed prototype (Bem,
1981), meaning the human brain requires cognitive processing and structure. Due to
cognitive processing, we are always aware of the sex of those we interact. As a result,
cognitively, we bring to every interaction our familiarity with societal gender stereotypes
and the gendered norms to which women and men are expected to conform (Morgenroth
& Ryan, 2018a; 2018b).

57
Advances in brain sciences help to understand the differences between male and
female brain construction. Leading experts on gender science Michael Gurian and
Barbara Annis (2008, pp. 9-10) note the male and female intelligence is equivalent but
different in many ways:
• How and what men versus women remember,
• how males versus females process words,
• how each sex experiences the world,
• how and what women buy compared to their male counterparts,
• differences in the limbic system and workings of emotional processing, and
• percentage of white and grey matter in the brain
The difference in male/female brain structuring (Cameron, 2015; Plumlee et al.,
2016) is another instance in which the fluidity or spectrum of gender is present in each
person. Reiterating gender and sex are different concepts; there is a limitation to the
English language in discussing male versus female brains. Mavisakalyan (2015) argues
that languages possess gender systems that require linkage with other sentence elements.
Languages fall into one of three categories (a) highly gendered, those with gender
distinction in the first, second, and third person pronoun; (b) mildly gendered, a distinct
third person only pronoun; and (c) gender neutral, those with no gender pronoun. The
impact of gender intensity on the individuals living in and speaking each language is
directly impacted cognitively. Furthermore, gender identity is developed at an earlier age
in speakers of gender-intensive language compared to speakers of other languages.

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Early research labeled agentic traits as masculine since the traits were typically
identified with men and relational traits as feminine as usually associated with women
(Gabriel et al., 2018). The delineation of traits created a binary and bifurcated conceptual
model that does not allow for variation. However, every individual possesses a varying
degree of agentic and communal traits, that places each person on a spectrum of gender.
A man whose tendencies are all “masculine” would possess no compassion, and a woman
who is all “feminine” would possess absolutely no ability to make decisions. The culture
in which individuals are raised will impact each of us to some degree, but gender is also a
part of our DNA (Cameron, 2015; Plumlee et al., 2016). The wiring of gender in
humanity’s DNA explains why women are more nurturing and men are more agentic
across every country regardless of cultural differences. In summary, gender is a complex,
multifaceted phenomenon integrating aspects of cultural, psychological, neurological,
cognitive, and social influences to create an individual interpretation of identity, which
will be enacted differently throughout life.
Leadership Theories
Leadership has been conceptualized from varying perspectives and attempts to
explain effective leadership provide numerous approaches (Gardner et al., 2020; Lee et
al., 2020; Lord et al., 2017; 2020; Vasilescu, 2019). Leadership theory seeks to
understand a particular aspect of leadership and is traditionally classified into trait
theories, behavior and motivation theories, contingency theories, and integrative
leadership theories (Lussier & Achua, 2015). Lord et al. (2017) agree and note that before
World War 1, studies focused on traits theory but gained psychologists’ interest with a
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surge of leadership research conducted in applied psychology beginning with the end of
World War II in 1947.
Before embarking on a review of the many facets of leadership theory, it should
be noted that since leadership theory entered academic consideration in 1900, a unified
definition of leadership has yet to be agreed upon (Ghasabeh et al., 2015; Vasilescu,
2019). The inability of leadership scholars to create a unified theory can be attributed to
leadership being conceptualized in many ways. Some theorists place the leader at the
center of leadership theory. In contrast, others suggest leadership is based on power
sharing between the leader and follower, placing the follower in charge of the leader’s
ability to lead effectively (Siangchokyoo et al., 2020). The reciprocal view of leadership
demonstrates that without followers, leadership is unnecessary and leadership is a
multilevel event taking place at an individual, team, organization, and across groups
(Carter et al., 2020; Epitropaki et al., 2020). Regardless, a working definition of
leadership is necessary. For this study, the definition of leadership is accepted as “a
process whereby an individual influences a group or individual to achieve a common
goal” with an emphasis on influence (Northouse, 2016, p. 6).
Leadership theories appear to branch in many different ways; however, upon
closer examination, each builds upon the other and creates a more holistic view of
workplace relationships, dependencies, and discourse. Early work in trait, behavioral, and
motivation theories by Alford, McClelland, McGregor, and several universities laid a
solid foundation and developed a lexicon for discussing the universality of leadership
(Lussier & Achua, 2015), and applied psychology saw higher numbers of research studies
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focusing on leadership (Lord et al., 2017). Tools were established to measure personality,
leadership ability, and technique (see Blake & Mouton, 1964; Goldberg, 1990; Stodgill,
1974). Trait theory attempted to identify particular attributes possessed by all exceptional
leaders. Behavioral and motivational theory considered the action, behavior, and
motivation of the leader and the follower. While perspectives remained separate, each
complemented and supported. Zaccaro et al. (2018) call the need for an integrated review
of theories due to the many aspects of leadership that should be considered holistically to
identify the ability to lead effectively. By the 1960s, researchers such as Fiedler
introduced contingency theory (Hussain & Hassan, 2015). Later, Weber and Burns
introduced style theory that employs a distinctive way of leading (Vasilscu, 2019) to
classify charismatic and transformational leadership. In the following pages, predominant
and emerging leadership approaches and theories will be reviewed.
Trait Approach
The predominately accepted leadership model before the 1940s; trait theory
asserts the ability to lead as an intrinsic or innate quality possessed from birth, greater
importance than skill, and research attempts to identify particular attributes possessed by
all exceptional leaders (Gottfredson & Reina, 2020). The earliest systematic study of
leadership argued that leaders were born rather than made and suggested leaders could be
identified through innate qualities and characteristics possessed by the famous military,
political, and social leaders (Ghasabeh et al., 2015; Spector, 2016). Leadership research
during the 1840s believed “great” individuals only possessed leadership qualities;
thereby, the term great man theory was coined. The great man theory concept was
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popularized by Thomas Carlyle, who gave a series of lectures, later put into print, on the
role of heroes in shaping history (Spector, 2016). While there were a few notable
exceptions, such as Joan of Arc and Catherine the Great, the great man theory’s key
theme was that each leader was considered extraordinary or exceptional and sent by God
in male form. By today’s standards, Carlyle’s great man theory is often regarded as
offensive due to the apparent belief that God only sent men to lead (Mouton, 2019;
Spector, 2016); however, the lectures were written during the Victorian era and culturally
appropriate to the day. Great man theory remained unchallenged until the 1860s when
Herbert Spencer argued the qualities possessed by and associated with great male leaders
were purely a product of the times and circumstances of leadership (Northouse, 2016),
yet remained intact as the primary leadership theory until the 1930s when researchers
questioned the universal application of the theory. Although seemingly antiquated, the
great man theory is still prevalent in current leadership research reviews (see Ghasabeh et
al., 2015; Hussain & Hassan, 2015; Lord et al., 2017; Mouton, 2019; Shafique & Beh,
2017).
Leadership researchers became interested in which personality traits influenced
those deemed to be the best leaders (Lord et al., 2017). In 1948 Stogdill analyzed 124
trait studies conducted between 1904 and 1947 (Ghasabeh et al., 2015). Stogdill found
that leaders differ from others by possessing eight traits: intelligence, alertness, insight,
responsibility, initiative, persistence, self-confidence, and sociability; however, he also
found a situational component to leadership (Hussain & Hassan, 2015). Stogdill heavily
stressed the situational element, and an individual may step forward as a leader in one
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instance but not another (Northouse, 2016). Mann (1959) conducted a similar study that
examined over 1,400 findings from leadership in small group settings. While Mann’s
results mostly agreed with Stogdill regarding leadership as traits-oriented, less emphasis
was placed on situational and determined intelligence, masculinity, adjustment,
dominance, extraversion, and conservatism were the primary traits of influential leaders.
Stogdill (1974) conducted secondary research, that analyzed 163 new studies and
compared findings to the 1947 results. Stogdill was able to validate his findings from the
original study and renamed or expanded upon characteristics. However, in the 1974
study, Stogdill placed less stress on the situational components. In 1984, Lord and
associates re-evaluated Mann’s 1959 study using meta-analysis. They found that
intelligence, masculinity, and dominance were related to how followers perceived their
leaders, making intelligence, masculinity, and dominance the key traits to leadership
(Ghasabeh et al., 2015). Soon after, Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) conducted a qualitative
synthesis of the earlier research outlined in this section and found that leaders possess:
drive, motivation, integrity, confidence, cognitive ability, and task knowledge, arguing
that leadership traits can be learned, innate, or both.
More recently and potentially influenced by other emerging leadership theories,
Zaccaro et al. (2018) suggest there are foundational leadership traits: cognitive abilities,
extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness, agreeableness, motivation,
social intelligence, self-monitoring, emotional intelligence, and problem solving. Zaccaro
and associates assert that influential leaders possess high cognitive, social, and emotional
intelligence and suggest genetic factors. Adding to Zaccaro’s and team’s research,
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Baczyńska and Rowiński (2015) suggest individual leadership differences can predict
leader effectiveness.
The traits possessed by great leaders have received considerable attention since
the earliest studies of the 1840s (Hussain & Hassan. 2015), and while there is no
universal agreement on all the traits possessed by the best leaders, the primary traits
found across all studies include intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity,
and sociability (Ghasabeh et al., 2015; Northouse, 2016). However, no conversation on
leadership or leadership traits can be had without including Goldberg’s (1990) big-five
theory. Developed from early linguist research, the big-five theory states there are basic
dimensions of personality:
• Neuroticism is the tendency to be depressed, anxious, insecure, vulnerable,
and hostile.
• Extraversion is the tendency to be sociable and assertive and to have positive
energy.
• Openness is the tendency to be informed, creative, insightful, and curious.
• Agreeableness is the tendency to be accepting, conforming, trusting, and
nurturing.
• Conscientiousness is the tendency to be thorough, organized, controlled,
dependable, and decisive.
Although the big-five theory can be applied from a multitude of perspectives, the
well-validated personality inventory remains a mainstay in leadership research. For
example, Connelly et al. (2016) conducted large-sample validation of a set of scales of an

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existing 360-degree personality measure, the LMAP 360 (leadership multi-rater
assessment of personality). They clustered data into underlying themes aligned to the big-
five theory and found LMAP research scales correlated strongly with corresponding
scales from other inventories.
Skills Approach
As with trait theory, skills theory approaches leadership from the individual leader
perspective (Baczyńska & Rowiński, 2015). Where the skills theory differs from trait
theory is the shift to emphasis of innate, largely fixed attributes to skills that can be
learned or grown over time. Arguably the father of skills theory was Robert Katz, who
published his seminal article Skills of an effective administrator in the Harvard Business
Review. Katz (1955) suggested three basic skills assigned to influential leaders or labeled
according to Katz as effective administrators. Katz defined technical skill as the
knowledge or proficiency in a particular type of work, such as accounting. Human skill is
the knowledge and ability to work with people. Finally, conceptual skill is to work with
ideas and concepts. A more simplistic translation is the best leaders have a well-rounded
skill set that includes the ability to understand the overall product (technology), work
with people, and creatively think in terms of ideas over tangibles. For example, strategic
thinking to meet organizational goals requires thinking beyond traditional answers to a
given problem. Katz asserted the importance of each skill varies according to the position
of the leader within the organization. Top management requires a greater emphasis on
human and conceptual skills, but technical skills are less critical. Frontline leaders or
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supervisors require higher technical and human skills but require less conceptual ability,
whereas middle management must be well versed in all three skills.
Skills theory remained little changed until the 1990s when Mumford and his
associates were funded by the U. S. Army and Department of Defense to develop a
comprehensive leadership theory (Northouse, 2016). Mumford and team were provided
access to over 1,800 Army officers at varying levels of leadership. Over many years, the
researchers collected and examined data to explain what factors create effective
leadership. According to Mumford et al. (2000), the components are competencies,
individual attributes, leadership outcomes, career experiences, and environmental
influences. What is essential about the Mumford team’s skills model is the stress on the
leader’s ability, that is shaped by cognitive, environmental, personality, and experiential
conditions. Mumford continued skill research continued into the twenty-first century
through collaboration with other researchers to understand how skills are acquired over
the life of a leader’s career and how skills are transferred or reapplied as the leader moves
from junior positions of authority to senior positions (Day et al., 2014).
Behavioral and Motivation Approaches
Behavioral approaches to leadership aim to understand successful leadership
through what leaders do and how they act and include the leaders’ actions toward their
followers in various environments (Northouse, 2016, Lord et al., 2017). Behavioral
approaches emphasize people versus production, identify the need for both people and
production leaders, and create opportunities for co-leadership (Lussier & Achua, 2015).
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Behavioral theories began to emerge in the latter part of the 1940s through the
efforts of three distinct research and well known groups who, for the first time, suggested
that leadership is not based on a trait. The Ohio State University research team analyzed
how individuals acted when they were leading groups or an organization through the
perspective of followers (Stodgill, 1974). Followers completed a lengthy questionnaire
describing different aspects of leadership behavior. Data from the questionnaire were
gathered for six years from a wide variety of organizational settings. Led by Stogdill, the
Ohio State team found responses clustered into two general leadership behaviors (a)
initiating structure or task-oriented and (b) consideration, that is relationship oriented. In
a separate study, the University of Michigan’s approach to leadership behavior took a
different approach as Likert and team (1961) focused attention on the impact of the
leader’s performance in small groups. Although applying different terminology,
Michigan identified two orientations that are remarkably similar to the Ohio State
findings. The University of Michigan coined the terms production oriented, closely
aligning with initiating structure or task-oriented and employee oriented, similar to
consideration or relationship oriented. The notable difference between the two
universities was their original view of the interdependence of the two behaviors. In the
opinion of the Ohio State researchers, the behaviors were independent of one another.
Initially, the University of Michigan viewed the behaviors to be on a continuum;
however, later agreed with the Ohio State assertion of the separateness of the behaviors.
The benefit of independence of the behaviors is the ability to adjust each without losing
the emphasis on the other. Finally, the managerial grid of the early 1960s, that has been
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trademarked as the leadership grid, is possibly the most well known and widely used
behavioral theory. Developed by Blake and Mouton (1964), concern for production or
task-oriented behavior and concern for people or relationship oriented behavior is placed
on a grid to demonstrate how leaders help organizations reach their goals. The two
former studies list the behaviors from a low to high or two tiered model; the grid adds a
third or middle tier that provides an option for middle ground. While each study and
model that emerged added positively to leadership theory overall, each contributed to the
perception that to be a great, effective leader, one must rank high in all tasks and
relationships.
Other well-recognized theories focused on behavior and motivation include
McClelland’s achievement motivation theory (McClelland, 1961) that aimed to explain
and predict behavior and performance based on an individual’s need for achievement,
power, or affiliation, and McGregor’s theory X and theory Y that attempted to explain
and predict leadership behavior based on leaders’ attitudes about followers (Lussier &
Achua, 2015; McGregor, 2006). However, the motivation theory most relevant to the
study was the Pygmalion effect.
The Pygmalion effect suggests leaders’ attitudes toward followers’ expectations,
and their treatment of followers explains and predicts the followers’ behavior and
motivation (Good et al., 2018). Developed by Rosenthal (1995), the Pygmalion effect
suggests a high expectation established for an individual will cause the individual to rise
to the occasion and perform at a higher level. The Pygmalion effect is often used
interchangeably with self-fulfilling prophecy. However, the Pygmalion effect refers to a

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specific type of self-fulfilling prophecy (Belasen & Belasen, 2017). Raising the
manager’s expectations of worker’s performance increases employee performance by
creating a favorable climate, input, output, and feedback. First suggested by Merton in
1948, a self-fulfilling prophecy (Karakowsky et al., 2017) manifests when a vision or
prophecy impacts an individual’s beliefs at such a deep level the person rises to the
occasion to achieve the foretold vision or prophecy. Similar to path-goal theory, the
Pygmalion effect is rooted in Vroom’s expectancy theory, which is an individual’s belief
or perception of their ability to achieve the desired outcome (Duan et al., 2017). There is
a level of interpersonal expectancy innate to leader-follower relationships, and the
Pygmalion-at-work model suggests a complementary nature of self-fulfilling prophecy in
that a manager’s high (or low) expectation creates a subtle and unconscious change in the
way the leader treats the follower (Khorakian & Sharifirad, 2019; Zaccaro et al., 2018).
In the organizational setting, the Pygmalion effect becomes a motivational
phenomenon initiated by the high-performance expectations held by a leader who
believes his or her followers’ capacity for success. In recent studies, the Pygmalion effect
has been highly linked to transformational leadership styles (Anderson & Sun, 2017;
Duan et al., 2017). Critics of studies surrounding the Pygmalion effect argue against the
use of intentional interpersonal contrasting. Leader implicit followership theory (LIFT)
suggests cognitive categories leaders have regarding followers’ traits and behaviors
before realizing experience (Khorakian & Sharifirad, 2019). Much like stereotypes,
LIFTs are the mind’s strategy to streamline the complexity of our daily interactions;
LIFTs help us make sense of what we see, interpret, understand, and respond to
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followers. Not surprisingly, LIFTs are much like dominos; activating one tends to prompt
more. Interpersonal contrasts occur by noting a difference between individuals and
potentially creating bias, for example, suggesting to a leader someone is more promising
(while not explicitly stating others are not). Interpersonal contrasts assert the mere
suggestion of worth or otherwise immediately and permanently taint the leader’s
perception and create a disadvantage for anyone within a control group setting. However,
the perception of the leader regarding the followers’ ability may change over time. As
evidenced by research exploring the Pygmalion effect, how a leader interprets the leader-
follower interpersonal dynamics shapes the leader’s judgment and behavior toward the
associate, which creates changes within the employee, allowing the leader to reshape time
after time what they think about the employee. LIFTS tend to color the manager’s
expectations for the follower, which influences interaction and creates the employee’s
Pygmalion effect.
Contingency or Situational Approaches
The third dominant leadership paradigm emerged in the 1960s, and as the name
suggests, contingency or situational theories support the idea leaders need to change
behavior based upon the situation. Situational leadership is prescriptive and suggests that
leadership is composed of both directive and supportive dimensions, each of which must
be appropriately applied dependent upon the situation (Ghasabeh et al., 2015; Hershey,
1985). In essence, the approach suggests that followers fall along a continuum of
development and directive needs. According to the theory, leaders must continuously
identify where each follower lies along that continuum and provide the proper guidance
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or support for their continued growth and success (Hersey & Blanchard, 1969a; Hersey &
Blanchard, 1969b; Hussain & Hassan, 2015). Although there are numerous contingency
theories, the common theme is the emphasis between the leader and the follower. The
theories provided a more prescriptive view of leadership than earlier theories descriptive
view; models were developed along with theories to assist leaders in identifying
appropriate leadership styles. Theories also considered variables such as (a) leader:
personality traits, behavior, and experience; (b) followers: capability and motivation; and
(c) situation: task, structure, and position power. The field produced many popular
theories, with the earliest work being that of Fiedler’s contingency theory (Fiedler, 1967;
Shafique & Beh, 2017), which identified the leader style, assessed the situation, and
matched leaders according to the situation. Fiedler believed leaders should change the
situation, not their style. If the organization was not a good fit, then move elsewhere.
Fiedler laid the groundwork for subsequent theories moving the field of leadership
research forward.
Path-Goal Theory
Path-goal theory takes the contingent or situational approach to leadership by
emphasizing the relationship between the leader and the follower. Developed by Mitchell
and House (A. Phillips & C. Phillips, 2016; Plumlee et al., 2016), the leader’s role is to
clear the path from obstacles for the follower to reach predetermined goals. In reaching
goals, the employee is then rewarded and becomes more motivated to achieve new goals.
For example, an employee who is motivated by achievement or a need to excel is best led
through frequent challenges, while an individual who needs higher affiliation is best
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guided in a supportive manner. The path-goal theory differs from skills and behavior
theories, that place the leader at the center of attention by shifting focus to the employee’s
needs.
Leader-Member Exchange Theory
Similar to path-goal theory, the relationship between leader and employee is
focal; however, the leader-member exchange theory (LMX) considers the interactions
between leaders and followers (Duan et al., 2017) and is the second most studied
leadership theory (Carter et al., 2020). Originally called vertical dyad linkage (Kim et al.
2020), the LMX theory suggests a linkage or relationship between the leader and follower
in one of two forms. Members of the in-group benefit from a better relationship with the
leader and receive more information, care, and support; whereas members of the out-
group are excluded from information sharing, support, and nurture from their leader,
making them less confident and successful (Carter et al. 2020; Epitropaki et al. 2020;
Khorakian & Sharifirad, 2019). LMX does not suggest a one-size-fits-all approach to the
in-group and out-group designation. Each LMX relationship is unique, and the extent an
employee feels included or excluded from the group will vary, but the leader determines
the invitational categoricity. Research has shown a high LMX improves employee well-
being (Rudolph et al. 2020), the follower’s self-efficacy is increased (Khorakain &
Sharifirad, 2019), and high performance is achieved (Vasilescu, 2019).
Transactional, Transformational, and Laisse-Faire Leadership
During the 1970s, integrative theories emerged to combine trait, motivation,
behavioral, and contingency models to create a more holistic picture of effective leaders.
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Popularly recognized integrative theories are transactional and transformational
leadership. Transactional leaders are focused on meeting company directives, whereas
transformational leaders focus on the needs of the individual (Carter et al., 2020). The
term transformational leadership was first coined by Downton (1973) and has risen to
become one of the most popular leadership theories to date and the most widely studied
form of leadership (Carter et al., 2020). Burns, writer and authority on leadership studies,
laid out a new leadership concept that separated leadership styles as transforming and
transactional and moved leadership theories beyond pure traits. Since the concepts were
first introduced by Burns (1979) more than four decades ago, much has been written
about the use of transactional, transformational, and laisse-faire leadership. According to
Burns, leadership is an aspect of power with the ability to motivate others to achieve
specific goals held by the leader. Burns believed that leadership involved both the leader
and follower’s wants and needs, that can be seen in two distinct ways. First, transactional
leadership can be considered the historical form of leadership with an economic
exchange of money for services by the employee’s ability to meet specific goals or
standards, such as quota or customer satisfaction ratings. Transforming leadership moves
past exchange to engagement to generate associates increased levels of motivation and
commitment. Burns presented a compelling argument for a heightened level of morals
within an organization led by a transforming leader as he stated, “…transforming
leadership ultimately becomes moral in that it raises the level of human conduct and
ethical aspiration of both leader and led, and thus it has a transforming effect on both.”
(Burns, p. 382). In 1985, Bass presented a similar model of leadership based on Burns’
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work. Bass (1999) suggested the nature of work, and thereby leadership, required a
change from transactional to include transformational leadership due to changes in the
market place, automation, and an increase in educated professionals. Rather than a single,
educated leader, entire teams of well-educated individuals became commonplace
resulting in flatter organizations with less hierarchy and created a need for people to be
motivated by means other than economics. Additional arguments suggested the nature of
work changed when Baby Boomers rejected their parents hard work as materialistic
values that stemmed from the poverty of two World Wars and the Great Depression
(Ferree & Hess, 2002). Ferree and Hess go on to assert the prosperity that followed post-
war America allowed for the entrance of women in the workforce ultimately placed
greater emphasis on social relationships within the confines of work due to the relational,
nurturing force of women entered to the workforce. In Bass’ model, transactional
leadership works by providing rewards contingent on performance making the
clarification of goals and standards important and intervening only if there is a failure to
achieve success criteria (Ghasabeh et al., 2015). Conversely, transformational leaders
elevates the follower to align with the leader’s vision, goals and objectives through
charisma, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation. Charismatic
leadership is placed at the center of the transformational model by assuming followers
will want to be like and act like the dynamic, charismatic leader. Bass and Burns agreed
charismatic leadership creates a domino effect where the positive, elevated (or lowered)
expectation of the leader effects employees’ overall performance (Bass et al., 1987;
Burns, 1979). Much like the Pygmalion effect outlined by Rosenthal (1995),
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transformational leaders appear to have the ability to create environments where
employees can rise above previous expectations merely because of the belief of the leader
in them (Good et al., 2018).
Bass and Burns disagree about the either/or nature of transformational and
transactional leadership (Bass et al., 1987; Burns, 1979). Burns’ model argued that
leaders possess one style or the other. Bass’s model suggested that both transactional and
transformational leadership are necessary and used by influential leaders. According to
Bass, transactional leadership identifies goals, objectives, and clear success criteria;
transformational leaders increase commitment, loyalty, and performance. Transactional
leadership can induce stress, but transformational leadership helps everyone to deal with
stress.
In summary, transformations, transactional, and laisse-faire possess different
dimensions that result in differences in work performance, satisfaction, and overall trust
(Bass et al., 1987):
Dimensions of Transactional Leadership.
• Contingent rewards are provided in exchange for services rendered based on
performance goals or predefined expectations.
• Active management by exception occurs when the leader provides guidance
only when associates fail to meet standards or expectations.
• Passive management by exception takes place when the leader only intercedes
when there is a problem.
Dimensions of Transformational Leadership.

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• Inspirational motivation occurs when the leader envisions a future and
provides a solution for reaching the desired future state.
• Idealized behavior is displayed when the leader sets and lives by example,
high standards, conviction, and confidence.
• The leader provides intellectual stimulation in allowing followers to solve
problems without fear of negative repercussions for failure, thereby
facilitating intellectual growth opportunities.
• Individual consideration is paid by the leader to associates’ developmental
needs, provides support or coaching, and delegates tasks to the employee’s
overall growth.
Dimensions of Laisse-Faire Leadership.
• Lack of management is the sole dimension as the leader fails to provide any
direction in any form, whether it be positive or negative interventions (Martin,
2015).
Twenty years after presenting transformational and transactional leadership
concepts, Bass returned to discuss each style’s impact on organizations and discussed the
overlap and separateness of other existing theories (Bass, 1999). Bass found that
transformational leadership includes a wide array of factors that positively influence
followers. Furthermore, Bass suggested transformational leadership relates to Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs (c. 1943) by creating a space where followers’ basic needs are met and
allow for growth beyond the need for safety, relies on a leader-member exchange through
the dyadic nature of leader and follower to increase loyalty, trust, and respect, and effects
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moral and personal development by the leader’s observation of need and providing of
opportunities to grow through professional and personal development.
Transformational leadership involves the leader’s ability to motivate others
through a sense of morality and attempts to help others reach their highest potential.
Transformational leadership and charismatic leadership theory have been argued to be
synonymous in that each theory suggests that leaders must possess a set of dynamic
personality characteristics, behaviors, and effect on followers that, much like the
Pygmalion effect, causes the followers to rise beyond what they thought possible (Good
et al., 2018). Transformational leadership styles have been shown to increase team
performance, job satisfaction and increase trust among team members (Khorakian &
Sharifirad, 2019). Bass (1999) stated several studies showed that women tend to be
somewhat more transformational than males more recent research agrees (Morgenroth &
Ryan, 2018a; 2018b). Bass questioned the validity of women as better leaders due to a
possible performance bias that creates the need for women to work harder to perform
equally to men or the implicit desire of followers to see their female leaders succeed and
report performance with a level of unintended leniency. More recent research supports
the suggestion that leadership attributes associated with transactional leadership style
align with stereotypical male traits, and transformational leadership favors stereotypical
female characteristics (Powell & Butterfield, 2015). The alignment of gender and
leadership will be discussed at length later in this chapter; however, it is worth
mentioning leadership research has begun to acknowledge the positive relationship
between female and transformational behavior, and future studies will continue to support
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the qualities of an effective leader identified by skill rather than biological sex (Powell,
2012) and challenge presumptive bifurcated differences in gendered leadership (Baxter,
2015).
Integrative and Emerging Leadership Theories
There has been a significant increase in the number of scholarly research studies
on leadership in the last decade. Lee et al. (2020) conducted a qualitative study of
leadership theories from the top ten leadership journals to identify emergent theories. The
team suggested the following thematic categories have emerged: transformational
leadership, LMX theory, implicit leadership theories, charismatic leadership, and
complexity leadership. Over recent years, many leadership theories have begun to appear,
exist in varying formulation stages, and are arguably extensions of transformational
leadership. For example, authentic leadership asserts a leader must be genuine,
transparent, and moral. Once again, there lacks a single unified definition of authentic
leadership or how it is conducted. Still, researchers have determined four significant
components of authentic leadership: (a) an internalized moral perspective, (b) relational
transparency, (c) self-awareness, and (d) balanced processing or self-regulation
(Anderson & Sun, 2017). The theory began in response to highly publicized abuse of
leadership in public, private, and governmental sectors, that created a societal cry for
leaders who care about others and lead from a more altruistic position (Northouse, 2016).
Servant leadership originated through Greenleaf’s works during the 1970s and
has been of interest for over 40 years (Anderson & Sun, 2017). The essence of servant
leadership is an individual enters into leadership out of a need to serve others, and
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through the desire to place the needs of the follower first, the follower thrives. Although
there are varying tenants and theories about servant leadership, consistent is the spiritual
thread of service. Greenleaf (2014) based his original work on his observations of
Hermann Hesse’s novel Journey to the East (c. 1956), in which a servant provides
inspiration and motivation to a group of travelers and ultimately inspires the group
onwards through selfless care. More recently, Blanchard and Hodges’ (2003) popular
book titled The Servant Leader utilized Jesus of Nazareth’s life as a guideline for
leadership. Regardless of which approach is followed, servant leadership continues to
gain acceptance as more and more leaders are seeking ways to bring more purpose and
meaning to their work experience. Mindfulness leadership brings an additional spiritual
component of leadership by utilizing a Buddhist philosophy to focus on meditation and
breath to increase listening skills, decision-making capacity, reduce stress and increase
self-regulation (Bunting, 2016; Vich, 2015).
Leadership Psychodynamics Theory
The psychodynamic approach to leadership theory focuses on human behavior
dynamics and acknowledges people are unique and complicated with layers of
motivational drivers (Bass, 1990). Psychodynamics was first applied to leadership theory
by Freud and Strachey (1922) but was primarily discussed from a political leadership
framework rather than leadership within work-related organizations. More closely
aligned with the context of work, the clinical paradigm of psychodynamic theory argues
there is a logical explanation behind every human act, even if it seems irrational, and we
are products of past experiences that continue throughout life (Northouse, 2016).
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To conclude a review of leadership theory, while many theories have been
discussed, the concept of leadership has moved from transactional approaches that
focused on getting the job done to focus on leader attributes, concern for the employee,
and combinations thereof, to a progression towards an integrative and, at times, spiritual
approach to leadership. What can be gleaned from emerging theories is twofold.
Negatively, there is an unrealistic pressure and expectation on leaders to be all things to
all people, internal and external to their followers, organization, or cause. Positively,
there is an acknowledgment that companies and organizations are composed of human
beings with wants, needs, and desires.
Gender, Language and Leadership at Work
Before proceeding with a discussion on the intersectionality of gender, language
and leadership, two concepts must be clarified. First, references to male versus female
leadership variations or tendencies have been discussed in generalities only. Second,
what is perceived as appropriate behavior for each sex varies across culture, individual
interpretation, and social groups (Cameron, 2015).
After an extensive review of literature on gender, language and leadership, the
advantages and limitations of each appear to have added to the perception of separateness
or conflict between femininity and leadership. First, the English language creates a
bifurcated and polarized view of gender, asserting that one is male or female (Liben &
Bigler, 2015). Languages can possess full, partial, or bifurcated gender connotations, and
the extent of grammatical gender reference may have salient social and cognitive
consequences for comprehension and production (Gabriel et al., 2018; Motschenbacher,

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2016). Second, social expectations inform the individual of the appropriate behavior of
maleness or femaleness (Motschenbacher, 2016). Early research placed men at the center
of leadership studies (Northouse, 2016; Spector, 2016). However, gendered leadership
research has failed to move past the assumption that leadership is solely focused on the
male leader (Martin, 2015). It has been argued the need to assert the biological sex of
women as a focal point to research, leadership, or otherwise, creates an unintended
separateness or otherness from their male counterparts and further emphasizes differences
(Alcoff, 1997; Cundiff et al., 2018).
Historically, the concept of leadership has been gendered. The very notion of
authority has been associated with maleness simply because of the male appearance as a
strong and commanding presence (Constantinople, 1973). Heighten by the great man
theory (Spector, 2016) and early trait theory, the physique was identified as a leadership
trait due to robust male leaders’ predominance (Bernard, 1928; Kohs & Irle, 1920). By
extension, normative masculine ways have become associated with leadership roles,
while normative feminine behavior has been associated with leadership in communal or
relational attributes (Motschenbacher, 2016). Contributors to biological sex differentiator
of leadership can be attributed to a binary limitation of the English language regarding
maleness and femaleness (Jenkins & Finneman, 2018). Adding to the perception of the
maleness of leadership is the separate spheres ideology, which suggests men and women
perform best in distinct aspects of society. Separate spheres ideology (SSI) is a system of
belief that (a) gender differences in society are innate, rather than culturally or
situationally created; (b) these inherent differences lead men and women to participate in
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different spheres of society freely; and (c) gendered differences in participation in public
and private spheres are natural, inevitable, and desirable (Miller & Borgida, 2016, p. 34).
What is often missed or omitted by research is SSI asserts a separate-but-equal role of
sexes and highlights women have always been in leadership roles within the communal
sphere. SSI argues women function best in communal, nurturing roles while men are
most comfortable outside the home. For either sex to navigate in the sphere of the other
creates role incongruity due to misalignment between the prescriptive and descriptive
ideologies of appropriate behaviors, which both the individual and the follower feel.
To demonstrate the perception of normative gender qualities associated with each
sex, in her classic research on perceived normative masculine and feminine traits,
Constantinople (1973) found the traits associated with men/masculinity include
competitive, aggressive interruptions, confrontational, direct, autonomous, dominates
talking time, task-oriented, and referentially oriented. In the same study, Constantinople
stated traits associated with women/femininity are facilitative, supportive feedback,
conciliatory, indirect collaborative, minor public contribution, person/process-oriented,
and affectively oriented. By extension, male and female leadership performative
expectations have followed the same gendered guidelines. Hurst et al. (2016) suggested
an influence of the Industrial Revolution on the male psyche as men moved from the
farmlands into the cities. The pressures of manhood compounded with media depiction of
men who went from rags to riches to attain the American Dream. The Industrial
Revolution saw a transformation in manufacturing through the invention of machinery
that could work day and night. Hurst and peers asserted the Revolution created a “man as
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machine” mentality in the United States, which demanded the belief if machines did not
rest, neither should the men who created them. They suggested the man as machine
ideology remains ingrained in the male culture within the States.
According to Cox (2019), patriarchy is the structuring of society in which men
have primary responsibility for the family unit. In feminism, the concept is often
extended to include male responsibility for the community or the public sphere as a
whole. Males are taught from birth an expectation to perform as providers for the family
unit, that places extreme emphasis and pressure on the male work-life as a component of
their masculine identity (Farrell, 1993; Goldberg, 2009). The expectation has been, a man
will begin his career upon completing his education, if not sooner, and provide the bulk
of financial stability for all of his dependents (McDowell, 2015), including his spouse.
Due to the expectation of financial support, men’s careers are linear and continual with
the occasional break for family holidays and rare illness where women tend to take roles
based on need or opportunity rather than a predetermined career path (Hurst et al., 2016;
Hurst et al., 2017, 2018a, 2018b). Male children are taught through parenting, society, or
media to be hierarchical, and the ideal male is successful, strong, and dominant in all
areas including against other men (Goldberg, 2009). Due to the combined pressures as a
provider and emphasis on being on top, the CEO for an American Fortune 500 company
seems to be the position that leadership, including gendered leadership research, strives to
reach. What is often not discussed in research or media are the many obstacles facing any
individual seeking such a role, including the willingness to uproot the family unit to
pursue career advancement or the extreme pressure, self-sacrifice, and relentless drive
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that is placed on the individual who attempts to reach executive levels. On average, CEOs
must exert 24 years of unbroken work (Bothko et al., 2018). Much like their male
counterparts, a study conducted on the path of senior female leaders revealed, each
female attaining the position of CEO acknowledged a reliance and credit to the love and
support of their partner/spouse who sacrificed a career to serve as a caregiver in favor of
the CEOs (Moor et al., 2015). Given 23% of women in the United States are single
parents (Bureau, 2016), the likelihood of managing the needs of home and work demands
of an upwardly mobile career becomes limited. Women’s careers are often directed by
outside influences such as childrearing and caretaking of family members (Carli & Eagly,
2016). Hurst et al. (2016) concluded that many women are unwilling to make the
necessary sacrifices to attain more senior-level positions.
The causes for female failure to step into senior leadership roles have resulted in
catchphrases like “sticky floor,” “glass ceiling,” “leaking pipeline” and “labyrinth” (Carli
& Eagly, 2016), suggesting an external force or barrier prohibits female advancement. A
review of trait theory of leadership noted that while no universal list exists, self-
confidence and determination were agreed upon by all research studies (Northouse, 2016)
as a mandatory component of career growth. A reasonable argument to the lack of
women in senior leadership roles may be women’s lack of self-confidence or the negative
reinforcement women receive if perceived by other women as self-confident or boastful
(Baxter, 2015, 2017). The expectation to lead is likely another factor due to a varying
level of emphasis on their job throughout their career (Hurst et al., 2018a). Research has
shown that the number one reported barrier between women and the C-suite is that
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women are held to a higher standard than men (Hurst et al., 2016). The unspoken
implication is the high standard is reserved for men against women. However, Hurst et al.
(Hurst et al., 2016; Hurst et al., 2017, 2018a, 2018b) conducted a series of four studies
structured in gender equity that placed importance on fairness for all rather than females
alone. Although the women surveyed explicitly stated they held the exact expectations
for male and female leaders, their implicit expectations revealed otherwise (Hurst et al.,
2017). In short, their findings showed women made allowances in favor of men for
leadership style and reported lower expectations compared to a female leader.
Conversely, the study found an implicit expectation on the part of female followers that
their female leader would provide emotional support, compassion, allow for personal life
demands, and act as an advocate, role model, or big sister. In another study, the authors
found that women do not perform consistently through their career; instead, they favor a
kaleidoscope career which emphasizes different aspects of relational components of work
in the form of balance, challenge, and authenticity (Hurst et al., 2018a). Emphasis on a
challenging career typically comes early when the female’s family needs are low, balance
is the focus of mid-career to meet professional needs and family demands, and
authenticity that is focused later in the career to be “true to oneself”; however, men are
not afforded this privilege as expected benefactor to the family at large. Finally, Hurst et
al. (2017) found that women expected their female leaders to treat them as equal rather
than subordinate, an expectation they did not place on their male leaders.
While there has been a considerable amount of research on the impacts of gender
on women and career progression, far less research has been conducted on men as leaders
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other than to suggest male privilege and domination. Fortunately, there does appear to be
a slight shift in the dialog regarding gender. Founder and CEO of 20-First Consulting, a
UK-based consulting firm dedicated to creating gender-balanced organizations,
Wittenberg-Cox (2016) acknowledged men’s lives have changed significantly and, to
reach a balance in the workplace, challenges facing men must be addressed. Wittenberg-
Cox argued, while gender biases do hold back women at work, men who take time off for
family needs may be more harshly penalized than women. Gloor and peers (2018) agree
with Wittenberg-Cox as their research found. However, men were offered comparable
paternity leave; they tended not to take as much, if any time, unless supported or
encouraged by their immediate peer group and supervisor.
The nature of work is changing. Arguments have been made about the social and
psychological impact on women leading in male dominated work cultures; however, it
should be noted there are female dominated workplaces in that men are far less
represented and are often perceived as less than, separate or other due to the role
incongruity between perceptions of masculinity, the work being performed alongside the
linguistic strategies used by males within feminine work roles. McDowell (2015) used an
interactional sociolinguistic framework to examine male nurses’ interactions, that is
typically considered a role held by women. McDowell found male-nurses often take on
feminine strategies to perform their roles and maintain a relational practice. Martin
(2015) conducted a meta-analysis of 163 leadership studies and found while concepts of
leadership are becoming more androgynous, leaders are still perceived as possessing
masculine traits.
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Interestingly, the summation has been, while masculinity remains the ideal leader,
the concept of masculinity is decreasing as time passes. Although there is targeted
research on women as leaders, much of what is known of the male leader is assumed or
implied. Still, there is a perceived incongruity between the leadership role and the
feminine role ascribed to women, such as communal attributes that characterize females
rather than the agentic qualities attributed more strongly to men and expected of leaders
(Baxter, 2015).
Attempts to uncouple the concept of gender as female and leadership as male has
been made by researchers such as Girdauskiene and Eyvazzade (2015) and Martin (2015)
who argue the framework of female leaders closely aligns with the positive attributes of
transformational leadership. Mavisakalyan (2015) attempted to address the use of
pronominal (sex specific) adjectives in research and evaluated feminist scholars’
argument that sex-based grammatical systems reinforce traditional conceptions of gender
roles as contributors to the disadvantage of women in labor markets and career outcomes.
In an empirical study, Motschenbacher (2016) discussed the challenges of structural
gender linguistics within the field of language and gender. Motschenbacher noted
problems arose when revised editions of literature were re-released while heavily relying
on former, outdated materials presented as new or updated. The study questioned the
scholarly use of language, in research and other written forms, as static representations of
meaning that can be codified. Additional challenges were made to the application of the
feminization of language in conceptual models where bifurcated structures of male and
female mark male as positive and female as unfavorable. In short, Motschenbacher

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argued words change meaning over time, and research has the onus to change with rather
than resting on antiquated ideology.
Although there is nominal literature on male-specific language usage in leadership
discourse, analysis of women’s language at work has continued to gain ground and has
been applied from varying perspectives. The late Judith Baxter conducted many CDA
studies in the sociolinguistic subdiscipline of gender, language and leadership (Baxter,
2007; 2011; 2014; 2015; 2017). Baxter (2015) found in leadership workplace discourse
(a) men are hierarchical; (b) women are both egalitarian and competitive; (c) females in
mixed groups use subtle forms of sexuality to interact with males and (d) women block
other women from becoming a leader. Additional work by Baxter (2017) includes a study
of a senior female leader in an engineering company whose gendered communication
style is overly aggressive. Cameron (2015) argued sex/gender differences in language are
evolutionary forms of power and are meta-narratives. McDowell (2015) approached
gender, language and leadership from the male perspective and found males employed in
traditionally feminine jobs take on discursive behavior classified as “feminine” speech.
To conclude, this section returns to the beginning; concepts of masculine
leadership and feminine leadership are variable and dependent upon internal and external
influences. As concepts of gender and leadership are changing, so should the lexicon
applied to effective leadership. Discussions regarding gender equality in leadership
would do well to replace concepts of feminine and masculine with transformational and
transactional leadership theories. A replacement of terminology would potentially help

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shift the cognitive implications and internalizations of messages on male and female
leaders alike.
Summary
There has been a significant body of research conducted since the 1960s to
understand the challenges women face in the confines of work. As a result, sociolinguists
began investigating the dynamic intersectionality of gender, language and leadership
within the confines of work, and the sociolinguistic subdiscipline of gender, language and
leadership emerged in the mid-1960s. Over time, feminism and feminist theory
transferred the term gender to be synonymous with female (Cox, 2019), resulting in
studies that considered gender and leadership to focus solely on women leaders (Baxter,
2015, 2017; Baxter & Al-A’ali, 2014; Jenkins & Finneman, 2018).
This project aimed to help identify the language used in gendered leadership
research that may shape and influence beliefs about each sex (Gabriel et al. 2018;
Hansson et al., 2019; Liben & Bigler; 2015). The study aimed to fill a gap in
understanding by investigating gendered leadership research as potentially reinforcing
perceptions of gender inequality between female and male leaders through the language
selection used in the text (Gee, 2017). I identified the RQ of, “What discursive messages
regarding gender, performance, and power are found in gender leadership research text?”
The project’s goal was to help contribute to positive social change by assisting gendered
leadership researchers to consider utilizing frameworks and models outside of female-
oriented feminist theory. As such, I reviewed the facets of leadership, gender, and
language was discussed. I began Chapter 2 with a review of feminism and feminist theory
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as a crucial influence on the emerging literature and research on gender, language and
leadership. The chapter then reviewed the literature on theories regarding gender,
language and leadership individually and then a review of literature on the
intersectionality of gender, language and leadership. Through the intersection of gender,
language and leadership, differences in the perception of power and performance
assigned to the binary sex of male and female emerged. The Chapter concluded with a
review of CDA as a theoretical framework and will be discussed as a methodology in the
following chapter. Additionally, Chapter 3 outlines the specifics of the study and methods
to be utilized.
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Chapter 3: Research Method
Introduction
Throughout Chapters 1 and 2, the problem identified was insufficient analysis on
the language used in gender leadership research, which has a direct or indirect impact on
the researcher’s and the reader’s perception of female and male leaders within the context
of work. The purpose of the study was to examine discursive messages used in gendered
leadership research text and to explore the phenomenon of word usage and language
structure applied to research text. The study applied the follwoing RQ: What discursive
messages regarding gender, performance, and power are found in gender leadership
research text? Chapter 3 includes the research design and rationale for the application of
qualitative CDA used in the study, the methodology employed for collection and analysis
of the data, potential threats to validity, how threats were addressed to minimize risks,
ethical issues, and how those ethical issues were managed. As noted in Chapter 2,
discourse analysis is a process to examine the relationship between the written or spoken
word and the word’s meaning or implications, that ultimately shape, sustain, or change
specific social patterns (Hansson et al., 2019). CDA, developed by Fairclough (2016),
served as a theoretical framework and methodology and was applied in tandem as one
informs the other (Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017; Wodak & Meyer, 2016). I discussed CDA as
a theoretical framework in Chapter 2 and applied CDA as the methodological model in
the study outlined within this chapter.

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Research Design and Rationale
The following RQ guided this study to explore the phenomenon of gendered
leadership research as an actor and active participant in written messages communicated
through the selection of word usage and the possible creation of themes of power,
performance, and gender:
• RQ: What discursive messages regarding gender, performance, and power are
found in gender leadership research text?
The design of the study was qualitative and was conducted as a CDA of existing
literature available in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals on gender and leadership.
Although a quantitative approach to text would have been possible by computer-assisted
methods (see Stubbs, 2018), the approach was discarded due to limitations as purely
counting the frequency of variables. Focusing on “what” and “how many,” quantitative
research would not have provided the level of intimacy with text afforded by a qualitative
research approach (see Gee, 2017). Content analysis was considered as a mixed method
approach but was determined to be subpar due to the methodological approach of
predetermination of search words or phrases for analysis, that would have significantly
limited insights gained through repetitive reading of the text (McBee-Black & Ha-
Brookshire, 2020). Instead, qualitative research aims to understand how a specific
phenomenon affects the people involved, either individually or as a group (Ravitch &
Carl, 2016).
Furthermore, the qualitative approach leaned hermeneutically as an iterative
approach to understand the experiential aspects of everyday life. Qualitative research

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acknowledges and demands awareness of the researcher as an active component of design
and execution. I noted that all research, regardless of rigor of structure, contains bias
through the multitude of choices made due to beliefs, interests, and assumptions making
innate in language whereas quantitative studies do not question the role of research
composition in outcomes (Gee, 2014a, 2014b). Therefore, the qualitative design made for
the most appropriate study design for questioning the role of text as an actor capable of
influencing the reader and writer. Finally, the qualitative research design was consistent
with understanding stylized text’s effects in written discourse (see Gee, 2017) to identify
instances when text was used as a linguistic strategy to position gender in discourse (see
Baxter, 2015, 2017).
The methodological approach to this study leveraged CDA. Although I
considered other approaches, CDA was the most appropriate for this study due to the
multiple ways and perspectives text could be examined, which created the opportunity for
a broader understanding of the social phenomenon of gender in leadership research and
allowed for a more robust understanding of shared experience (Fairclough, 2016). For
example, another analyst could conduct a similar study on leadership by considering race
or socioeconomic status by analyzing messages on race and power and performance
rather than this study’s chosen focus on gender, power, and performance. CDA allowed
the choice to examine a limited number of discursive messages for a narrower focus on
the text and facilitated attendance to the primary research question: What discursive
messages regarding gender, performance, and power are found in gender leadership
research text? Poststructural feminist discourse analysis was initially considered for the
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study. Still, it was discarded due to its mandate to place women at the focal point of
research, and I wished to address the question of gender in leadership beyond the female
perspective (see Baxter, 2015, 2017; Motschenbacher, 2016).
Furthermore, CDA places emphasis on the innate nature of language’s ability to
change over time and take on new meaning, and stresses the intertextuality of words that
connotates each person draw on historical or prior knowledge to make sense in their
current space (Fairclough, 2016; Wodak & Meyer, 2016). Different social understandings
of the world lead to various social actions, and therefore, the social construction of
knowledge and truth has social consequences. Also, the application of CDA aims to
understand how social power could enact, reproduce, or abuse through the use of
language (van Dijk et al., 2018). CDA was used to shed light on visible and invisible
themes within the written text, that may reinforce perceptions of gender inequality in the
workplace through the sequencing of topics, word selection, sentence structure, or
omission of data. Repetitive invisible themes were then linked to social ideologies, that
may play out in work and position women as less capable leaders (Hansson et al., 2019).
CDA does what other methods do not, which is to interact with the data and
challenge the analyst to question, “Does what I am reading sound true?” and “Is there an
alternative to the information I am being provided?” Furthermore, CDA is primarily
interested in revealing ideologies, and implications of power within the text (Fairclough,
2016; Wodak & Meyer, 2016) through the triangulation of CDA approach to bias or
blindness was broadened compared to a single approach (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016).
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CDA has been applied to a plethora of topics with consensus by experts across the
field regarding the approach and steps of analysis to identify power relationships and
social wrongs through the systematic investigation of discursive text. Even though CDA
was identified as the best to approach text in research, there are many lenses of CDA, and
the following triangulation was determined to be the most appropriate fit for the study:
• A discourse historical approach focuses on historical meaning, uses
triangulation to combine perspectives, and finds practical implications for the
investigation results (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016).
• A dialectical relational approach identifies and addresses social wrongs by
analyzing their causation through the examination of the relationship between
the written word and the word’s meaning or implications that shape, sustain,
or change specific social patterns (Fairclough, 2016).
• A corpus linguistics approach analyses data outputs to identify themes that
can be further analyzed (Mautner, 2016).
The choice to triangulate using discourse historical, dialectical relationship, and
corpus linguistics approaches was made in favor of the research question because,
together, they addressed questions about how text may have leaned on prior research to
support current assertions and assumptions about shared knowledge, and identify themes
within the text that can be further explored. Other approaches to CDA that were
considered but discarded included the following:
• The sociocognitive approach is concerned with the relationship between
discourse structures and social structures (van Dijk, 2016).

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• Discourses and dispositives theorizes knowledge contained in linguistically
conducted practices such as verbal and written speech, and nonverbal
linguistics naturally materializes or produces an outcome (Jager & Maier,
2016).
• Recontextualization of social practice theorizes that the repetition of social
action modes, styles, semiotic outcomes, and actions in one genre are then
reperformed other social actions in a recontextualized fashion (van Leeuwen,
2016).
• CDA methodology can also be applied to visual and multimodal texts
(Jancsary et al., 2016) and social media (Khosravinik & Unger, 2016).
A sociocognitive approach was deemed inappropriate due to its need to position
texts within social structures, which was outside the scope of this project. Discourse and
dispositives were ill-fitting as primarily concerned with the relationship between text and
social representation, such as language reproduced in political cartoons.
Recontextualization of social practice was considered however ultimately discarded, as it
questions how experience in one area manifests in another area of an individual’s
experience. Recontextualization was discarded due to challenges faced in obtaining
responses from the author(s) regarding their multiple discourse voices. Finally, CDA was
appropriate to this study as it acknowledged the subjective and multiple ways to interpret
meaning; so, while discourse analysts are receptive to other interpretations, discourse
analysis research is often conducted alone (Fairclough, 2016; Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017)
and lent itself well the purpose of the project as a capstone to a doctoral program.
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As I investigated the use of text, study design and text logic became intertwined.
First, locating a body of text dedicated to the triangulation of gender, language, and
leadership required the investigation of available scholarly-peer reviewed journals. To
date, there is only one such journal fitting the basis for the study, that made the journal
the logical text for analysis. How to construct the study then became my focus. CDA
examines each word and word combination for possible data inclusion (Fairclough, 2016;
Gee, 2017; Hansson et al., 2019, Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017). Therefore, three study designs
were considered. First, I considered the gender leadership body of text in juxtaposition to
Leadership Quarterly, the most cited peer-reviewed journal on leadership for the last 2
decades (Lee et al., 2019). The journal comparison design was discarded as the absence
of gender in research articles potentially eliminated a vital component of the study. The
next study design considered analysis of a single and unpublished issue of the journal due
to be published after the submission of this study as a proposal for a doctoral capstone.
The single-issue design was discarded due to the potential of a special issue that would
not reflect a typical sample of research published by the journal.
The final study design emerged as the journal was examined, identified, and
further explored. Gender in Management is the preeminent journal dedicated to the
intersection of gender and leadership (Emerald, 2019). The journal was formerly named
Women in Management Review and was renamed Gender in Management in 2007. As
CDA and I was interested in how language changes over time, sustains or resists
ideology, and identifies instances of linguistic legitimization, manipulation to assert
power (Amoussou & Allagbe, 2018), I conducted analysis of leadership studies found in
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a 2021 issue of Gender in Management versus the final issue of Women in Management
Review in 2007. The study designed allowed me to understand what advances towards
gender inclusivity for men and women collectively were made in the 14 years since the
journal transitioned to gendered leadership focus.
Role of the Researcher
For this study, I took on the role of reading and interpreting text for themes that
positioned gender in leadership research. Due to the subjective nature of discourse
analysis, there were many ways to understand the meaning; therefore, as is typical, the
research was conducted in solitude (see Gee, 2017). Noting a considerable body of
literature regarding women in leadership, the study’s original concept was to conduct a
meta-analysis on the body of work dedicated to men and leadership. When I was unable
to find literature, my intention became an analysis of the literature on gender, language
and leadership, but the field was limited, and researchers were nearly exclusively female.
Although no personal or professional conflict existed between myself and the data
reviewed, a qualitative study’s construction was resisted due to a misguided impression
that the approach would lack the rigor or credibility often associated with quantitative
studies. My skeptical view was resolved while completing the review of literature for two
reasons. First, as an industrial-organizational psychologist dedicated to helping
individuals positively experience work, investigation of experience could not be
approached purely quantitively since each person experiences work differently. Second,
approaching gendered leadership research from a qualitative CDA perspective required a
broadening of perspective, questioned personal beliefs, acknowledged bias, and caused

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myself to grow as an industrial-organizational psychologist in far greater ways than if
only having followed the data numerically.
I acknowledge that biases were possible due to the passion, interest, and focus
needed to remain dedicated to a specific research topic. Ravitch and Carl (2016)
suggested that all research, regardless of approach, contains bias due to the researcher’s
necessary involvement through interests, assumptions, and beliefs that guide their choices
for design, variables, analysis, and interpretation. Conversely, Sriwimon and Zille (2017)
argued that bias could be revealed and mitigated with adherence to well-defined and rigid
methods, like those laid out in this chapter. Nonetheless, extensive efforts were made to
manage ethical issues and biases, that could have manifested while conducting the
qualitative study. Specifically, I used methodological triangulation by approaching the
text from varying perspectives to expose bias or blindness possible from a single
approach (see Reisigl & Wodak, 2016). Findings were continuously questioned and
compared for other interpretations of meaning independently and collectively. In
addition, Gee’s (2014) building tasks and tools of inquiry alongside Saldaña’s (2016)
reflexive strategies for analytical memo writing were applied as outlined within this
chapter.
Methodology
CDA was performed by asking questions that look beyond reading text at face
value. As such, I was committed to looking past obvious information in a transcript to the
many factors involved in creating and consuming the text itself (see Gill, 2009). From a
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methodological perspective, CDA consists of four stages and subsequent steps
(Fairclough, 2016, pp. 92-94):
• Stage 1: Focus upon a social wrong from the semiotic aspect.
• Step 1: Select a research topic that relates or points to a wrong that can be
approached in a transdisciplinary way with a particular focus on dialectical
relations between semiotics and other moments.
• Step 2: Construct objects of research for initially identified research topics
by theorizing them in a transdisciplinary way.
• Stage 2: Identify obstacles to addressing the social wrong.
• Step 1: Analyze dialectical relations between discourse and other social
elements, between orders of discourse and other elements of social
practice; and between text and other elements of events.
• Step 2: Select texts, and focuses, and categories for their analysis, in light
of and appropriate to the constitution of the object of research.
• Step 3: Carry out an analysis of the text, both interdiscursive and linguistic
semiotic analysis.
• Stage 3: Consider whether the social order needs the social wrong.
• Stage 4: Identify possible ways past the obstacles.
Using the study as guidelines for applying CDA methodology, the following
pages provide a step-by-step guide. To begin stage one, I chose a topic of wrong from a
semiotic aspect. Semiotics is the study of the use or interpretation of signs and symbols
within the discursive event or, in the case at hand, written text (Wodak & Meyer, 2016).
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As such, the topic should relate or point to a wrong that can be approached in a
transdisciplinary way. For example, I wanted to examine how the language used in
research studies on gender in leadership may impact or influence the reader as well as the
writer. Transdisciplinary also came into place in various ways. I employed the use of
systematic qualitative coding and discourse analysis strategies. In addition, I used
methodological triangulation of CDA to examine linguistic uses and strategies.
The second stage was to select the text and carry out the analysis. To conduct
analysis, I drew upon techniques and recommendations from discourse analysis and
qualitative coding, that made a reliable and repeatable process for identifying and coding
data as well as looking for themes within and across text using coding strategies and
templates presented in this chapter (Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017).
To begin, it was recommended I document the author’s name, article title, sex of
the researcher, nature of the study, keywords and assign a catalog identifier used to tie
back to the coding results to allow identification of the various discourses emerging
through the language selection (Gee, 2014a; 2014b). Understanding the author and
approach to the text aided in fulfilling Stage 2: Step 1 to analyze dialectical relations
between discourse and other elements, between orders of discourse, and other elements of
social practice between the text and elements of events. In any given discourse event, the
writer and reader alike draw upon multiple discourse genres and take on varying styles
resulting in interdiscursivity. Genres are the signs and symbols associated with a
particular activity, and styles are semiotic behaviors related to a given role (Fairclough,
2016; Reisigl & Wodak, 2016). Interdiscursivity is the totality of various voices used in a
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discourse event. A practical example of interdiscursivity can be seen in the role of a
female student who employs academic writing styles in the genre of undergraduate
studies in economics. Suppose the student is to submit an opinion piece on a topic of her
choosing. The economic topic she selects is out of preference, which is influenced by her
life experiences. Still, she is expected to write appropriately in the academic genre and
write in style appropriate to an undergraduate college student (as opposed to a high
school or graduate-level student). The roles of student, female, author and economist
each possess individual discourses that will compete to varying degrees in the writer’s
voice and tone. The extent each discourse emerges is considered orders of discourse
(Fairclough, 2016). The student is influenced by her ideology which will influence her
topic of research and opinion, that places her in a position of power to influence the
reader but also places her under the power of the expectations of each discursive element
as well as the authority of the professor with the power to score her work. The professor
possesses their order of discourse based on their background, experience, and interests
that influences how they consume and respond to the student’s work.
The first reading of the text was conducted as if I were a layperson to gain the
paper’s overall gist without critical analysis of the language (Wodak & Meyer, 2016).
The act of making strange was used to position myself as a foreigner to the research
(Gee, 2017) rather than a discourse analyst. An analytical memo (Saldaña, 2016), an
uncensored journal entry, was written, noting the gist of the research and overall
impression.
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The next crucial aspect of discourse analysis was to approach transcripts with the
spirit of skeptical reading. Discourse analysts are challenged to suspend belief by
focusing on the construction, organization, and function of language rather than
underlying meaning or motivation (Gee, 2014a, 2014b, 2017; Gill, 2009). As such, I
began to apply skeptical reading techniques gradually throughout subsequent readings.
Although coding was necessary and conducted following the traditional cycle coding and
categorization, CDA relies on intimate familiarity with the text gained through numerous
readings to keep the spirit of the text as a whole rather than the sum of its parts (Wodak
& Meyer, 2016). Passages that appeared to be codable moments were highlighted and
grouped into paragraphs/sections with a line separating when the topic or subtopic
appeared to change. Changes in topics or subtopics were as short as a line consisting of a
single idea or unit (not to be confused with a numbered line of text spanning the single
width of the page) or a stanza that are sets of lines about a single topic connected in the
form of a piece of information that is lumped. The process of highlighting and separating
topics assisted in identifying what warranted consideration for coding.
From an analytical perspective, data can be approached from a multitude of ways
such as sentence structure, individual word usage, or counting the frequency of keywords
and can be coded either manually or with the aid of computer software (Wodak & Meyer,
2016). Due to the seemingly unending options available, it was necessary to limit the
focus of analysis to keep data within a manageable analysis level. I used methodological
triangulation of discourse analysis techniques using more than one method and more than
one data set to examine the same phenomenon. The study satisfied the requirement for
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multiple datasets as it analyzed various research articles independently and collectively to
examine the phenomenon of language. Preliminary codes were expected to emerge and
change throughout cycles; however, the application of methodological triangulation
allowed me greater focus, reduced bias, and increased validity (Gee, 2014a, 2014b, 2017;
Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017; Wodak & Meyer, 2016). For example, the study considered the
following conditions:
• Discourse historical is the reliance on prior arguments, theories, and research
to support current research (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016).
• Dialectical relational approach examines language constructs that shape
meaning such as metaphors and linguistic strategies (Fairclough, 2016).
• Corpus linguistics examines recurring codes which reveal themes that can be
further analyzed (Mautner, 2016).
Upon reading, the text was lumped into topics/subtopics and assigned codes
through cycle coding. Initial coding allowed for open-ended, tentative coding using a
small number of codes that could change as more appropriate codes emerge compared to
other coding strategies such as descriptive (noun-based) or in vivo (verbatim) strategies,
that are more ridged (Saldaña, 2016). An additional benefit of initial coding was that it
encouraged emergent categories to evolve into conceptual processes compared to more
descriptive strategies. However, using a small number of codes repeatedly avoided over
proliferating. Finally, lumping code into stanzas helped identify and code only the most
essential parts of data. To ensure standardization of coding, a codebook was developed to
capture example criteria of codes. The goal of an iterative reading and coding process
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was to move from particular data elements to identify general themes and concepts that
appear in the text. Data elements were coded and grouped as categories that were further
distilled into themes or concepts, allowing for the assertion of theories.
In keeping with the study’s design, I read articles separately, notated, and coded
for instances of textual silence, assumptions of knowledge, historical reliance on earlier
literature to support current arguments, and positive or negative linguistic strategies
(Reisigl & Wodak, 2016). Textual silence considers what the text does not say or what
was omitted (Gee, 2017). For example, to say “only 125 women are CEOs of Fortune 500
companies” lacks a definition of the remaining 375 CEOs (i.e., Black, gay, transgender,
etc.) or that Fortune 500 only applies to companies headquartered in the United States.
The omission requires the reader to assume the remaining CEOs’ gender classification. In
binary gender classification, such as the English language, they would be presumably
normative male, stereotypically White and heterosexual. The assumption of knowledge
implies shared meaning (Fairclough, 2016). In the example above, the language selection
assumes the reader’s knowledge of the number of CEO positions available of Fortune
500 companies is 500. Historical reliance (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016) is the extent to which
a current assertion is supported by pointing to prior information or knowledge. For
example, Butler’s (1990) seminal work in Gender Trouble is frequently cited for
concepts and assertions of gender fluidity. Finally, positive/negative linguistic strategies
include using positive or negatively weighted words such as “only,” that suggests 125 is
an unacceptable number of female Fortune 500 CEOs. Combining the reviewed strategies
with the following guidelines, the study can be replicated:

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course of action through a social contract between leaders (text) and followers
(consumers). Power can be legitimate, cohesive, reward-based, earned by possessing
desirable information, expert, or referent (Northouse, 2016). In consideration of the
study, the research text interacts with the reader with expert power as the text is assumed
to be authoritative, rigorously researched, free from bias, and the consumer is educated in
the topic being questioned and methodology employed. Therefore, emphasis was placed
on identifying how language was used as a capacity or ability to steer and affect others’
beliefs, attitudes, or course of action through the use of power by asking:
• What examples of power are found within the text?
• How is the text used to create or dispute power?
• How does the text maintain power ideology?
• How is the text used to create or dispute power relationships?
Gender: Psychsociocultural constructs imposed on the normative biological
binaries of maleness and femaleness, making gender a learned system of knowledge that
is varied, fluid, attitudinal, and based on an individual’s interpretation of cultural
meaning (Holmes & Schnurr, 2006; Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018b). Emphasis was placed
on how language was employed implicitly or explicitly to denote gender and gender
alignment through references to biological sex, attributes, or traits with consideration
towards:
• Are there instances where gender alignment is implicitly or explicitly stated?
• What examples of gender are found within the text?

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• What words or phrases are used to refer to or are associated with a specific
gender that supports a specific ideology?
• How does the text maintain gender ideology?
Emphasis was placed on the use of language to suggest performance possessing
alignment to a specific sex or gender by asking:
• What examples of performance are found within the text?
• How d3oes the text maintain performance ideology?
Overall/Summary:
• Does the text use positive or negative linguist strategies?
• Is there a reliance on historical discourse to support current discourse?
• Does the text present textual silences through omission or assumption of
knowledge?
Discourse analysis examines how language enacts with social and cultural
perspectives through its use and structure (Gee, 2014a; 2014b). The methodological
analysis of language is a journey successfully conducted by understanding and applying
systematic critique to lexical strategies used in written (or spoken) communications
(Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017). Various indicators served as a ledger, and by following the
signs, greater meaning can be gleaned. The following concepts can be thought of as a
ledger’s keys and considered during the analysis and coding of text.
Language is structured communication through symbols referred to as words
(Gee, 2017). Grammar is the entire or whole structure and system of a language,
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including lexicon, syntax, and semantics (Gee, 2014a, 2014b, 2017). Lexicon is the words
or vocabulary and basic meaning known by an individual or associated with an area of
knowledge. The syntax is the structure of a language that can be a single word or a series
of words that can fit into larger units, and those words can become part of another larger
unit is known as recursive syntax. As the system of rules, Syntax determines how
different words can combine into phrases or sentences, or clauses. These language rules
are stored in the minds of those participating in the communication alongside the social
conventions associated with the discourse. Semantics is the core meaning of a word or
group of words based on the rules of their grouping or context of use. The core meaning
is the literal or basic meaning of a word’s definition without the specific context of use.
Morphemes are indicator sub-parts of a word such as “un”-believ-“able” connected to the
core meaning “believe.” Applied to discourse analysis, and the text should be examined
for instances of how language selection is used to shape meaning.
A sentence is composed of a subject, main verb, perhaps some helping verbs,
adverbs, and other filler words (Gee, 2014a, 2014b, 2017). The verb, adverbs, and any
helping verbs are called the predicate and comments on the subject or topic. As with a
sentence, clauses are made up of a subject/topic and a predicate/comment. How a clause
or sentence is structured will shape the perception of the reader. Consider the difference
between the following clauses: “Samantha is Sarah’s sister” and “Sarah is Samantha’s
sister.” Both sentences are accurate and contain the same information; however, the first
is about and highlights Samantha, and the second is about and highlights Sarah. Clauses
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can take many forms and reside within the same sentence. The main clause is considered
the focal point and is foreground as the argued or asserted information.
On the other hand, the subordinate clause sits in the background as information
that is assumed, understood, or shared knowledge or, as often described, as taken- for-
granted due to its ability to shape meaning (Gee, 2014a, 2014b, 2017). The grammatical
decision of what to foreground or background is the writer’s onus; however, the lexical
choices in the interpretation of meaning lie with the reader. A good example is the
following sentences with the same clauses switched from main and subordinate. “Despite
a large percentage of Mexican speaking citizens, English remains the national language
in the United States” compared to “English remains the national language in the United
States, despite a large percentage of Mexican speaking citizens.” As the main clause, the
former may convey a sentiment the Mexican-speaking citizen is being discounted, or
many Mexican-speaking citizens are residing in the country. The latter can be interpreted
in many ways depending on the reader’s consideration of the importance of English as
the national language or the United States as a country or political body. When analyzing
text, I identified sentences that contained foreground and background information and
considered if the nature or implied meaning of the sentence would change if repositioned.
The more clauses in a sentence increase the complexity required to cognitive
process the information known as the lexical density. Much like occasions when it is
necessary to re-read a passage to digest the information, the reader’s ability to mentally
process a clause’s complexity is determined by their familiarity with the content, the
types of words selected, and word placement by the writer (Gee, 2014a, 2014b, 2017).
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Words fall into one of three major classes: content words (subject, verb, adverb, etc.),
function words (the, this/that, a/an, etc.), and proper nouns (names). A Clause Worth of
Information (CWOI) is an approach to measure how information is packaged into
sentences. The higher the score of a CWOI, the more difficult the sentence is to process
for the reader. When writers combine main and subordinate clauses, the main clause
usually consists of new information. The subordinate clause has information that is
assumed to be understood by the reader. So, it is the number of content words in the main
clause that can measure the complexity or density of the sentence (Gee, 2014b). The
more content words, the higher the CWOI score. Specialized discourse, such as in
academia, tends to be dense due to the lexicon that must be known and shared to
understand concepts being shared or argued. Analysts should consider the transcript’s
lexical density and note overly complex sentence structures that require additional
cognitive processing, especially those sentences containing specialized language usage.
Finally, writers can make connections within and across sentences by using cohesion
markers to link concepts together. The following list explains various cohesion markers
that may be present in the text (Gee, 2017):
• Pronouns are located in the second sentence links back to the preceding
sentence by picking up its reference from a phrase in that sentence.
• Determiners are located in front of a subject, link to the preceding sentence by
indicating that the information is attached to information that is assumed to be
predictable or known based on the preceding sentence. Quantifiers are found

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in the second sentence, link to the preceding sentence by indicating that we
are now talking about a part of a whole discussed in the preceding sentence.
• Substitution is a word standing in for a word named in the previous sentence
allows the writer not to repeat the information while signaling the second
sentence is linked to the preceding one.
• Ellipsis […] indicates a place where information has been left out (omitted)
because it is predictable based on the preceding sentence.
• Lexical cohesion is found when words are lexically related or another form of
the same word and are semantically related.
• Conjunctions and other conjunction-like links are words such as “however”
signal how the reader relates the second sentence to the first. “However”
introduces a sentence that contrasts with or contradicts something that has
been said in a previous sentence while furthermore is a continuation of the
preceding sentence’s assertion.
In addition to cycle coding, analytical memos were written during each step as a
reflexive exercise and allowed additional codes to surface, as suggested by Saldaña
(2016). Gee provides a series of seven building tasks and six Tools of Inquiry that can be
used as reflective questions to encourage the analyst to approach the text from various
vantage points. Using the tasks and tools produced questions that can be considered
throughout analysis and memoing.

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Gee (2014, 2014b, 2017) Seven Building Tasks
• Significance discourse analysis question: How is this piece of language used
to make certain things significant or not, and in what ways?
• Practices (activities) discourse analysis question: What practice (activity) or
practices (activities) is this piece of language being used to enact (i.e., get
others to recognize as going on)?
• Identities discourse analysis question: What identity or identities is this piece
of language being used to enact? What identity or identities is this piece of
language attributing to others, and how does this help the speaker or writer
enact their identity?
• Relationships discourse analysis question: What sort of relationship or
relationships is this piece of language seeking to enact with others?
• Politics (the distribution of social goods) discourse analysis question: What
perspective on social goods is this piece of language communicating (i.e.,
what is being communicated as to what is taken to be “normal,” “right,”
“valuable,” “the ways things are,” “like me or not like me,” and so forth)?
• Connections discourse analysis question: How does this piece of language
connect or disconnect things; how does it make one thing relevant or
irrelevant to another?
• Sign systems and knowledge discourse analysis question: How does this piece
of language privilege or deprivilege specific sign systems (e.g., male vs.
female, technical language vs. everyday language, words vs. equations, etc.)
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or different ways of knowing and believing or claims to knowledge and belief
(e.g., science vs. religion; nurture vs. nature)?
Gee’s Tools of Inquiry (2014a, 2014b, 2017)
• Figured worlds have also been called “folk theories” or “cultural models” and
consist of a theory, story, model, or image that shows what is taken to be
typical or normal about people, places, activities, things, or interactions. We
all have ways to construe what is typical or “appropriate” in a marriage, a
house, a spouse, a politician, education, etc.; however, cognitive
representations are also reflected in the text.
• Form function correlations are any correlation in which a given word or type
of word, phrase, or clause is associated with a given communication function.
For example, subjects of sentences (as in “Sarah” in “Sarah is Samantha’s
sister”) are correlated or associated with the topic’s communicational
function.
• Intertextuality occurs when we speak or write, our words often allude to or
relate to, in some fashion, other “texts” or certain types of “texts.”
• Situated meanings are the specific meanings words and phrases take on in
contexts of use. Speakers and writers construct their utterances or sentences to
guide listeners and readers in constructing these specific meanings based on
what was said and the context in which it was said.
• Social language is any variety or style of speaking or writing associated with
a socially situated identity of any sort (this identity may be associated with a
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social group, profession, culture, practice, social role, or interest-driven
activity).
The preceding tasks and tools may appear overly complex and burdensome to
employ during analysis; however, I considered each of the tools of inquiry to provoke
questions. The seven big questions or building tasks were used separately or collectively
to prompt new ways of approaching and documenting codable moments during analytical
memoing.
Gee’s Seven Building Tasks Questions (2014a, 2014b, 2017)
• Building task 1 (significance): How are situated meanings, social languages,
figured worlds, intertextuality, discourses, and conversations being used to
build relevance or significance for things and people in context?
• Building task 2 (practices/activities): How are situated meanings,
colanguages, figured worlds, intertextuality, Discourses, and Conversations
being used to enact a practice (activity) or practices (activities) in context?
• Building task 3 (identities): How are situated meanings, social languages,
enact and depict identities or socially significant “kinds of people”?
• Building task 4 (relationships): How are situated meanings, social languages,
build, sustain, change or destroy) social relationships?
• Building task 5 (politics): How are situated meanings, social languages,

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create, distribute, or withhold social goods or to construe particular
distributions of social goods as “good” or “acceptable”; or not?
• Building task 6 (connections): How are situated meanings, social languages,
figured worlds, intertextuality, discourses, and conversations used to make
things and people connected or relevant to or irrelevant to or disconnected
from each other?
• Building task 7 (sign systems and knowledge): How are situated meanings,
social languages, figured worlds, intertextuality, discourses, and conversations
being used to privilege or deprivilege different sign systems (language, social
languages, other sorts of symbol systems) and ways of knowing?
Additionally, Saldaña (2016) suggests the following prompts to generate new
perspectives in writing analytical memos:
• Reflect on and write about how you relate to the phenomenon.
• Reflect on and write about your code choices and their operational definitions.
• Reflect on and write about the participants’ routines, rituals, roles, and
relationships.
• Reflect on and write about emergent patterns, categories, themes, concepts,
and assertions.
• Reflect on and write about the possible networks and processes (links and
connections, overlaps, and flows) among the codes, patterns, categories,
themes, concepts, and assertions.
• Reflect on and write about an emergent or related existing theory.

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• Reflect on and write about any problems with the study.
• Reflect on and write about any personal or ethical dilemmas with the study.
• Reflect on and write about future directions for the study.
• Reflect on and write about the analytic memos generated thus far.
• Reflect on and write about tentative answers to your study’s research
questions.
• Reflect on and write about the final report for the study.
Upon completing the coding cycles, analytical memos were coded and considered
in the final analysis. Review and inclusion of analytical memos were valuable due to the
reciprocal nature of how a coding system emerged alongside my understanding of the
phenomenon (Saldaña, 2016).
A summary of “how to do CDA” within the confines of this study included
articles that were read and coded one at a time. Each article was critically read, and I
applied a short, tentative code per the guidelines of initial coding to the lumps of texts
partitioned in the precoding phase. Upon completion of the first cycle of coding, I
reviewed and subsumed the codes into broader categories. Each code was logged and
thoroughly documented in a codebook for future consideration. The second cycle coding
goal was to develop a sense of categorical, thematic, conceptual, and theoretical
organization based on the first cycle coding (Saldaña, 2016). I conducted iterative rounds
of cycle coding were as needed. During these rounds, patterns, similarities, differences,
frequency, sequence, correspondence, and causation were considered. Analytical memos
were composed regularly throughout the process using the tools and techniques laid out
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in this section, even if only a thought or idea. Finally, codes were assembled and recoded
into more accurate or specific phrases, and a summary report was written using extracts
from analytical notes and coding that identified significant themes. Each article was then
summarized on its merit compared to other articles. A final comprehensive report
completed across all text examined for themes and concepts at a microlevel, mesolevel,
and macrolevel. Saldaña (p. 14)
Microlevel Analysis
• What instances of power were found within the text?
• Did the text create or dispute power?
• How does the text maintain performance ideology?
Mesolevel Analysis
• Does the text rely on historical data to support current arguments?
• Does the text use the assumption of knowledge or presumption of shared
meaning?
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• To what extent were linguistic strategies used to create cognitive alignment
between reader and text?
• Did the language construction employ the use of positive or negative words or
phrases to shape meaning?
Macrolevel Analysis
knowledge?
Once the final analysis was completed, I wrote a summary report in order to
complete stages 4 and 5 as a written evaluation of the data at the article level, journal
issue level and aggregated into an all-encompassing evaluation of the body of work as
representational across gender, sustainment or deconstruction of ideologies, and positions
of power. The journal issues compared and contrasted for insight into linguistic strategies
employed to legitimize, manipulate, sustain or diffuse feminization of gender in
leadership.
Text Selection Logic
As this study was conducted as a secondary data discourse analysis of literature, it
was necessary I locate a body of literature that addresses gendered leadership specifically
and is reasonable in size. The body of literature examined for this research project was
Gender in Management. The literature was selected due to the publication’s status as
essential reading to those interested in gender-related leadership and the only journal that
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focuses on gender within the context of management (Emerald, 2019). Gender in
Management is published by Emerald Publication as a part of an online subscription to
the Emerald Human Resources, Learning & Organization Studies eJournals Collection
and has been in continuous publication since 1985. The journal was initially named
Women in Management Review (WIMR), consisting of 151 issues from Vol. 1 Issue 1,
1985 through Vol. 22 Issue 8, 2007. In 2008, the journal was moved to an online
publication and renamed Gender in Management (GIM) with ten issues beginning with
Volume: 23 Issue: 1 to Volume’s most recent release: 36 Issue: 5. Each volume produces
approximately eight issues per year, with the most recent publication released in June
2021. GIM is an international journal and can be located under the search categorization
of human resource management or by ISSN 1754-2413.
According to GIM’s website (Emerald, 2019), the publication’s editorial
objectives are to advance knowledge on the topic of gender in management and
leadership. The site goes on to state advancement is made through empirical research,
theoretical developments, practice, and current issues in the international field. The
journal addresses social issues, including political and legislative decisions, social and
educational policy, and economic factors relating to gender in management and
leadership.
Content for the journal is received unsolicited from authors across the world on
topics that, according to the journal, make a contribution to gender in management and
leadership (Emerald, 2019). Topics published with the journal include management and
leadership styles, career issues; equality and diversity issues; forms of capital; flexibility
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issues; legal issues; work-life balance; emotions in the workplace; employee-employer
relationships; sexual politics; harassment and discrimination; gender stereotypes; identity
issues; entrepreneurship; cross-cultural issues; intersectionality issues; theoretical
developments; and feminist research methodologies. To be considered for inclusion in an
issue, articles must focus on the subject of gender within management and leadership.
Manuscripts may include structured research and thought articles and include
implications of the work. Authors are required to provide disclosure of their positions on
gender and leadership, reflexive practices used, and a statement of goal, context, other
points of view, and theoretical bases. The journal is targeted to and predominately used
by academics and libraries; consultants and organizational change advisers; equal
opportunities officers; management researchers and career planning advisers; personnel,
training and development professionals; and women managers. The following are
examples of the typical research published within Gender in Management:
• Theorizing Women & Leadership: Different Spaces, Different Conversations:
Theories and Practices for These Times (Volume 34, Issue 3) - Guest Editors:
Carole Elliot, Sue Pritchard, and Valerie Stead. The emergence of this special
issue is particularly motivated by the lacuna of research in business and
leadership that explicitly seeks to theorise women’s leadership, particularly
with regard to the intersectionality of women’s leadership with alternative
forms of organising.
• Gender and Entrepreneurship in Cross Cultural Perspectives Part 2 (Volume
33, Issue 3) - Guest Editor: Ramanjeet Singh. Although the relation between
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gender and entrepreneurship is a well-researched area, this special issue
focuses on the advancement of interdisciplinary research in the areas of
gender studies, entrepreneurship and cross-cultural management.
• Gender in Management in Emerging Economies (Volume 32, Issue 8) - Guest
Editors: Sanjay Kumar Singh and Rabindra Kumar Pradhan. The management
of gender is critical to the effective functioning of organizations in the
emerging markets if they are to become a “developed market.” The serious
academic inquiry in this field is relatively new, and this special issue was
conceptualized to evolve the body of knowledge. There are six research-based
articles in this issue which have the potential to develop new insights to solve
the pressing problems which are being faced by the managers and leaders
toward management of gender in the workplace.
The specific texts for this project were Women in Management Review (2007),
Volume 22, Issue 8, 2007 and Gender in Management (2021), Volume 36, Issue 6, 2021.
Women in Management Review, Volume 22, Issue 8 was selected as the final issue
published as a management/leadership journal focused solely on female interests prior to
the journal’s transition to gender-oriented research on leadership/management concerns.
Gender in Management, Volume 36, Issue 6 was selected for three reasons. First, as
noted, Gender in Management is the only journal dedicated to research on gender-related
leadership and, therefore, fits the project’s scope (Emerald, 2019). Second, the rigors and
reputation of Emerald Publications and the journal of Gender in Management ensure the
research was conducted on a robust variety of topics and of high quality. Third and
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equally important, the issue was expected to be published in July 2021 and was not
released prior to the initial proposal submission for the project, making it improbable for
article selection to be tainted by the researcher’s pre-exposure or selection bias of
research. Examination of the two journal issues independently and in juxtaposition to one
another was expected to provide valuable insight into the advancement of gender
balanced research in gendered leadership research. Finally, it should be noted that while
the text analyzed was openly available, neither body of work was retrieved or reviewed
by the researcher until the study was approved.
Instrumentation
A benefit of conducting CDA was the multiple ways and perspectives in which
text could be examined and created the opportunity for a broader understanding of a
social phenomenon such as gender in leadership research and allowed for a more robust
understanding of shared experience (Hansson et al., 2019; Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017). As
such, there was no one-size-fits-all instrument mandated for use when conducting CDA.
However, drawing upon discourse analysis strategies and qualitative research guidelines,
I was able to create a repeatable and reliable process. Based on Saldaña's (2016)
recommendations, guidelines for conducting qualitative analysis, and Gee’s (2017)
instruction to discourse analysts alongside my practice exercises, I created the the
following data collection instruments to ensure standardization across the life of the
project.
Four components were applied to the text: precoding, coding, summary, and
analytical memoing. Precoding prepared the articles for more detailed examination and
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allowed for familiarity with the text. Coding was an iterative review of text through cycle
coding. The summary resulted in a comprehensive review of themes within and across
articles. Finally, analytical memoing served as a strategy for the remaining objective.
Precoding
I assigned an article number to each article that allowed for easier reference to
track and report information. Each article was assigned a numerical identifier, and the
article’s title and author(s) were recorded (see Table 1). Gee (2014a, 2014b)
recommended, to conduct thorough discourse analysis, identification of the writer(s)
multiple discourse identities was beneficial to understand various influences on language
selection.
Table 1
Text Authorship Template
Article # Author(s) Sex Education Areas of interests
Note. Data capture of the author(s)’ sex, education, and area of interest assists in identifying the various discourse
identities that may influence text selection and usage.
The article structure was logged (see Table 2) Capturing article structure using the
instrument assisted in the comparison of coding outcomes across datasets and allowed me
to investigate regarding what choices were made by the researcher(s) in the construction
of the study as a potential factor in the language selection employed. The next step
required I reverse engineer each article by decomposing the article into chapters (Gee,
2017). Decomposition evaluated each section on its own merits and then examined how
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each part fits and functions together. Articles were decomposed and sections considered
for the following:
• Abstract: What is the general theme of the article and its intended goal?
• Introduction: What arguments are being made, what information is included
or excluded?
• Literature Review: What theories are being employed?
• Methodology: What methodology is being employed? Who are the
participants, and the size of the population? What were the data collection
methods used? What variables were selected?
• Results: What were the study’s findings? Did the finding support the
hypothesis?
• Conclusion: What were the final discussion points of the article? How was the
conclusion tied to the other sections of the article?
Table 2
Text Structure Template
Article # Keywords Theoretical Methodology Variables Population

framework
Note. Data capture of keywords, theoretical framework, methodology, variables, and population will aid in identifying
themes within and across studies.
The entire work was double spaced, rows numbered for ease of reference, and
wide margin space for coding notes, as is tradition with qualitative analysis (Saldaña,
2016). Finally, passages that appeared to be codable moments were highlighted and
separated into paragraphs/sections with a line separating when the topic or subtopic
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appeared to change. The process of highlighting and separating topics assists in
identifying what warranted additional analysis.
Coding
Initial coding strategies allowed for open-ended, tentative coding with a small
number of provisional codes that changed as more appropriate codes emerged compared
to other coding strategies, such as descriptive (noun-based) or in vivo (verbatim)
strategies that would have been more ridged. Finally, lumping code through into stanzas
helped identify and code only the most essential parts of data. To ensure standardization
of coding, a codebook format was developed using Saldaña’s (2016) suggestions (see
Table 3).
Table 3
Codebook Structure Template
Code Detailed Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria Typical example Atypical example
description
Name of the code 1-3 sentence Conditions for Exceptions of the Examples of data An extreme or
description of the the phenomenon phenomenon that that best unique example
coded qualities or that merits the do not merit the represent the of data that still
properties code code code represents the
code
Note. Codebook will aid in the standardization of data collection across text.
First Cycle Review
Codable moments noted in the precoding phase were documented (see Table 4),
including the line location, text lump, and observation summary (Saldaña, 2016). The
observation summary included notation of the textual instance such as textual silence,
historical reliance, or assumed knowledge (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016).

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Table 4
First Cycle Coding Template
Linea Lumpb Observation summaryc Coded
a Line indicates the location within the text.

b Lump represents the text being analyzed
c Observation Summary represents the linguist strategy observed, such as textual silence, historical reliance, or assumed
knowledge.
Second Cycle Coding
Building on data captured in the first cycle coding exercise, the text’s second (see
Table 5) and subsequent readings included progressively more specific codes (Saldaña,
2016). Each entry was dated, and an analytic memo was created outlining recodification.
Table 5
Second Cycle Coding Template
Linea Lumpb Observation summaryc Initial coded Adjusted codee
Note. Building on data captured in the first cycle coding exercise, the text’s second and subsequent readings will
include progressively more specific codes.

b Lump represents the text being analyzed.
c Observation Summary represents the linguist strategy observed, such as textual silence, historical reliance, or assumed
knowledge.
d Initial code represents the original categorization of text as power, performance, or gender during first cycle coding.
e Adjusted code represents an adjustment to code during second and subsequent coding cycles.
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Final Codification and Summary
At this point, the process identified data elements that were translated into codes.
Those codes were aggregated and assembled, and recoded into more accurate phrases to
unearth categories and themes (see Table 6), leading to overarching theories or assertions
Saldaña (2016). Once completed, I wrote summary report using extracts from coding and
notes. Each article was summarized on its merit, compared to other articles within the
journal. Finally, a comprehensive report was completed across all text examined for
themes and concepts at a microlevel, mesolevel, and macrolevel.
Table 6
Final Codification and Summary Template
Lumpa Analysis Final code/Category
Note. Codes from the analysis will be aggregated, assembled, and recoded into more accurate phrases to unearth
categories and themes, that may lead to an overarching theory or assertion.

a Lump indicates the text to be analyzed
Analytical Memos
Analytical memos were a crucial component while I was conducting CDA.
Analytical memos were coded and grouped for emergent themes, categories, themes,
concepts, assertions, etc. As noted in this chapter, I wrote analytical memos as free text
and employed multiple strategies to increase perspective and validity (Gee, 2017;
Saldaña, 2016). Each analytical memo was dated, assigned a numerical identifier for
cataloging, and later coded for key themes or words.

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Process and Instrument Validation
In the absence of universally predefined tools to analyze the text, I acted as the
instrument’s creator and executor (Ravitch & Carl, 2016). However, a rigorous and
systematic analysis method made for a significantly reliable and bias-free set of
instruments literature (Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017). To validate the appropriateness of the
instruments, the sets of protocols identified and outlined in the proceeding pages I
practiced them against a randomly selected leadership study. The validation exercise
served four purposes (a) identifed and allowed me to correct of unforeseen design issues,
(b) assessed the amount of labor and feasibility of analyzing the expected ten to 12
articles to be used in the formal study, (c) established data for gendered leadership
research that did not specify gender as a factor in leadership, and (d) allowed for a
practice exercise to ensure the effectiveness of the study design. The steps outlined within
this section, while informally a validation exercise, aided me in the format and design to
identify, organize and track data elements for analysis and transform from data to codes
to themes/concepts, that, ultimately, addressed the research question in this study.
My attempt to validate the process and instrumentation design met unexpected
results. The validation article for review was selected at random from Walden
University’s ISPY 8755 Leadership and Leader Development course curriculum (see
Appendix A). The randomization of selection eliminated my research bias or preference
towards a specific researcher. Also, the use of an article that had been deemed worthy of
inclusion into the study of industrial-organizational psychology by Walden University
ensured the work met the university standard for leadership study. The original article
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randomly selected was Thorn (2012), Leadership in international organizations: Global
leadership competencies in The Psychologist-Manager Journal.
Interestingly, the article was a study conducted by Margaret Thorn. The chance
selection raised the question of the sex of the author should be removed in the design of
the formal study. However, my knowledge of the sex and other gleanable information
about the author served as an indicator of the orders of discourse and various discourse
identities influencing the writer (Gee, 2017). Ultimately, I discarded the article due to its
lack of rigor and citations that presented itself more as an opinion piece than an article on
leadership. The second article randomly selected was found to be of a similar vein, but I
made the decision to move forward with the practice exercise as the formal study would
not allow for article selection. The instrument validation employed:
Akutagawa, L. (2013). Breaking stereotypes: An Asian American’s view of
leadership development. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 4(4), 277–284.
I read the article initially for general knowledge of content and overall impression
as if read by a college student rather than a doctoral candidate as the act of making
strange or as a foreigner to the research (Gee, 2016). The following review of the article
applied the primary research question, “What discursive messages regarding gender,
performance, and power are found in gender leadership research text?” Subsequent
readings focused individually on:
• What discursive messages regarding gender are found in the leadership
research text?
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• What discursive messages regarding performance are found in the leadership
research text?
• What discursive messages regarding power are found in the leadership
research text?
The deconstruction of the research question allowed me to have an increased
understanding of the text at a microlevel, mesolevel, and macrolevel and created the
ability to apply a methodological triangulation at each level.
The text was analyzed at a microlevel for how language was employed as a tool to
assert implicitly or explicitly power, performance, and gender. Foucault (1972) famously
asserted that what is not said is more important than what is said. Therefore, the emphasis
was placed on textual silences, assumptions of knowledge, and language selection. To
identify how text employed the use of power, performance, and gender, identification of
implicit and explicit instances of historical reliance (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016), linguistic
strategies, and language construction contained within the text sought to find:
• Power as the use of language as a vehicle to influence meaning.
• Performance through the use of linguistic phrasing.
• Gender as an implied or explicit association of leadership, power, or
performance with gender or binary sex of male/female.
Once the microlevel analysis was completed, the data were reviewed at a
mesolevel. Instances of interdiscursivity revealed the reconstitution of the text from the
diverse discourses, genres, and orders of discourse; the employment of semantic prosody
in the evaluation of positive or negative implication carried by linguistic items such as

130
metaphors and the representativeness in the corpus for adequate representation of all
forms of gender.
• Historical reliance to support current arguments. Instances of historical
reliance can be found through the use of the assumption of knowledge or
presumption of shared meaning (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016).
• Linguistic strategies to create cognitive alignment between reader and text.
Examples of linguistic strategy can be found in the use of metaphors such as
“glass elevator,” “great man,” “sticky floor,” and “glass ceiling” or implied
meaning such as sports metaphors (Fairclough, 2016).
• Language construction employs the use of positive or negative words or
phrases to shape meaning. Similar to linguistic strategies, data was cataloged
for instances of work placement or usage. For example, the use of “only,”
“women,” or “men” can influence the consumer’s interpretation of meaning
(Gee, 2017).
Finally, a macrolevel review demonstrated how language had been
recontextualized in leadership practices that are represented in the context of other social
practices, that included selective representation through inclusion or omission that
legitimizes or delegitimizes the practice:
• Discourse historical approach focuses on historical meaning, use of
methodological triangulation to combine perspectives and find practical
implications for the investigation results (Reisgil & Wodak, 2016).

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• Dialectical relational approach identifies and addresses social wrongs by
analyzing their causation by understanding the relationship between the
written word and the word’s meaning or implications which ultimately shapes,
sustains, or changes specific social patterns (Fairclough, 2016)
• Corpus linguistics analyzes data outputs to identify themes that can be further
analyzed (Mautner, 2016).
To follow are examples of how the analysis was constructed and conducted using
the instrumentation developed for the study. First, the article was assigned a unique
numerical identifier and documented with the paper’s title and author (see Table 7). The
numerical identifier allowed for easier reference to track and report information within
and across articles. Next, the author’s sex, education, and areas of interest were captured
(see Table 8). Authorship contributed to the identification of various discourse identities
within and between texts. Information regarding the structure of the research design was
documented (see Table 9), and the article was decomposed and separated into sections
according to the study design (see Table 10):
• Abstract: What is the general theme of the article and its intended goal?
• Introduction: What arguments are being made, what information is included
or excluded?
• Literature Review: What theories are being employed?
• Methodology: What methodology is being employed? Who are the
participants, and the size of the population? What were the data collection
methods used? What variables were selected and which were omitted?
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• Results: What were the study’s findings? Did the finding support the
hypothesis?
• Conclusion: What were the final discussion points of the article? How was the
conclusion tied to the other sections of the article?
Table 7
Text Tracking Example
Article # Title Author(s)
000 Breaking stereotypes: An Asian American’s view of leadership development Akutagawa, Linda
Table 8
Text Authorship Example
Article # Author(s) Sex Education Areas of interests
000 Akutagawa, Linda F Unknown Asian, Leadership
Table 9
Text Structure Example
Article # Keywords Theoretical Methodology Variables Population

framework
000 leadership N/A N/A: Opinion N/A N/A

development, skills,
cultural values,
Asian American
self-awareness
Table 10
Decomposition of Article
Section Questions to be considered Preparation
Abstract General Theme? Prepared for coding
Introduction What arguments are being Prepared for coding

made?
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Section Questions to be considered Preparation
Literature Review What theory or theories are N/A

being employed?
Methodology What methodology is being N/A

employed?
Participants/Population?
Data collection?
Variables?
Results Study findings? N/A
Conclusion Final thoughts? Prepared for coding
The entire work was double spaced, rows numbered for ease of reference and
wide margin space for coding notes as is tradition with qualitative analysis (Saldaña,
2016) and passages that appeared to be codable moments were highlighted and separated
into paragraphs/sections with a line separating when topic or subtopic appears to change
(Figure 1). The work provided examples of linguistic strategies used in the research
provided populate provisional codes for the codebook to be used in the study (see Table
11). The highlighted lumps of codable moments were analyzed and assigned an
observation summary of the text selection’s linguistic strategy (see Table 12).
Figure 1
Text Preparation for Analysis Example

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Table 11
Codebook
description
Gender Implicit or Implicit or All examples of …2% of Fortune LGBTQ

explicit notation explicit notation gender will be 500 executive
of gender or sex of gender or sex considered, officers—13 are
within the text within the text including CEOs, and of
references to that number,
non-binary three are women.
gender
Power Use of language Use of language All examples of When looking at TBD
to influence the as a means to power implicitly the near
meaning influence the or explicitly invisibility of
meaning stated will be APIs on
considered for nonprofit and
inclusion. foundation
boards of
directors and the
CEO level, it is
not surprising
that the API
community has
been dismissed,
disenfranchised,
and disengaged
description
Performance Assertion of Assertion of Language Applied to Asian “Quiet.

performance tied performance structure that Americans, they Respectful.
to an individuals according to cannot be lead to the Highly technical.
gender linguistic substantially perception that Never says no.
phrasing. supported by people of Asian Hard worker.”
analysis of the descent are “not Perception of
text and leaders” or “lack truth?
surrounding text leadership
ability,” a
perspective that
hurts Asian
Americans across
all sectors, all
industries, and all
the various roles
they assume.
Note. Codebook will assist with standardization of data across texts

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Table 12
First Cycle Coding Example
Linea Lumpb Observation summaryc
23-26 Applied to Asian Americans, they lead to the Uses metaphors and stereotypes to reinforce
perception that people of Asian descent are “not
leaders” or “lack leadership ability,” a
perspective that hurts Asian Americans across
all sectors, all industries, and all the various
roles they assume.
28-44 Despite rapid growth in the Asian American Weighted CWOI- excessive cognitive processing
population and workforce, | and despite high
rates of educational achievement and talent
growth, | the conclusion from a recent
environmental scan | by Leadership Education
for Asian Pacifics, Inc. | (LEAP, 2012a) |
reveals that Asian Americans remain among the
least-represented groups | in leadership roles in
the | private, public, | and nonprofit sectors, |
still finding themselves on the outside looking
in, | at work and in political and | educational
environments | that are neither fully diverse nor
fully inclusive.
127 … cubicles of corporate Negatively weighted language selection

America…minuscule…
b
Lump represents the text being analyzed
c
Observation Summary represents the linguist strategy observed, such as textual silence, historical reliance, or assumed knowledge.
The second cycle coding expanded upon the first cycle coding by applying an
initial code of power, performance, or power that may have been adjusted during
additional readings or compared between or across articles to be analyzed (see Table 13).
Finally, the coded data elements were aggregated, analyzed, and assigned a final code
category to identify themes (see Table 13). Analytical memos played an essential role in
the study and were examined for codable moments. An example of a coded analytical
memo is located in Appendix B.

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Table 13
Second Cycle Coding Example
23-26 Applied to Asian Americans, Uses metaphors and stereotypes to Performance N/A
they lead to the perception reinforce
that people of Asian descent
are “not leaders” or “lack
leadership ability,” a
perspective that hurts Asian
Americans across all sectors,
all industries, and all the
various roles they assume.
28-44 Despite rapid growth in the Weighted CWOI- excessive cognitive Power N/A
Asian American population processing
and workforce, | and despite
high rates of educational
achievement and talent
growth, | the conclusion from
a recent environmental scan |
by Leadership Education for
Asian Pacifics, Inc. | (LEAP,
2012a) | reveals that Asian
Americans remain among the
least-represented groups | in
leadership roles in the |
private, public, | and
nonprofit sectors, | still
finding themselves on the
outside looking in, | at work
and in political and |
educational environments |
that are neither fully diverse
nor fully inclusive.
127 … cubicles of corporate Negatively weighted language selection Power N/A

America…minuscule…
a
Line indicates the location within the text.
b
Lump represents the text being analyzed.
c
Observation Summary represents the linguist strategy observed, such as textual silence, historical reliance, or assumed knowledge.
d
Initial code represents the original categorization of text as power, performance, or gender during first cycle coding.
e
Adjusted code represents an adjustment to code during second and subsequent coding cycles.
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Data Analysis Plan
As the intention of CDA (and this study) was to analyze the text’s language, my
analysis of data closely followed the data collection protocol outlined in the previous
section of this Chapter. Per the guidance of Wodak and Meyer (2016), I reviewed each
article initially with a novice’s curiosity through the act of making strange (Gee, 2017),
as much as possible, rather than that of a doctoral candidate. Thereafter, I approached the
transcripts as a skeptical reader and suspended opinion by focusing on the way that
language was used in the construction organization and function of the discourse rather
than underlying meaning or motivation (Gill, 2009). I applied an analytical mentality,
data were analyzed for patterns in data in variability (difference within and between) and
consistency as well as investigating the way language was used or not used or what was
not said through textual silences (Fairclough, 2016; Foucault, 1972; Gill, 2009).
Following repetitive reading and coding themes, the data were aggregated and examined
for regularity, variability, deviation, and coherence. The methodological triangulation
employed during the data collection phase allowed for a robust set of data that was
aggregated.
Microlevel Analysis
course of action through a social contract between leaders and followers. Power may be
welded by followers as equally as leaders. Power can be legitimate, cohesive, reward-
based by possessing desirable information, expert, or referent (Northouse, 2016, pp. 10-
11)
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• What instances of power were found within the text?
• Did the text create or dispute power?
meaning (Holmes & Schnurr, 2006).
• How and how well leadership roles are enacted?
• How does the text maintain performance ideology?
Mesolevel Analysis
• Does the text rely on historical data to support current arguments?
• Does the text use the assumption of knowledge or presumption of shared
meaning?
• To what extent were linguistic strategies used to create cognitive alignment
between reader and text?

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• Did the language construction that employs the use of positive or negative
words or phrases to shape meaning?
Macrolevel Analysis
knowledge?
Once data were analyzed at each level within and between journal issues, a
summary of findings at each level was created. Finally, Women in Management Review,
Volume 22, Issue 8, 2007 and Gender in Management, Volume 36, Issue 6, 2021 are
compared and contrasted in an evaluation of the representation of gender sustainment or
deconstruction of ideologies and positions of power.
Issues of Trustworthiness
Credibility
Numerous protocols were identified and outlined to ensure the study’s credibility
and the data identified were intact. I employed methodological triangulation by drawing
upon a discourse-historical approach (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016), dialectical-relational
approach (Fairclough, 2016), and corpus linguistics (Mautner, 2016) to generate multiple
perspectives, reduce bias, and reveal blind spots. Gee’s building tasks and tools of
inquiry, alongside Saldaña’s (2016) reflexive strategies, increased the level of questions
and approached the text from various perspectives. Also, I possessed a willingness to
question personal assumptions, perceptions, and biases at every step of the process. A
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final note on credibility returns to the assertion of CDA there are no wrong answers or
correct interpretations. The application of CDA to analyze text outlined in this study
allowed me to embrace multiple ways of viewing data, approaches, and factors, all of
which added to research through the addition of many voices, perceptions, and
experiences.
Transferability
The nature of this study focused on the intersection of gender and leadership;
however, the approach I laid out to investigate the possible ways language selection used
in research shaped perceptions of the consumer can be readily applied to other bodies of
text, such as the intersection of leadership and race. Although Gender in Management is
the only journal dedicated to the study of gender in management and leadership
(Emerald, 2019), this study could be replicated across past and future issues to identify
themes of how research on gender and leadership has or has not changed over time.
External validity is also possible, as found in the instrument validation exercise that
reviewed text in an article on leadership that did not expressly rely upon gender as a
leadership factor. Furthermore, the areas of interest such as gender, power, and
performance could easily be replaced with other focal points such as race, socioeconomic
status, and performance.
Dependability
According to Ravitch and Carl (2016), dependability refers to the stability of the
data. As this study was conducted as an analysis of secondary data published within a
single issue of Gender in Management, the data are stable. Gender in Management
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(Emerald, 2019) is the only journal dedicated to discussions of gender, leadership, and
management. The issues analyzed were Women in Management Review, Volume 22,
Issue 8, 2007 and Gender in Management, Volume 36, Issue 6, 2021.
Dependability of the analysis of the data was established through my
methodological triangulation to reduce bias and reflect the data from multiple
perspectives. Coding was thoroughly documented and I applied the protocols laid out
within this chapter. Audits of the data collection began with the first reading as
preliminary jottings and continued through cycle coding. Following the repetitive reading
and coding, the data were aggregated and examined for regularity and variability through
deviant cases and coherence analysis. I systematically tracked, recorded, reflected upon,
and considered the data through each aspect of triangulation. Data were considered and
documented at a microlevel and then aggregated at mesolevel and macrolevel.
Confirmability
I considered strategies since the conception of this study and actively applied to
ensure that I and study remained confirmable. Numerous protocols were identified and
outlined to ensure the credibility of the study and the data identified. Also, I possessed a
willingness to question assumptions and perceptions at every step of the process. Leaning
on Ravitch and Carl (2016), I developed reflexive validity questions early in the research
design to support continual reflection and focus on credibility, transferability, and
confirmability. Reflexive questions employed were:
• Credibility: How do my methods align with the research question?

142
• Transferability: Am I providing sufficient context and framing for readers to
fully understand the study’s findings?
• Confirmability: Do I have a personal agenda that is influencing the findings?
• Confirmability: At what point throughout the study do I seek thought partners
for new subjectivity and perspective?
Ethical Procedures
CDA, as well as this study, required an emphasis on ethical procedures. A
criticism of CDA and qualitative research, in general, has been the subjective nature of
data collection and data analysis. CDA and the study mandated I conduct research in
isolation which potentially posed ethical concerns. I created and documented actionable
steps and systematic approach strategies in this chapter to reduce research bias or
unethical interpretation of data, including methodological triangulation to approach the
data from multiple perspectives and levels.
As with any psychological study, the American Psychological Association’s
(2017) Ethical Principals of Psychologists and Code of Conduct were closely reviewed
and aligned. Although all ten Principals and Codes were reviewed, Section 8: Research
and Publication (2017, Standard 8.0) was most relevant to the project:
• 8.01 Institutional approval upon entering into the University Research Review
phase, a request for formal approval for the study and data collection was
obtained from Walden University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). The
researcher took preemptive steps to construct ethical research and completed
the certification process from the Collaborative Institutional Training

143
Initiative. Additionally, the researcher formally requested supervision by the
researcher’s Committee Chair through Walden University’s IRB Form B.
• 8.02 Informed consent to research did not apply to the study as it did not use
human participants.
• 8.03 Informed consent for recording voices and images in research did not
apply as the study did not include the recording of audio or visual images.
• 8.04 Client/patient, student, and subordinate research participants did not
apply, and there were no known conflicts between the researcher and text
• 8.05 Dispensing with informed consent for research informed consent was
dispensed and not required as the study was the analysis of secondary data
that was publicly accessible.
• 8.06 Offering inducements for research participation did not apply as no
inducements were offered.
• 8.07 Deception in research did not apply as the study consisted of secondary
data analysis of existing, public text.
• 8.08 Debriefing did not apply as the study consisted of secondary data
analysis of existing, public text.
• 8.09 Humane care and use of animals in research was irrelevant to the study
as animals were not used.
• 8.10 Reporting research results data was not fabricated and all study results
were reported regardless of the expected outcome, any errors in data that
might have arisen, immediate steps to correct, omit or retract were taken.
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• 8.11 Plagiarism all writing and results in the project are of the researcher;
except where direct citation was appropriate and fully credited.
• 8.12 Publication credit all publication credits were freely made to original
authors and journals, if appropriate.
• 8.13 Duplicate publication of data the study was original and did not contain
any previously published work.
• 8.14 Sharing research data for verification should the requests for data
verification be received, any and all documentation will be made immediately
available.
• 8.15 Reviewers all confidentiality and property rights were held in place as
applicable to the study.
In summary, I analyzed existing text, impact to human participants did not exist,
and concerns with the treatment and data storage were nominal because the text analyzed
was readily available on Emerald Publishing’s website and open to the public. However,
I did not access either body of work until URR approval was granted.
Upon entering into the University Research Review phase, I made a request for
formal approval for the study and data collection from Walden University’s IRB. I took
preemptive steps to construct ethical research and completed the certification process
from the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative. Additionally, I formally requested
supervision by my committee chair through Walden University.
The more significant concern of potential prior exposure or familiarity of the text
authors could not be entirely eliminated. However, I took actionable steps to reduce the
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likelihood of exposure that were implemented since the onset of developing the study,
such as cancelation of subscription and notification to Emerald Publishing, ceasing
additional research from other forms of literature on the topic for the duration of the
formal study, and withdrawing membership from the American Psychological
Association’s Division 35 Society for the Psychology of Women and Division 51 Society
for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinities. To reduce ethical concerns
regarding recruitment of data due to selection bias and premature assumptions about the
text authors, I conducted on an issue released following the approval of the study.
Summary
In summary, the pages of Chapter 3 brought forth an explanation of the my
position, interest, and decision to apply CDA to text on gendered leadership through the
analysis of Women in Management Review (2007) Volume 22, Issue 8, 2007 and Gender
in Management (2021) Volume 36, Issue 6, 2021. I explained the text selection logic with
the aim to add to the body of literature on the topic by examining the research question,
“What discursive messages regarding gender, performance, and power are found in
gender leadership research text?” The value of microlevel, mesolevel, and macrolevel
analysis of each journal independently and by compare-contrast evaluation demonstrated
the journal’s progress, if any, towards representation across gender, sustainment of
deconstruction of ideologies and positioning power. Through the candid statement of
position, I freely acknowledged that no researcher, regardless of intention, can entirely
eliminate bias from research (Gee, 2016). Nonetheless, strategies for reducing risk by
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applying methodological triangulation were laid out for the systematic review of the
literature (Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017).
Although CDA consists of methodological steps noted in the chapter, no specific
protocol or guidelines were available for data identification or collection. In the absence
of a pre-defined approach to data collection and analysis, I validated the instrument
against a randomly selected leadership study that did not specifically question gender as
applied to leadership. Validation of the instrument allowed me to refine the design
protocols used during the formal study. Also, Chapter 3 discussed the approach to
research and the body of literature for analysis. Data collection strategies, credibility,
transferability, dependability, and confirmability to the study were identified.

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Chapter 4: Results
Introduction
The purpose of the study was to examine discursive messages used in research
text regarding gendered leadership and to explore the phenomenon of word usage and
language structure applied to research text. The study applied the following research
question: What discursive messages regarding gender, performance, and power are found
in gender leadership research text? Chapter 4 begins with a demographical review of the
text source, followed by a summary of the employed data collection. The chapter moves
to the processes used in the data analysis phase, including codes applied and categories
and themes that emerged. Next, the chapter provides evidence of trustworthiness by
discussing aspects of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability applied
during the study’s execution. Results of the analysis are presented at microlevel,
mesolevel, and macrolevel as outlined in Chapter 3, and the chapter closes in a summary
of the findings of the study.
Setting
As I used predetermined, existing text that was publicly available, there were no
conditions that influenced or changed the text collection that deviated from the study
design.
Demographics
The specific texts for the project were Women in Management Review (WIMR),
Volume 22, Issue 8, 2007 and Gender in Management (GIM), Volume 36, Issue 6, 2021.
The WIMR (2007) issue was selected as the final issue published by a
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management/leadership journal focused solely on female interests before the journal
transitioned to gender-oriented research on leadership/management concerns. GIM
(2021) was selected as the only journal dedicated to research on gender-related leadership
and the specific issue was projected to be released after the proposal for the project was
submitted.
Data Collection
A total of 18 bodies of text were retrieved from the online publications. During
the precoding phase, pages were formatted into individual word processing documents,
assigned a number, and decomposed into sections by a paid individual to allow me to
remain free from exposure before the analysis phase. Texts were double spaced, and lines
were numbered for ease of reference and tracking during the data coding, analysis, and
reporting.
Once formatted, I began analysis. Articles were read individually for general
content, and no analytical comments were made. In the next reading, I marked passages
that appeared to be codable moments into lumps raning from a few words to paragraphs,
resulting in an extensive data set for additional review. Concepts or ideas were lumped
and highlighted, and an observation summary was handwritten for later review to
maintain a manageable data set. Three of the commentaries did not focus on gender and
leadership and were discarded during the text analysis due to lack of fit for the study.
WIMR article 006 reviewed a book regarding diversity management; however, the
commentary emphasized the focus of the book as race and ethnicity employment‐related
discrimination. WIMR article 009 was discarded as a commentary on generalized

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diversity program guidelines in the United Kingdom. WIMR article 012 was discarded as
a Society of Human Resources Management ranking of the best 50 small and midsized
companies to work. The remaining 15 articles were fully read, and lumps of codable text
were transitioned to the Second Cycle Coding table for further analysis, which is
discussed in the following pages. Through iterative readings, some data were combined
while text was discarded until core themes emerged and reached saturation.
After completing microlevel analysis, I began the process of understanding the
relationships between text and authorship as discussed within this paper. The sex,
education, and areas of interest for each author were documented in to gather text
authorship information. Article 006 through Article 012 did not provide clear authorship;
therefore, unknown was listed as “unknown” for sex, education, and areas of interest.
Next, I gathered keywords, theoretical framework, methodology, variables, and
population size for each study for review after the completion of microlevel analysis.
Throughout the entire process, I recorded analytical memos, primarily handwritten
throughout the study, which were transcribed and analyzed in the final stages of the
study.
Data collection, which included retrieving text from public internet locations,
converting and formatting into word processing documents, locating and compiling
authorship demographics, critical review of the text, analytical memos, documentation,
organization, and analysis, was conducted over the course of 6 weeks and in excess of
270 hours of effort. Data were recorded in tables as previously outlined in Chapter 3 and
stored via spreadsheets on a secure personal computer.

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Data Analysis
The intention of this research study was to investigate how language upholds or
dismantles ideologies of gender, power, and leadership in text on gendered leadership.
While textual analysis could have resulted in codes and categories along other veins such
as race or ethnicity, the focus remained on gender, leadership, and language. I read
articles individually, and segments of texts were lumped for later review, with a brief
observation summary applied. Passages that appeared to be codable moments were
highlighted and grouped into paragraphs/sections with a line separating when the topic or
subtopic appears to change. Initial coding allowed the use of observation summaries for
open-ended, tentative statements that I reviewed later and changed as more appropriate
codes emerged (see Table 11). Each article was read separately, notated, and coded for
instances of textual silence, assumptions of knowledge, historical reliance to support
current arguments, and positive or negative linguistic strategies (see Reisigl & Wodak,
2016) with the following guidance:
course of action through a social contract between leaders (text) and followers
(consumers). Power can be legitimate, cohesive, reward-based, earned by possessing
desirable information, expert, or referent (Northouse, 2016). Emphasis was placed on
identifying language, that was used to steer and affect others’ beliefs, attitudes, or course
of action:
• Examples of power found within the text,
• text used to create or dispute power,

151
• text that maintained ideologies, and
• how text created or disputed power relationships.
meaning (Holmes & Schnurr, 2006; Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018b). Emphasis was placed
on how language was used implicitly or explicitly to denote biological sex, gender
attributes, or traits:
• Instances where gender alignment is implicitly or explicitly stated,
• examples of gender are found within the text,
• words or phrases used to refer to or associate a specific gender, and
• text that maintained gender ideology.
Emphasis was placed on the use of language to suggest performance possessing
alignment to a specific sex or gender:
• Examples of performance found within the text and
• text that maintained performance ideologies
Overall/Summary
• Text use of positive or negative linguist strategies,
• reliance on historical discourse to support current discourse, and
• textual silences through omission or assumption of knowledge.

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Evidence of Trustworthiness
Credibility
Numerous protocols were identified and outlined to ensure the study’s credibility
and the data to be identified. The study employed methodological triangulation by
drawing upon discourse-historical approach (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016), dialectical-
relational approach (Fairclough, 2016), and corpus linguistics (Mautner, 2016) that
generated multiple perspectives, reduced bias, and revealed blind spots. Gee’s (2014a,
2014b) building tasks and tools of inquiry, alongside Saldaña’s (2016) reflexive strategies
discussed in detail in Chapter 3, increased the level of questions and approach to the text
from various perspectives.
Transferability
The nature of this study focused on the intersection of gender and leadership;
however, the approach laid out the possible ways language selection used in research
could be applied to other bodies of text, such as the intersection of leadership and race.
Although Gender in Management was the only journal dedicated to the study of gender in
management and leadership (Emerald, 2019), I saw opportunities to replicate the analysis
in relation to race, religion, or locale. External validity was possible, as the exercise could
review text in articles on leadership that did not expressly rely upon gender as a
leadership factor. Furthermore, the areas of interest such as gender, power, and
performance could have been replaced with other focal points such as race and
socioeconomic status.
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Dependability
This study was conducted as an analysis of secondary data published within two
journals released through Emerald Publications. Gender in Management (Emerald, 2019)
is the only journal dedicated to discussions of gender, leadership, and management.
Women in Management Review represented the journal’s early work before being
rebranded as gender focused in 2007. The issues analyzed were Women in Management
Review (2007), Volume 22, Issue 8, 2007 and Gender in Management (2021), Volume
36, Issue 6, 2021.
The dependability of the analysis of the data was established through
methodological triangulation to reduce bias and reflect the data from multiple
perspectives. Coding was thoroughly documented, applying the protocols laid out within
Chapter 3. The data were aggregated and examined for regularity and variability through
deviant cases and coherence analysis following repetitive reading and coding. Data were
systematically tracked, recorded, reflected upon, considered through each aspect of
triangulation, and analyzed at a microlevel before aggregation at mesolevel and
macrolevel.
Confirmability
Strategies were considered since the conception of the study and actively applied
to ensure I, as the researcher, and study remained confirmable. Numerous protocols were
identified and outlined to ensure the credibility of the study and data identified. Also, I
was willing to question personal assumptions and perceptions during each step of the
process. Leaning on Ravitch and Carl (2016), reflexive validity questions were
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established early in the research design to support continual reflection and focus on
credibility, transferability, and confirmability.
Results
In this study, I sought to understand the messages regarding gender, performance,
and power in text in gender leadership. The specific research question of “What
discursive messages regarding gender, performance, and power are found in gender
leadership research text?” was applied to the text. Discussion focused on text, not author;
therefore, all data were deidentified. A total of 18 articles, seven of which were nonpeer-
reviewed commentaries that were reviewed for possible instances of power, performance,
and gender are discussed. Three were discarded due to lack of fit, while the remaining
four were reviewed at the microlevel and mesolevel. The data within the peer-reviewed
scholarly research texts were reviewed at the microlevel, mesolevel, and macrolevel.
First, the findings of gender, performance, and power are presented at the article level to
satisfy microlevel analysis. The data are then presented at the macrolevel through the
comparison of data from the issue of WIMR (2007) against GIM (2021) to understand
how gender, performance, and power have changed or remained the same across time and
provide insight into the composition of authorship. Finally, at a macrolevel, data are
discussed holistically for messages that reinforced or disputed power, performance, or
gender. The term gender was applied when reference was made to masculine or feminine
gender traits, and the term sex to bifurcated male or female. Analysis focused on:
• Power as the capacity to steer or influence others.

155
• Performance questioned how men and women performed their leadership
roles.
• Gender was explored in the ways women and men were represented as
leaders.
• Discourse historical as reliance on prior arguments, theories, and research to
support current research (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016).
• Dialectical relational linguistic strategies and language constructs used to
shape meaning, such as metaphors and linguistic strategies (Fairclough, 2016).
• Corpus linguistics in recurring codes that revealed themes (Mautner, 2016).
Microlevel
To follow is an analysis of the text by article. Articles are discussed in numerical
order during microlevel analysis alongside two examples of gender, performance, and
power located in the respective final codification and summary table. Article 001
examined the employment practices and career advancement opportunities of women in
Turkey. The text compared hiring and promotion practices within the three types of
Turkish banks: state owned, private, and public. Power was asserted through the
comparison of Turkey against first-tier countries such as Europe and the United States
through the direct assertion that Turkey should take on western philosophies and that
women working outside the home would be viewed as a symbol of progress (see Table
14, power). The text used reference to legislative intervention to enforce education as a
means to drive economic progress. Power was subtle, although strongly played in the
examination of practices of the foreign banks against Turkey when additional research
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revealed all foreign banks included in Article 001’s study were headquartered in western
countries (Germany, Great Britain, and the United States), reinforcing a “west is best”
narrative. Power was further exerted through the devaluation of the role of women as
leaders of the community and diminished the value of raising children through references
to Turkey’s culture as patriarchal without definition or consideration to the stated views
of both sexes towards the preference of female focus on home family rather than paid
employment (see Table 14, power.) Gender was oriented to normative, bifurcated male
and female sex with a focus on the female sex and the text specifically referenced the
need for women in the workforce. The text noted women attained hire educations yet,
encountered a commonly cited “glass ceiling” metaphor (see Table 14, gender).
However, the text went on to suggest that the uptick of women employed should be
considered a phenomenon that would not last (see Table 14, performance). Finally, the
text suggested women were relegated to lower paying roles such as customer services, yet
later admitted the causation was due to self-selection, not discrimination (see Table 14,
performance).
Table 14
Final Codification and Summary: Article 001
Social attitudes and values also play a role in keeping women Text applies metaphor to Gender
just below the executive ranks. Schein’s (2001) dictum support gender-role ideology
“think manager – think male” continues to be affirmed in a
global context.
Among the various explanations for the dearth of women at Text applies metaphor to Gender
the top is the existence of the proverbial “glass ceiling” support gender-role ideology
When questioned further, she offered self-selection as the Arguments thus far supported Performance
primary reason. gender-discrimination
ideology
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There is some speculation that this increase in female Negative linguistic strategy Performance
employment in banking may be a temporary phenomenon
that may reverse itself once more qualified males enter the
labor force.
In an effort to move the country into the western paradigm, Supports western ideologies Power
the founders sought to advance the role of women as a as superior
“symbol” of progress.
Even today researchers continue to find evidence that Cultural values are dismissed Power
Turkish men and women still view home and family as in favor of economic gains
preferred roles for women (Kabasakal, 1999; Zeytinoglu,
1998; Aycan, 2004), the persistent residues of a patriarchal
culture.
a Lump indicates the text analyzed
Throughout this project, it has been asserted that text takes the reader along on a
journey to a desired outcome. Article 002 supported the storytelling narrative capability
of academic writing. Set in New Zealand, researchers investigated the experience of
female Indian entrepreneurs. The text was beautifully and, at times, poetically
constructed. Therefore, power was exerted as the influence of the writing style, as women
are “wrapped in visible diversity discriminators of ethnicity’s permanent embrace” (see
Table 15, power). Linguistic strategies continued as implicit bias was referenced as
“software of the mind” and “reminiscent of the ‘the native’ or ruled, who could not equal
the ruler” (see Table 15, power). Gender was oriented towards normative, binary sex to
the extent women were said to be “the cultural and biological reproducer of future
generations” (see Table 15, gender). Furthermore, the text labeled and referenced the
three participant groups as flowers: rose, jasmine, and basil, that added to the cognitive
feminization of the studied population (see Table 15, gender). Performance within the
text was convoluted. The purpose of the study was to understand migrant, female Indians
within New Zealand; however, the text focused on ethnic issues such as language, accent,
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and skin color as barriers that confused racism with sexism that could easily have been
argued as a work barrier to Indian migrants regardless of biological sex or gender identity
(see Table 15, performance).
Table 15
Furthermore, if one considers that the ethnic minority woman is Reinforces gender Gender
both a cultural and biological reproducer of future generations, ideology as hyper-
then such positioning is less likely to lead to marginality with feminine or hyper-
underemployment or unemployment which can become fertile masculine
seeding grounds for violence, riots and terrorism, if not by the
women, then by their sons, brothers, husbands and fathers.
Gulab (or rose) stands for the women who are stop-gap Reinforces gender Gender
entrepreneurs and use the micro-enterprise as a stepping-stone ideology as hyper-
while they seek employment, or to supplement their feminine or hyper-
underemployment. Mogra (or the jasmine flower) stands for the masculine
women who have made a conscious choice to have their own
enterprise. Tulsi (or sacred Basil, which is a holy plant for the
Hindus), corresponds to those women who come from the
Indian business caste and who have a family business and would
rarely think of employment outside of this.
…when they see me and my brown skin, they seem to think I Comingles racism with Performance
cannot function in a Western world . . . sexism
…being told that she was: “over qualified had lack of Kiwi
experience and a strange accent”…
This socialization among members of their own or similar ethnic Comingles racism with Performance
communities is often reinforced by perceptions of being seen as sexism
ethnic and hence unable to understand the English language,
being spoken down-to, as well as “smelling of curry”
In other words, the imperial mindset is so deeply embedded in Hyperbolic use of Power
the software of the mind that ethnic minority migrants are linguistic strategies
automatically treated as “the other” reminiscent of “the native”
or ruled, who could not equal the ruler
Wrapped in visible diversity discriminators of ethnicity’s Hyperbolic use of Power

permanent embrace, these women encounter a receiving society linguistic strategies
that needs them but often does not want them.
Article 003 questioned the influence of family on the career choices of women in
Nigeria. The text suggested that women of lower socioeconomic status and high religious
affiliation selected gender-dominate roles such as nursing. In contrast, those from higher
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socioeconomic and lower religious affiliations were more likely to pursue STEM careers.
Power was shown within the family unit and cultural perception that specific careers
were more appropriate for men compared to women (see Table 16, power). Also, the text
examined eight hypotheses and, as a quantitative study, was a densely technical design
that relied on shared knowledge to understand the outcome and expert power in the
translation and explanation of statistical findings (see Table 16, power). Gender was
discussed along with careers, and certain careers were deemed gender-dominate and
presented along the binary sex lines of male and female. For example, nursing and
teaching were stated as female-dominated career paths while STEM (science, technology,
engineering and mathematics) was considered male-dominated (see Table 16, gender).
The influence of gender was intertwined with performance through the alignment of
gender with career selection (see Table 16, performance). The text emphasized the need
to remove barriers for women to enter STEM careers; however, no discussion was made
regarding family or cultural barriers that males faced that may have prevented more men
from entering into teaching or nursing careers (see Table 16, gender). Finally, the
relationship between cultural power and gender expectations intertwined to the extent job
performance became aligned with preconceived sex norms and internal motivation (see
Table 16, performance).
Article 004 focused on the sex composition of mentoring relationships. Power
was demonstrated through historical reliance on earlier research to support the study’s
design and outcome and to assert the importance of gender in mentor-mentee relations
(see Table 17, power). Gender was discussed as normative, binary aspects of male and
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female and applied to the combinations of mentoring-mentee relationships: male-male,
male-female, female-female and female-male. The female sex was noted as the primary
focus of mentoring programs and that women required assistance to develop and advance
in the workplace. In contrast, the male sex was suggested to receive training to develop
more facilitative traits (see Table 17, gender). The sex of the mentor and mentee in
relationships was discussed from a performance perspective in that males tended to
provide more career instruction/guidance.
Table 16
For instance, nursing in an example of female-dominated Reinforces gender-dominate Gender

occupation while engineering is an example of male- career ideologies
dominated occupation.
With this, more female students will be able to go into Textual silence of barriers for Gender
wider range of careers in male-dominated occupations men entering female-dominate
according to their interests and abilities. careers
For instance, most women are employed in low paying, Reinforces ideologies of Performance
traditionally female careers and work such as nursing, monetary compensation and
teaching, social work, sales, care taking, and dismantles cultural values
administrative support positions (Chovwen, 2003).
However, women are underrepresented in science,
mathematics and technology education and careers in
Nigeria (FME, 2003).
The relationships were such that the higher the attitude Demonstrates influence of Performance
towards religion, socio-economic status, achievement family on career choices and not
motivation and family involvement scores, the more the barrier metaphors
female students tended to choose nursing and engineering
(gender-dominated) careers.
The sum of scores for each item stands for the measure of Exerts power through scientific Power
attitude towards religion of the respondents. High scores language
reflect positive attitudes toward religion. The test-retest
reliability with three weeks interval of administration
among 100 undergraduate students was 0.85. The internal
consistency as measured by Cronbach’s a was 0.78. The
scale correlated positively with an attitude toward religion
scale (i.e. a religious commitment scale by Mockabee et
al., 2001) (r ¼ 0.72, df ¼ 98, P , 0.05).
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The purpose of this study therefore, is to investigate the Demonstrates influence of Power
influence of family, individual difference and cultural family on career choices and not
factors on the choice of gender-dominated occupations barrier metaphors
(specifically nursing and engineering) in some tertiary
institutions.
Table 17
Many organisations have established Supports ideologies of female inferiority Gender

mentoring programs aimed specifically to males
at the development and advancement of
women (Clutterbuck and Ragins, 2002).
However, rather than assuming that Supports gender ideology that leadership Gender
certain functions are less likely with skills are accessible regardless of
male mentors, adequate training could biological sex
assist males in developing the necessary
skills for providing these particular
functions.
As with mentee gender, examination of Reinforces stereotypical sex-based Performance

the impact of mentor gender on the ideologies
provision of mentoring functions has met
with mixed results. Burke (1984)
reported that female mentors performed
more psychosocial functions and had a
greater impact on the career aspirations
of their mentees than male mentors.
Gaskill (1991) found that female
mentees with female mentors reported
that their mentors “served as a role
model” and “enabled the exploration of
personal concerns” to a greater extent
than male mentors.
The findings of the current study also Supports gender ideology that leadership Performance
suggest that gender may not be as skills are accessible regardless of
influential, in regard to mentoring biological sex
functions, as has previously been
proffered. Some researchers (Ragins and
McFarlin, 1990; Scandura and Ragins,
1993) have argued that gender role
orientation may be a more influential
factor than gender per se.
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Consistent with Kram’s (1980, 1985) Historical reliance on earlier scientific Power
observations, other researchers have literature to support current study
found that psychosocial functions are
those most likely to be affected by the
gender composition of the relationship.
Early research on mentoring (Kanter, 1977; Historical reliance on earlier scientific Power
Kram, 1980; Levinson, 1978) recognized the literature to support current study
importance of gender in developmental
relationships.
In contrast, women provided more relational and career support (see Table 17,
performance). The text suggested that regardless of the status of females in the
relationship (mentor or mentee), the mentoring outcomes were more supportive than in
male-only relationships. While the text approached the study in support of generalized
gender norms of female as transformational and male as transactional, the findings of the
study argued psychosocial-related functions did not vary across the sex of mentor-mentee
relationships and asserted the findings have more significant implications towards
gender-orientation rather than sex-orientation of participants (see Table 17, performance).
Article 005 explored the evolution of networks throughout the stages of
entrepreneurs’ career growth. The gist of the article was that women created networks
differently from men due to lack of access to networks in early careers. Women were
found to have more family members in their networks. However, as careers progress, the
ratio of male/female network members leveled across sexes that the authors suggested
was due to women taking on male strategies (see Table 18, performance). Gender was
presented as normative, binary sex, with females being the focal point of the study (see
Table 18, gender). The text made the comparison between female professional networks
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and male professional networks, asserting that women, in general, did not (and do not)
have access to male networks, which caused female performance to suffer in early career
stages and that to succeed, women create male-oriented networks (see Table 18, gender).
Female performance ideology was upheld as failure to thrive through historical reliance
on earlier research, and success was measured against reaching an unspecified “echelon”
(see Table 18, performance). Power was produced within the text through the assertion
that individuals cannot choose diversity within their network and back pedaled to state
individuals make choices where to focus (see Table 18, power). Finally, power was
exercised through dense, quantitative study design, that assumed the reader’s knowledge
of ANOVA and expert power to discern textual meaning (see Table 18, power).
Table 18
Taken together, our findings suggest that just as Supports ideologies that women Gender
women in traditional organizations adapt social must take on male attributes for
networks similar to men in order to succeed, their career success
entrepreneurial counterparts build more “male-
oriented” networks as they proceed through venture
phases.
Why are female and male “established” entrepreneurs’ Acknowledges that both sexes Gender
networks so similar? One explanation is that must make career choices
entrepreneurs face the same set of key challenges and
must make decisions about networks which enable
them to access similar resources to meet these business
needs.
Our results suggest that, as female entrepreneurs move Supports ideologies that women Performance
forward in the entrepreneurial process, they tend to must take on male attributes for
increase the proportion of males in their social career success
networks.
Other studies of gendered management networks report Supports ideology of female Performance
that women have more women in their networks and discrimination with failure to
men have more men in their networks (Burke et al., discuss female motivation for
1995) and women’s exclusion from formal networks network selection
limits their ability to advance to the highest echelons in
an organization.
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In these traditional organizations, individuals cannot Supports ideologies that women Power
readily “choose” diversity in work networks. In must take on male attributes for
contrast, the process of starting a new venture involves career success
the entrepreneur self-selecting individuals to
participate in his/her network.
The sample is representative of the national population Expert power through scientific Power
and the data are analyzed using basic descriptive language
statistics, ANOVA and linear regression...Table I
presents the means of the six dependent variables
across the four stages of the entrepreneurial process as
well as a mean for all four stages taken together. Table
I reveals no significant gender differences in
entrepreneurs’ network size, density, proportion of
business relations or proportion of emotional support
relations.
Article 006 consisted of a book review regarding diversity management with a
focus on race and ethnicity and was discarded due to lack of fit. Article 007 was
presented as a commentary or review of research that discussed the unconscious bias of
all persons against female anger. Power was demonstrated through the textual framing of
the study, that introduced the topic of perceptions of leadership capabilities based on the
leader’s sex and display of anger (see Table 19, power). The commentary began with
reference to a male politician’s statement that a popular female presidential candidate was
too angry to be president and placed the reader in a position of agreement or
disagreement with the assertion (see Table 19, performance). Power was also
demonstrated as unseen and intangible implicit bias possessed in all humankind
regardless of sex, education, political affiliation, etc. (see Table 19, power). In short, the
study found that all people viewed female anger as inappropriate and detrimental to
leadership capabilities; however, men were not sanctioned for anger outbursts (see Table
19, gender). Gender was introduced as binary, normative sex with a focus on perceptions
of female leaders’ anger (see Table 19, gender). Performance centered around perception
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of leader’s anger according to biological sex with the impact of factors such as
justification of, or sorrow over, on the ongoing perception of individual’s capacity to lead
effectively and displayed anger were viewed as less competent and out of control (see
Table 19, performance).
Table 19
…people strongly disapprove of women's expressing Supports gender-role ideologies Gender

anger in a professional context. At the same time, they
tend to admire men for doing so.
“participants rated the angry female CEO as Supports gender-role ideologies Gender
significantly less competent than all of the other
targets, including even the angry female trainee.”
The Chairman of the Republican National Committee Supports gender-role ideologies Performance
caused something of a furor in 2006 when he asserted
on national television that Senator Hillary Rodham
Clinton was too angry to be elected president.
They viewed “angry female targets as significantly Supports gender-role ideologies Performance
more `out of control' than the angry male targets and
unemotional male and female targets.”
The new research finds these views to prevail among Discussion of implicit bias Power
men and women alike, liberals and conservatives alike,
sexists and non-sexists alike… the findings suggest
bias against angry women to be “a deep-seated and
even implicit reaction that people are subject to
regardless of their conscious beliefs that sexism or
group dominance is wrong.”
Dr Brescoll's paper, which was judged the best Expert power as researcher Power
dissertation-based submission to the Academy of
Management's division on gender and diversity in
organizations, concludes:
[W]omen, like men, have the same need to achieve
status and power. At the same time, to achieve and
maintain high social status, professional women may
also have to behave unemotionally in order to be seen
as rational. Thus, it is important to identify strategies
that professional women can use to express anger
without incurring a social penalty. The present studies
make a gesture in this regard with the finding that
external, situational explanations for anger ameliorate
negative responses to angry women.
166
Article 008 was a brief commentary on public managers' view of their leadership
abilities and underestimation of themselves. Performance was introduced through a tool
that measured leaders against specific behaviors and showed that leaders regularly
underestimated themselves compared to their peers and staff's opinion of the leader’s
ability. Gender was primarily aligned to performance as the text acknowledged the study
found stereotypical views of female leaders as more supportive, keeping promises, and
developing staff (see Table 20, gender). Female managers were suggested to have more
awareness over stress levels, remain more positive and were rated higher by their team
compared to male counterparts (see Table 20, performance). Conversely, male managers
were rated higher in transactional leadership roles such as line manager (see Table 20,
performance). Power in the text was confusing with an assertion of the capabilities of
public sector managers but lacked a definition of public sector managers, comparison of
findings against other domains and why the outcomes were essential to the advancement
of literature (see Table 20, power).
Table 20
The results throw up some stereotypical views of Reinforces gender stereotypes Gender
gender difference with women managers recognized
for a nurturing role. Women managers also have a
more positive view of their own ability to recognize
stress, make people feel important and help others to
deliver.
Team members consistently rate women managers Reinforces gender stereotypes Performance
more highly than male managers on 86 percent of
behaviors (36 out of 42). They rate women as more
successful than men at keeping promises; consulting
others; developing staff; and clarifying direction.
167
Line managers tend to rate the leadership skills of male Reinforces gender stereotypes Performance
managers who work for them more highly than they do
female managers. They rate men more highly than
women on 70 percent (29 out of 42) leadership
behaviors, but the differences in ratings are small.
The work foundation's analysis of data from across the Assertion of performance without Power
UK public sector shows clear agreement on what definition
public sector leaders do best and where they could
improve their leadership performance. Public sector
leaders are most successful when it comes to taking
responsibility for their own and their team's actions;
not taking credit for other people's successes; and
giving praise where it is due.
Team members rate managers highly for an ability to Assertion of performance without Power
develop relationships inside and outside the definition
organization and to operate using trust rather than
suspicion. Their line managers give them credit for an
ability to set a good example by practising what they
preach and for raising issues upwards with courage and
conviction. However, public sector managers are seen
to be less good at providing an inspirational view of
the future and delegating effectively.
Article 009 was discarded due to lack of fit as a commentary on discrimination
program guidelines within the United Kingdom. Article 010 examined the narrative of
men as leaders in gender stereotypical research conducted by a non-profit entity
dedicated to women. Article 010 demonstrated how power, performance and gender
could be intertwined to make a discussion of one without the other(s) difficult. The text
exhibited power, performance and gender when it, specifically and only, addressed
female gender stereotypes as problematic and without discussion of the negative impact
of male gender stereotypes (see Table 21, gender). Additionally, the text exercised power
through the use of linguistic strategies that employed strongly charged words and
metaphors such as “double-binds,” “no-win dilemmas,” and “men-as-default-leaders”
(see Table 21, performance). Power continued to be exercised as the text communicated
findings but failed to provide evidence and positioned the text as expert power (see Table
168
21, power). Next, the commentary stated “findings strongly suggest,” forcing the reader
to assess personal agreement as the text did not provide proof or criteria for the findings
(see Table 21, power). Gender was discussed from the female perspective and subject to
gender stereotypes that negatively impact female performance and power within the
confines of work (see Table 21, gender). Female performance was measured against
western countries, specifically, Europe and America, that suggested westernization as the
role model for planet Earth and local cultures of countries that did not align to the west
were antiquated, ergo, wrong (see Table 21, performance). Finally, in the realm of power,
the text failed to note gender stereotypes were generated and applied to both sexes.
Table 21
This report, the third in Catalyst's in-depth series Use of metaphors and Gender
examining the pervasive and damaging effects of stereotypes support ideologies
gender stereotyping in the workplace, focuses on of gender inequality
the consequences of gender bias and three
specific “double-bind dilemmas” frequently
experienced by women business leaders.
Women leaders are perceived as “never just Supports ideologies of male- Gender
right.” If women business leaders act consistent as-leader
with gender stereotypes, they are considered too
soft.
Catalyst census shows that, even though women Assertion of imbalance Performance
make up over 50 percent of the management, without discussion of
professional, and related occupations in the USA, appropriate balance
only 15.6 percent of Fortune 500 corporate
officers and 14.6 percent of Fortune 500 board
directors are women.
Although multiple research studies show that Historical reliance that Performance
men and women exhibit similar leadership styles, supports gender stereotypes
Catalyst's prior research indicates that men do not
face the persistent gender stereotyping that
frequently place women business leaders in
“double-bind, `no-win' dilemmas.”
169
Catalyst findings strongly suggest that gender Supports ideology of female Power
stereotypes lead organizations to routinely disadvantage
underestimate and underutilize women's
leadership talent.
According to the study, which interviewed senior Use of metaphors and Power
business executives from the USA and Europe, stereotypes support ideologies
men are still viewed as “default leaders” and of gender inequality
women as “atypical leaders,” with the perception
that they violate accepted norms of leadership, no
matter what the leadership behavior. Thus, the
studies say, the masculine leadership norm
creates three connected, but distinct, “double-
bind dilemmas” facing women leaders today.
Article 011 argued women are not the only group that faces discrimination to
attain senior positions and that other groups in the study faced more significant obstacles
compared to women. Gender was presented as normative, binary sex from the female
perspective and used the “glass-cliff” metaphor as having impacted female career
advancement (see Table 22, gender). Gender as male was presented in relation to
normative, binary maleness with the standard ideal of heterosexual, white male and that
performance was negatively impacted for all individuals who did not fit the ideal (see
Table 22, power). Power was presented through multiple instances of text quotations
inserted by and from the entity having conducted the study, which was presented as an
authority on diversity initiatives and issues (see Table 22, power; Table 22, performance).
Table 22
“The `glass cliff' is not specific to women but also Use of metaphors and stereotypes Gender
affects those who do not meet the standard idea of support ideologies of gender inequality
a heterosexual, white male workforce.”
170
But a new report from the Chartered Institute of Supports normative, binary biological Gender
Personnel and Development (CIPD) shows sex-based gender ideology
women are not the only ones to find themselves
up against this invisible barrier.
“To attract and retain talent, employers need to be Places onus of experiences of individual Performance
aware the impact negative experiences can have differences on organizations
on people's performance and take appropriate
action to address them. There is growing evidence
that a positive approach to diversity can bring real
business benefits – these important messages
together with guidance about how to make
progress need to be communicated to employers
and more work needs to be done to find practical
interventions that fully engage workforce
diversity.”
The CIPD research respondents who have been Use of metaphors to support ideologies Performance
affected by the “glass cliff” identify three core of gender inequality
issues for the attention of employers
“The `glass cliff' is not specific to women but also Discriminates against heterosexual, Power
affects those who do not meet the standard idea of white males
a heterosexual, white male workforce.”
“We cannot and should not depend on legislation Legislative mandates reinforcing Power
as the only lever for making progress. Research gender-disparity ideologies
shows that leading edge employers on diversity
don't just seek to comply with the law but tailor
good employment and working practices to
support business goals.”
Article 012 was discarded from analysis as a listing of the best small and mid-size
companies to work in America gathered from Great Place to Work Institute, LLC. Text
did not focus on performance, gender, or power and was removed from the current
project. Moving to Article 013, the text examined board effectiveness and gender
diversity in Nigerian banks. Expert power was prevalent throughout the text as a
quantitative study that relied heavily on statistical findings (see Table 23, power). Power
was produced and maintained through government intervention as the text provided
details of many countries that legally mandated a percentage of women be included on
company board of directors (see Table 23, power). Performance was brought forth as the
171
study argued that mandated legislative quotas diluted the credibility of women that had
been attained through female achievement (see Table 23, performance). Gender was
discussed from multiple perspectives, including biological sex, gender identity and
congruence with the inclusion of both sexes and identity spectrum. Finally, the
combination of power, performance and gender was seen in assertions that theorists (see
Table 23, performance) argue-counterargue for gender diversity programs because of
women’s ability to be tougher and without bias compared to their male counterparts (see
Table 23, gender; Table 23, performance).
Table 23
Resource dependency and agency theorists are also Reinforces normative, binary Gender
advocating for gender diversity because of the ability of gender ideology
female board members to provide dynamism to boardroom
politics, tougher and unbiased monitoring of agents than
men, especially, in the areas of board committees, attending
meetings and questioning the statuesque (Aslam et al.,
2019; Adams and Funk, 2012).
Female directors are perceived as a strategic resource to the Use of metaphors and stereotypes Gender
organization because, they possess higher average skills support ideologies of gender
relative to men, having successfully broken the glass ceiling inequality
effect (Gul et al., 2011). Female board members also
possess technical intelligence, social intelligence and
leadership skills needed for norm changes (Ellickson,
2001). Srinidhi et al. (2020) identified board norms (board
processes) and improved governance (board outputs) as the
two market-for-norms frameworks to board effectiveness of
female board members, even when they do not possess the
majority of the symbolic power.
Agency theorists, therefore, argue for a governance Relationship is made between Performance
structure that promotes effective monitoring of agents motivation theories and biological
against their self-serving behaviour to reduce agency cost. sex
Some of the governance structures recommended by the
agency theorists are in the constitution of a board dominated
by non-executive directors (traditionally used to measure
board independence from agents) and gender diversity. The
presence of nonexecutive directors and female
representation on the corporate board is deemed to promote
board independence and innovativeness
172
Their appointment into corporate boards is, therefore, Dismantles gender parity ideology Performance
because of previous achievements, which translates to and reinforces value of individual
appointing extremely competent board members. On the achievement
strength of this evidence, we do not recommend mandatory
female representation in corporate boards or quota-based
initiates that will dilute their achievement so far…
Countries have also enacted laws that encourage female Legislative mandates reinforcing Power
representation on corporate boards. Norway represents the gender-disparity ideologies
first effort in this direction, as the country enacted a law in
2003 that stipulated a 40% threshold of female directors in
all boards of public companies in Norway by 2008. Spain
enacted similar legislation in 2007 ….
Firstly, the p-value of the first-order autocorrelation is Expert power through scientific Power
significant, implying the rejection of the null hypothesis of language
non-autocorrelation for the AR(1) test. Secondly, the p-
value of the second-order autocorrelation is not significant,
which implies the absence or non-rejection of the null
hypothesis of non-autocorrelation for the AR(2) test. The
third is the non-significance of Hansen/Sargan test statistics,
implying the non-rejection of the null hypothesis…
Article 014 presented an argument to decouple gender and sex as a continuation
of data collection spanning 50 years. Exerting expert power, the research team touted
themselves as having studied gender in management since the topic began an
investigation in earnest during the 1970s; however, a shift from power to gender was seen
in the insertion the research began as women entered the workforce en masse. The text
explained the original data collection was to understand why few women moved to
management positions, but the more recent emphasis moved literature away from female-
only gender stereotypes. The text advanced literature by distancing ideologies of men as
transactional and women as transformational leaders and accessed the possibility of
moving concepts of a good manager to one of androgyny (see Table 24, gender). Gender
was used as normative, binary representations through the discussion of the number of
women in “top management” and the use of normative male names of “Steve” and
“Dave” as a passive-aggressive reference to the number of women in Fortune 500 CEO

173
roles (see Table 24, gender). The text assumed knowledge of the number of Fortune 500
CEO roles total 500 and failed to note the acceptable number for balanced hiring (see
Table 24, gender). Although the text aimed to move away from sex-oriented gender
ideology, the ideology was often reinforced through examples of the performance of male
and female stereotypes in management and cultural norms (see Table 24, power; Table
24, performance). After the historical background of the five decades of data collection
and inclusion of the new study were framed, the text moved toward a more balanced
discussion of gender as masculine or feminine qualities and distant from normative,
binary male and female sex orientation. Through the continuation of expert power of fifty
years of research, the article concluded with a discussion and positive evidence towards a
move from stereotypical perceptions of the goodness of fit of male and female leaders to
more towards androgyny (see Table 24, gender; Table 24, performance; Table, power).
Table 24
The proportion of women at top management levels Negative linguistic strategy and textual Gender
remains very small (Powell, 2020); there are more silence
FTSE 100 CEOs named “Steve” than there are
female CEOs, and there is a tie with the number of
FTSE 100 CEOs named “Dave” (Ball, 2019).
Bem (1974) introduced the concept of androgyny to Supports androgyny ideology and Gender
the psychology of gender literature as an alternative dismantles normative, binary gender
to a narrowly masculine or narrowly feminine ideologies
behavioral profile; in contrast to the prevailing
gender-based standard, androgynous individuals
would be able to freely display both masculine and
feminine traits.
Managerial stereotypes are important to examine Dismantles gender stereotyping Performance

because they may affect decisions made about
individuals with respect to leader or manager roles
and women’s decisions regarding whether to apply or
prepare themselves for such roles (Powell, 2012,
2020)
174
Stability and change in the linkage between gender Dismantles normative, binary gender Performance
and managerial stereotypes may provide a partial ideologies
explanation for why women remain disadvantaged in
attaining and advancing within managerial ranks
despite increases in their overall numbers.
According to role congruity theory (Eagly and Karau, Reinforces gender stereotypes Power
2002), the linkage between gender and managerial
stereotypes places female managers at a disadvantage
by forcing them to deal with the perceived
incongruity between the managerial role and their
gender role. If women display predominantly
feminine characteristics, they fail to meet the
requirements of the managerial role. However, if
women display predominantly masculine
characteristics, they fail to meet the requirements of
the female gender role. In contrast, because the
managerial role and the male gender role are
perceived as congruent, men’s legitimacy as
managers is not questioned.
For example, social-system-centered theories, which Reinforces gender stereotypes Power

focus on gendered societal processes that influence
the enactment of leadership (Cal_as et al., 2014),
suggest that patriarchal social systems promote an
emphasis on masculinity in managerial stereotypes
(Alvesson and Due Billing, 2009; Marshall, 1984).
Lumpa indicates the text analyzed
Article 015 stated an original contribution to the literature through an
understanding of perceived barriers to female career progression. Gender was presented
in generalities of normative, binary male and female sexes and gender was discussed
exclusively as female throughout the text. The power of textual silence and assumption of
knowledge was evidenced through the use of negative linguistic phrasing such as “33%
of businesses across the globe have no women in senior leadership roles,” that required
the reader to both recognize that 66% of businesses around the world (66 out of 100)
have women in leadership roles and, by extension, decide if 66/100 is an acceptable
amount (see Table 25, gender). Performance was presented through metaphors such as
“glass-ceiling” and “getting in, getting on and getting out,” that suggested that women
could not adequately perform as leaders regardless of effort, as well as an assertion that
175
young women unwittingly underestimated the difficulty involved in reaching the
unspecified “top jobs” metaphor (see Table 25, gender; Table 25, performance). Power
was shown through the study design, that presented female student participants with
leading questions with a potential to steer responses such as “Despite being talented,
female students fail to be recognized for several leadership positions and teams at the
institute/college” and “female students are seldom given full credit for their successes by
their team and peers” (see Table 25, power) In summary, the theme of the study
suggested young, female students were unaware of the challenges that laid between them
and their dreams but failed to question or consider young, male students may have, also,
been unaware of the challenges of their path to success or the sacrifice and resilience
needed to reach their dreams (see Table 25, performance; Table 25, power).
Table 25
In the USA, for example, women represent Negative linguistic strategy Gender
less than 16% of board members or senior and textual silence
leadership positions in Fortune 500
companies (Mulligen-Ferry et al., 2014;
Warner, 2014). Also, 33% of businesses
across the globe have no women in senior
leadership roles, and this number has not
changed since 2011, with the capability and
lack of preparedness being key challenges
(Catalyst, 2017).
Across the three phases of their career, Use of metaphor supports Gender
“Getting In, Getting on and Getting out” … ideologies of gender
found a wide range of issues such as inequality
education, recruitment, career phases,
succession planning, mentoring and career
patterns impact the career progress of
women.
176
Career development literature shows that Dismantles bifurcated gender Performance

psychological and attitudinal attributes are ideologies
important for one’s career growth irrespective of
gender
Women outnumber men on college campuses, yet Negative linguistic strategy Performance
less than 20% of them make it to the top assuming shared knowledge/
management levels (Warner, 2014). agreement of acceptable
number
Acceptance is where the respondent believes that Negative linguistic strategy Power
women do not have a preference for career steering consumers opinion of
growth but instead prefer family-based goals. An goodness of career or family
example item being “Women prefer a balanced
life more than gaining highly paid careers.”
Mentoring programs implemented in Negative linguistic strategy Power

organizations play a vital role in empowering and textual silence suggesting
women, so they are not discouraged by men do not need or benefit
perceptions of career barriers and ensure they do from mentoring programs
not slip through the pipeline. When organizations
proactively inculcate and practice empowerment
programs, women employees tend to experience
upward mobility (Anderson, 2005) while helping
them overcome to a certain extent the barriers
still persistent for women, including structural,
lifestyle, institutional-mindsets and individual
mindsets
Article 016 presented itself as a conceptual paper. The paper positioned females
as unable to reach an undefined “senior” position in hospital facilities (see Table 26,
gender; Table 26, performance). While women were asserted to be employed in greater
numbers than men, gender was discussed as a disparity towards women who, regardless
of promotion, were pigeonholed into roles that were deemed inferior: human resources,
marketing, risk, legal and nursing (see Table 26, power). Power was introduced through
the insertion of leading questions, for example: “how can we explain the gap between
desired leadership qualities and the shunning of talented women?” The text became
unapproachable when the dimension of race was randomly introduced to gender

177
stereotype of an “angry Black woman” (see Table 26, gender). The text presented
suggestions of creating co-leadership between nursing staff (women) and strategic leaders
(men) who would act as champions and mentors for the nurses and suggested implicit
bias was solely held by and the onus of male peers (see Table 26, performance).
Article 017 explored the phenomenon of gender in workplace promotion. Gender
was introduced as normative, binary male-female sex and focused primarily on the ability
of women to attain promotion compared to their male counterparts (see Table 27,
performance). The participants were sourced from and living within Pakistan, and gender
stereotyping was asserted as a primary cause for the lack of female promotion (see Table
27, gender). Power was demonstrated through religious and cultural norms that
maintained an attitude on the part of Pakistan’s society toward patriarchy, that both sexes
embraced (see Table 27, power). Conversely, efforts by the Pakistan government to
increase the number of women working demonstrated power through legislative
intervention (see Table 27, power). Performance was tied to gender stereotyping as the
study found that women were promoted less often and the text called for organizational
leaders to develop processes that supported government intervention strategies (see Table
27, performance; Table 27, power). Power and performance were combined as more
research was needed on non-western countries to understand work experiences outside
western countries (see Table 27, performance). Finally, although gender was discussed
from a normative, binary perspective, the text positively noted that both sexes faced
societal effects due to Pakistan’s rigid sex-role ideology and socioeconomic barriers and
discrimination (see Table 27, gender).

178
Table 26
The intersection of race and gender also distinctly Use of metaphors and Gender
sets this apart because for other women of color stereotypes support ideologies
and especially Black women, who face of gender inequality
overlapping discrimination unique to them
(Crenshaw, 1991) stereotype threat might play a
bigger role, i.e. the stereotype of an “angry Black
woman.”
Ultimately, women who seek top management Stereotype and use of Gender
positions must weed through culturally formed negative linguistic strategy
stereotypes and barriers with confusing twists and
turns, dead ends and unusual paths (Eagly and
Carli, 2007).
However, gender disparity is still prevalent in Reinforces gender disparity Performance
senior health-care positions even though women ideologies without
continue to play critical roles in strengthening the examination of cause
integration of health services. Women are
significantly less likely to be promoted to senior
health-care management, and in most cases, even
after controlling for individual- and
organizational level characteristics (LaPierre and
Zimmerman, 2012).
Either way, women may be judged more harshly Textual silence: unconscious Performance
than their peers who are men with unconscious biases are by both sexes
biases that can significantly skew judgment in
hiring and promotion decisions.
How can we bridge the gap between mounting Exerts power through Power
evidence of women’s leadership effectiveness, on linguistic strategy to steer the
the one hand, and the shortfall of women’s consumer
representation in health-care senior management
on the other?
When promoted, women more often than men are Use of metaphors support Power
pigeonholed into support functions such as HR, ideologies of gender
marketing, risk, legal and nursing, that, while inequality
important, are not perceived as high-profile,
strategic service lines.
179
Table 27
Women are generally perceived as caretakers Use of stereotypes support Gender

(i.e. caring, communicative and encouraging) ideologies of gender
and men as leaders (bold, determined and inequality
self-reliant). These stereotypes can
discourage women from going for promotion
or for them to be excluded from training or
from taking on leadership roles.
In other words, instead of seeing a lack of Dismantles bifurcated Gender
human capital as a personal failure and gender ideologies
blaming women, we highlight the fact that
both men and women encountered
socioeconomic barriers, institutional barriers
and individual discrimination.
Tlaiss and Mendelson (2014) and Orser and Dismantles ideologies of Performance
Leck (2010) specifically highlighted the need westernization as a sign of
to include data from non-western countries success
to provide a more accurate understanding of
the factors affecting working women in non-
western countries.
In this study, we found that men were more Legislative mandates Performance
likely to be promoted than women in reinforcing gender-
Pakistan, despite having similar levels of disparity ideologies
work experience. This speaks to the
suggestion that Pakistani women faced
gender discrimination, which affect their
opportunity for promotional advancement in
their career. Given the commitment of the
Pakistan government for a more gender-
equitable workforce in Pakistan, researchers,
practitioners and organizational leaders are
call upon to develop better human resource
processes and policies.
It is a patriarchal, Muslim society with rigid Negative linguistic strategy Power
gender segregations (Ali et al., 2011; that dismantles Pakistan
Countrymeter, 2020). Mobility is highly culture
restricted, and Pakistani women are often not
allowed to go outside their house without the
chaperone of a male family member (Adeel
and Yeh, 2018; Adeel et al., 2017).
180
The Government of Sindh (district in Legislative mandates Power

Pakistan) is in the process of passing relevant reinforcing gender-
provincial legislations that will allow home- disparity ideologies
based workers (i.e. made up of mostly
women) access to minimal wage, social
security and other benefits (Patchamuthu and
Grown, 2017). Similarly, the Government of
Pakistan (2014) has put forth a vision for
2025 that will see women participation in the
workforce increase to 45%.
a
Lump indicates the text analyzed
Article 018 examined working age adults with nearly equal male/female
participants by biological sex. Although the study sought to understand why fewer
women embarked on entrepreneurship pursuits compared to men, the study approached
the subject of gender through a balanced discussion of biological sex, gender, gender
identity and role congruence (see Table 28, gender; Table 28, performance; Table 28;
power). Gender and performance were intertwined and explored the participants'
perception of a successful entrepreneur by the participants' sex, gender identity and
gender congruence (see Table 28, performance). Additionally, gender and performance
were discussed in unison through gender-role theory, that suggested activities, including
work related, were socialized based on biological sex to children making occupation
gender oriented (see Table 28, gender). The text and outcome of the research stated
entrepreneurship was perceived as a hyper-masculine occupation tying the likelihood of
an individual entering into an entrepreneurial career dependent upon how the individual
viewed themselves (agentic/masculine or communal/feminine) and not related to
biological sex (see Table 28, gender). The text exerted power through the inclusion and
integration of theoretical frameworks that supported the study’s use of quantitative

181
analysis rested on shared understanding and expert power in the translation and
agreement of the finding’s validity (see Table 28, power).
Table 28
The study follows gender-role theory in claiming that Supports gender-role theory and Gender
men and women are socialised to different gender roles. sex socialization ideologies
Specifically, already at an early stage of development,
boys and girls learn gender-appropriate activities and
behaviours (Eagly, 1987).
The most important findings include the hyper- Dismantles gender ideology as Gender
masculine perception of a successful entrepreneur. hyper-feminine or hyper-
Furthermore, we found that biological sex had no direct masculine
effect on the willingness to start a company. Rather, the
congruence between individuals’ gender-role
orientation and their gendered perception of a
successful entrepreneur was decisive in whether an
individual develops entrepreneurial intensions.
Secondly, the study corroborates the gendered
innovations project view that incorporating gender
considerations enhances the understanding of
differences between men and women in
entrepreneurship. The study shows that the explanation
of the differences should be sought in prevalent gender
norms and stereotypes rather than biological sex itself.
By contrast, the characteristics of entrepreneurship are Supports gender-role theory and Performance
incongruent with the socially shared notion of sex socialization ideologies
femininity... Consequently, one reason women may
have lower entrepreneurial intentions is the prevalent
stereotypes indicating that entrepreneurship is an
occupation inappropriate for them because either they
are incapable of becoming an entrepreneur or different
gender roles are prescribed for them.
Specifically, our results convey how biological sex and Dismantles gender ideology as Performance
gender interact in entrepreneurship: although women hyper-feminine or hyper-
expressed lower entrepreneurial intentions than men masculine
did, biological sex was not an explanation of the
difference. The model shows that entrepreneurial
intentions are best explained by psychological resources
that increase with perceived congruence between an
individual and the gendered notion of a successful
entrepreneur. Or worse, focussing on biological sex
might obscure the role of an individual’s gender
identification and gender stereotypes that indicate,
which occupations are appropriate for whom and who
can succeed in the field.
182
Congruence theory (Eagly and Karau, 2002) further Historical reliance on earlier Power
explains that the preferences are likely to be distorted research theory to support
because of the biases against adopting masculine roles current study
by individuals with predominantly feminine
characteristics (and vice versa).
Bem (1974) herself observed that she had identified Historical reliance on earlier Power
traits as masculine or feminine based on the frequency research theory to support
with which they were considered typical of men or current study
women at the time the questionnaire was developed.
Mesolevel
Following microlevel analysis, the text found in Women in Management Review
(WIMR), Volume 22, Issue 8, 2007 and Gender in Management (GIM), Volume 36,
Issue 6, 2021 were compared in juxtaposition to one another. WIMR contained a total of
12 bodies of text. Of the bodies of work, five were scholarly-peer reviewed research
articles with clear authorship, and seven were commentaries of unknown authorship.
Although the purpose of the study was to investigate messages regarding gender,
performance, and power found in gender leadership research text and the focus of the
mesolevel comparison of the two issues was primarily on the 11 peer-reviewed scholarly
research articles, the commentaries warranted attention due to the accessibility of the text
to the layperson with the ability to shape perceptions of the consumer. The commentaries
were labeled as Article 006 through Article 012. Article 006, Article 009 and Article 012
were discarded due to lack of fit. Article 006 was identified as a book review on race and
ethnic discrimination; Article 009 was a commentary on diversity program guidelines
released in the United Kingdom; and Article 012 listed a ranking of the top small to mid-
size companies as announced by the Society of Human Resource Management. The
author(s) of Article 007, Article 008, Article 010 and Article 011 were unidentifiable.
183
Each of the commentaries was female focused and referred to gender from a normative,
binary perspective. Although each commentary discussed aspects of gender, power and
performance, power was the most prevalent factor. For example, while the commentaries
were accessible to laypersons, the text approached each article through expert power to
share content deemed important without the support of data or counter argument (see
Table 19, gender; Table 20, gender; Table 21, gender; Table 22, gender). Finally,
performance was discussed through inequality, metaphors or disadvantage (see Table 19,
performance; Table 20, performance; Table 21, performance; Table 22, performance).
A mesolevel analysis of the scholarly, peer-reviewed research articles in the
WIMR issue was labeled Article 001 through Article 005. Analysis of Text Authorship
data (see Table 29) revealed three of five WIMR research articles were written by two or
more authors. The sex of the first author was female in all articles except for one, that a
male solely authored on coaching. In totality, there were ten authors (eight female and
two male), and nine of the ten possessed Ph.D.’s, with the education of the tenth being
unidentifiable. Analysis of the Text Structure (see Table 30) data revealed the research
methodology applied in four of the five studies was quantitative, with the fifth using a
qualitative strategy. There were no consistent theoretical frameworks or variables used
across the studies. The keyword “women” was found in three articles, as was the
keyword “gender,” with one or both being found in each study; however, a direct
reference to men/males' sex or gender was not found. Three of the five studies focused on
a female issue within a specific country, and the country’s name was found within the
keywords, while the remaining studies did not note country origin as a factor in the study.
184
The six scholarly, peer-reviewed research articles analyzed in the GIM issue were
labeled Article 013 through Article 018. Analysis of Text Authorship data (see Table 29)
revealed all six articles were coauthored by three or more authors. The sex of the first
author was female in four articles and male in the remaining two; however, only Article
017 was authored by all males and Article 018 by all females, meaning four of the six
texts were authored by a combination of males and females. In totality, there were 20
authors (11 female and nine male), and all possessed Ph.D.’s except for one medical
doctor. Analysis of the Text Structure (see Table 30) data revealed the research
methodology applied in five of the six studies was quantitative, with the sixth presented
as a conceptual paper. There were no consistent theoretical frameworks or variables
identified across the studies. The keyword “women” or “female” was found in three
articles, while the keyword “gender” was presented in five articles, with the exception
being Article 015. However, a direct reference to men/males was not found. Three of the
six studies focused on a females’ failure to advance in the workplace within a specific
country, and the country’s name was found within the keywords. In contrast, the
remaining studies did not note the location as a factor in the study.
Analysis decisions were made regarding codification as themes of gender,
performance and power emerged differently. For example, specification of binary,
normative perspectives of male or female was applied through the textual reference of
terms such as man, woman, male, female, he, she and so forth occurred all research
articles. Gender as non-binary, fluid concepts of masculinity and femininity were present,
although infrequently. Article 004 (see Table 17, performance) and Article 014 (see
185
Table 24, gender) possessed the text that approached the relationship of gender as non-
binary, maleness and femaleness. The juxtaposition of male and female relationships was
broached in Article 004 (see Table, 17, performance), Article 005 (see Table 18, gender)
and only once in Article 014 (see Table 24, gender). Performance and power emerged
differently according to the text’s focus. For example, performance was discussed
frequently through stereotyping (see Table 16, gender; Table 19, gender; Table 20,
gender; Table 21, power; Table 24, performance) or need for female advancement (see
Table 014, power; Table 21, power; Table 22, gender; Table 25, gender; Table 26,
gender). Analytical memos were used in the codification process and assisted the analyst
in making decisions or resolving questions regarding the text. For example, Article 001
argued an insufficient number of women were advancing in employment at Turkish
banks and relied on the hiring practices of foreign banks as the standard to be reached.
Through reflection, building blocks, triangulation and additional research, the analyst
identified each of the foreign banks were located within Europe or America and revealed
a recurring theme in Article 001, Article 003, Article 015, Article 016 and Article 018 to
take on western ideologies of success.
Macrolevel
The final step in the study was to conduct analysis holistically at a macrolevel.
Collectively and across issues, the gender identity of the authors is unknown; however,
from a binary, bifurcated perspective of gender, there were more female/women authors
compared to male/men authors; however, GIM saw a significant uptick in the number of
male authors (see Table 29). Text authorship (see Table 29) and Text Structure (see Table
186
30) showed a relationship between the author’s areas of interest and focus of study and
that nearly all possessed a doctorate in philosophy.
Table 29
Text Authorship
Article Author(s) Sex Education Areas of interests
001 Culpan, O. Female Ph.D. International Management, job satisfaction, human resources,
banking, finance, banking finance
Marzotto, T. Female Ph.D. American government, interest groups women, public policy and
social change, automobility and the environment, politics & stem
cell research
Demir, N. Male Ph.D.
Financing the rural and agricultural Sector in the EU, USA and
Turkey, measuring risks in finance with emphasis on the banking
system, stock market volatility, efficiency in banking, efficiency
of agriculture with environmental factors
002 Pio, E. Female Ph.D. Intersections of management and work, ethnicity, and spirituality
and religion
003 Salami, S.O. Male Ph.D. Counseling
004 Fowler, J.L Female Ph.D. Mentoring relationships, learning and teaching processes, and
counselling
Gudmundsson, A.J. Female Ph.D. Human capability development, and encouraging the nexus
between research and business practice to stimulate and inform
innovation
O'Gorman, J.G. Male Ph.D. Memory, learning, GSR, cognitive neuropsychology, executive
function, neuropsychology assessment, autobiological memory,
psychophysiology
005 Klyver, K. Female Ph.D. Entrepreneurship, social networks, culture, institutions
Terejesen, S. Female Ph.D. Strategic management, entrepreneurship, corporate governance,

higher education, philanthropy
006 Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown

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013 Adamus, M. Female Ph.D. Reasoning, decision theory, rationality, economic psychology,
gender differences, gender discrimination
Čavojová,V. Female
Ph.D. Social cognition, cognitive psychology, decision processes
Šrol, J. Male
Ph.D. Dual process theory, reasoning, decision making, intuition,
individual differences, cognitive bias
014 Belasen, A.T. Male Ph.D. Healthcare, leadership, Ecology & Evolutionary biology
Belasen, A.M. Female M.D. Medicine
Belasen, A.R. Female Ph.D. Thermal biology, amphibians, reptiles, physiological ecology,
comparative physiology, thermoregulation
Belasen, A.R. Male Ph.D. Economics, finance, health economics
015 Biju, S. Female Ph.D. Association rules, higher education, classification
Shetty, K. Female Ph.D. Marketing management, behavioral psychology, consumer

psychology, branding, personality assessment, entrepreneurship
Fitzsimmons, J.R. Male Ph.D. Unknown
016 Okoyeuzu, C. Female Ph.D. Financial management, capital structure, corporate finance
Ujunwa, A. Male Ph.D. Development economics, economic growth, finance, GDP,

macroeconomics
Ujunwa, A.I. Female Ph.D. Banking, finance econometrics, development finance, finance
Onah, E.O. Male Ph.D. Comparative politics, elections and voting behavior, ethnicity,
political conflict
017 Powell, G.N., Male Ph.D. Gender and leadership, glass ceiling, work and family, gender
and entrepreneurship
Butterfield, D.A. Male Ph.D. Leadership, gender and leadership, promotion of women to top
management positions, leadership and organization phenom in
other cultures
Jiang, X. Male Ph.D. Leadership, empowerment, creativity, and conflict management
018 Waqar, S., Female Ph.D. Counseling
Hanif, R., Female Ph.D. Social psychology, testing measurements
Loh, J. Female Ph.D. Organizational behavior, resilience, optimism, positive

motivators, gender issues
Note. Data capture of the author(s)’ sex, education, and area of interest assisted in identifying the various discourse
identities that may influence text selection and usage.

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Table 30
Text Structure
Article Keywords Theoretical framework Methodology Variables Population
001 Banking, Turkey, career Human Resources Quantitative Education, gender, bank Macro-analysis
development, job mobility, Assessment Theory type (state-owned, private of existing data
women, human resource or foreign)
management
002 Ethnic minorities, Migrant Imperial Imprimature Qualitative N/A 45 Indian

workers, New Zealand, Theory female migrant
women, entrepreneurialism entrepreneurs
003 Gender, Nigeria, careers, Gender-Dominated Quantitative Family involvement, 340 female
women, social interaction Occupation Theory attitude towards religion, students
achievement motivation, randomly
socioeconomic status, work selected
values (10): leadership,
interesting experience,
esteem, security, material
profit, social service,
independence, self-
expression, intellectual &
achievement
004 Gender, mentoring, mentors Mentor-mentee Gender Quantitative Personal and emotional 500
Theory guidance, learning participants,
facilitation, coaching, 272 mentees,
advocacy, career 228 mentors
development facilitation,
role modeling, strategies
and systems advice,
friendship
005 Entrepreneurialism, social Social Network Theory Quantitative Venture stage, social 134 females,
networks, gender, business networks, network node 266 male
formation composition, & density. entrepreneurs
006 None None Commentary None None
013 Entrepreneurial intentions, Gender-role Theory, Quantitative Entrepreneurial intention, 552 working
gender-role orientation, Gender-Dominated perceived age adults,
female entrepreneurship, Occupation Theory masculinity/femininity of 49.5% female,
gender-role theory, self, of entrepreneurs, 51.5% male
congruence theory, theory of subjective social norms,
planned behaviour perceived behavioral
control, entrepreneurial
self-efficacy & risk
aversion
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Article Keywords Theoretical framework Methodology Variables Population
014 Health care, self-assessment, Gender Disparity Conceptual N/A N/A

co-leadership, dyad and triad, Theory
executive clinical
partnership, gender
imbalance, health systems,
leadership roles, strategies
for women leaders
015 Career progression, career Career Development Quantitative Denial, Acceptance, 484 female
pathways survey, glass Theory Resignation, Resilence Indian students
ceiling, India, United Arab located in the
Emirates, female students United Aram
Emirates and
India
016 Africa, gender, agency Agency Theory Quantitative Earnings per share, Return Annual reports
theory, bank performance Resource Dependency on asset, Tobin’s Q, Gender and statements
board independence, gender Theory diversity, independent of account from
diversity, System-GMM board size, Firm size, Firm 36 deposit of
age, GDP, Inflation rate, money banks
Exchange rate within Nigeria
from 2006-2018
017 Gender, leadership, Gender Gender Schema Quantitative Masculinity good-manager Dataset
stereotypes, androgyny, Theory score, Femininity good- collected across
managerial stereotypes manager score, Respondent 50 years from
gender, Time of data US business
collection, Population school students
018 Gender, careers, Human Capital Theory Quantitative Work experience, Number 500 adult
organisational behaviour, of promotions, Gender employees (164
Pakistan, human capital females, 336
males) working
in Pakistan
service industry
Note. Data capture of keywords, theoretical framework, methodology, variables, and population will aid in identifying
themes within and across studies.
Although articles were focused on women and management in WIMR or gender
and leadership in GIM, there was continuity within or across text in that women remained
the primary focus. For example, Article 001 (see Table 014) focused on Turkish women
in banking and the need to modernize, Article 002 (see Table 015) discussed challenges
Indian migrant females face as entrepreneurs and Article 003 (see Table 016) focused on
Nigeria and the influence of family, culture, and religion impact on the career choices of
women. Negative linguistic strategies were used in that all three articles advocated
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women working outside the home and discounted the value of contributions made and
necessary at a family and community level leaving the impression that worth is tied to
money. GIM used gender frequently; however, women were positioned as the primary
focus. For example, Article 013 (see Table 23, gender) discussed gender diversity from
the female board member perspective, Article 014 (see Table 24, gender) discussed
gender androgyny; however, stated there were more Fortune 500 CEOs named “Steve”
than there are female CEOs and Article 016 (see Table 26, gender) suggested that women
who desire to move to senior management roles must navigate twists and turns that men
do not. Unfortunately, acknowledgment of male concerns, discrimination, or gender
binding was rarely, if at all, discussed, and in no instance was male gender or male sex
present itself in the keywords (see Table 30).
Power was demonstrated most frequently across all text through quantitative
research design that required the consumer to trust the interpretation of findings or
possess equal expert power to interpret findings (see Table, 30). Historical reliance to
support current research was evident throughout the text (see Table 18, performance;
Table 26, performance). Assumptions were made the reader understood the definition for
Fortune 500 companies, the number of “top” roles available as 500. Also, metaphors such
as “glass ceiling,” “glass cliff,” and “double-bind” were used and applied to women only
issues (see Table 14, gender; Table 21, performance). What was most concerning was
that none of the text addressed whether women or men wanted to work or attain an
unspecified “top job.” Article 001 (see Table 14, performance) made the only reference
found in the text that acknowledged self-selection as a factor for many women on a
191
career path that would not allow attainment of a senior banking position. The failure to
discuss desires for career choices supported the man as machine mentality and reinforced
that all humans, regardless of sex, should want to reach the highest level of the cultural
hierarchy (Hurst et al., 2016), that supported, maintained and encouraged a hierarchical
rather than egalitarian ideology.
Modernization or Westernization emerged as a theme across the text. Article 001,
Article 003, Article 015, Article 016 and Article 018 were set in developing countries and
supported western ideologies of success. However, studies that discussed minority status
failed to question discrimination that men face. Indian men who could have been
included in Article 002 may have experienced discrimination due to their accent or smell
of curry (see Table 15, performance). Article 015 addressed only female concerns and
attitudes towards career progression (see Table 25, performance) and implied males do
not underestimate their ability to advance in careers or needed assistance in career
navigation. While the macrolevel analysis may have appeared dim towards the
advancement messaging of gender in research on gendered leadership, consideration
should be made to the aggregation of data due to the focus of the publication changed
from women focused to gender focused. While there is more work to be done, the
findings of this study revealed progress towards a more inclusive, non-binary discussion
of gender in leadership.
Summary
The goal of the proceeding pages was to examine discursive messages used in
research text regarding gendered leadership and to explore the phenomenon of word
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usage and language structure applied to the text found in Women in Management Review
(WIMR), Volume 22, Issue 8, 2007 and Gender in Management (GIM), Volume 36,
Issue 6, 2021. Emphasis was placed on answering the research question of ‘What
discursive messages regarding gender, performance and power are found in gender
leadership research text?”
The chapter began by reviewing the setting, demographics, data collection, data
analysis, and evidence of trustworthiness before presenting the study results. A total of 18
articles were reviewed. WIMR contained 12 bodies of text and seven commentaries that
were reviewed at a microlevel and briefly discussed at a macrolevel, and rationale for
omission from the overarching findings was documented. The study reviewed 11 research
studies and investigated text at the microlevel, mesolevel and macrolevel. Microlevel
analysis revealed that gender, performance and power emerged with variation based on
the research question applied in the individual studies. Mesolevel analysis found
quantitative analysis was applied in nine of the 11 studies (see Table 30). The educational
level attained by the authors was Ph.D. except for one M.D. and an author whose
educational level could not be identified (see Table 29), and there was a relationship
between areas of interest and topic of study (see Table 29; Table 30). Although the
gender identity of the authors could not be documented, GIM found an increase in the
number of male authors compared to WIMR and all studies were authored
collaboratively.
Gender as non-binary, fluid concepts of masculinity and femininity were present,
although infrequently. Aspects of gender, performance and power emerged differently

193
according to the text’s focus (see Table 16, gender; Table 19, gender; Table 20, gender;
Table 21, power; Table 24, performance). Power was demonstrated most frequently
across text through quantitative research design, that required the consumer to trust the
interpretation of findings or possess equal expert power to interpret findings (see Table,
30). Historical reliance to support current research was evident throughout both issues
and within each article (see Table 18, performance; Table 26, performance). Assumptions
were made the reader understood the definition for Fortune 500 companies, the number
of “top” roles available as 500. Also, metaphors such as “glass ceiling,” “glass cliff,” and
“double-bind” were used and applied to women only issues (see Table 14, gender; Table
21, performance). Modernization or Westernization emerged as a theme across the text.
Article 001, Article 003, Article 015, Article 016 and Article 018 were set in developing
countries and suggested the need to take on western ideologies of success. However,
studies that discussed minority status failed to question discrimination that men face.
In summary, a great deal of work remains to be done to move language used in
research on gendered leadership; however, I found evidence of a progression towards
gender inclusivity with the increase of male authors and collaboration across sexes (see
Table 29). Analysis at each level provided insight and value; still, it should be noted
macrolevel analysis included data before the journal took steps toward discussions on
gender rather than women in leadership. There were notable attempts to move towards
gender balanced leadership through discussions of androgyny (see Table 24, gender).
Also, five of the six GIM articles took actionable steps to bridge the gap from women
only discussion to include gender or gender related theories (see Table 30). While
194
seemingly modest steps, the advancement made by Emerald Publications moved from
WIMR to GIM has met with encouraging results. The following chapter will conclude the
study with an interpretation of the findings, limitations of the study, recommendations
towards a path forward and implications for positive social change.

195
Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations
Introduction
Text (words) has been argued as an actor or active participant in implicitly or
explicitly shaping the reader’s perception of the adequacy of female leadership ability or
that of males as better leaders (Latu & Mast., 2016; Martin, 2015; Szymanska & Rubin,
2018). The purpose of the study was to examine discursive messages used in research
text regarding gendered leadership and to explore the phenomenon of word usage and
language structure applied to research text. The study employed the following research
question:
RQ: What discursive messages regarding gender, performance, and power are
found in gender leadership research text?
Through the application of qualitative CDA, I explored the discursive messages
used in research text regarding gendered leadership or gender in leadership. Leveraging
text available in a 2021 issue of a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to gender in
management and the final issue released 2007 when previously focused on the
intersection of women and management, the text was analyzed for discursive themes with
the potential to influence the perception of power, performance, and gender. I analyzed
and discussed the messaging found in four of seven nonpeer-reviewed commentaries at a
microlevel and mesolevel with the rationale for excluding the remaining three
commentaries due to lack of fit. I reviewed 11 peer-reviewed research studies and
investigated text at the microlevel, mesolevel, and macrolevel. Microlevel analysis
revealed that gender, performance, and power emerged with variation based on the
196
research question applied in the individual studies. A mesolevel analysis found that
quantitative analysis was applied in nine of the 11 studies (see Table 30). The educational
level attained by the authors was a Ph.D., with the exception of one M.D. and an author
whose educational level could not be identified (see Table 29), and there was a
relationship between areas of interest and topic of study (see Table 29; Table 30).
Although the gender identity of the authors could not be documented, the 2021 issue
revealed an increase in the number of male authors compared to the 2007 issue and all
studies were authored collaboratively.
Gender as nonbinary, fluid concepts of masculinity and femininity were present,
although infrequently. Aspects of gender, performance, and power emerged differently
according to the text’s focus (see Table 16, gender; Table 19, gender; Table 20, gender;
Table 21, power; Table 24, performance). Power was demonstrated most frequently
across text through quantitative research design, that required the consumer to trust the
interpretation of findings or possess equal expert power to interpret findings (see Table,
30). Historical reliance to support current research was evident throughout both issues
and within each article (see Table 18, performance; Table 26, performance). Assumptions
were made that the reader understood the definition for Fortune 500 companies and the
number of “top” roles available as 500. Also, metaphors such as “glass ceiling,” “glass
cliff,” and “double-bind” were used and applied to women only issues (see Table 14,
gender; Table 21, performance). Modernization or Westernization emerged as a theme
across the text. Article 001, Article 003, Article 015, Article 016, and Article 018 were
set in developing countries and suggested the need to take on western ideologies of
197
success. However, studies that addressed minority status failed to question discrimination
that men face.
In summary, a great deal of work remains to be done to move language used in
research on gendered leadership; however, I found evidence of a progression towards
gender inclusivity with the increase of male authors and collaboration across sexes (see
Table 29). Analysis at each level provided insight and value; however, it should be noted
that macrolevel analysis included data before the journal took steps toward discussions on
gender rather than women in leadership. There were notable attempts to move towards
gender balanced leadership through discussions of androgyny (see Table 24, gender).
Also, five of the six GIM articles took actionable steps to bridge the gap from women
only discussion to include gender or gender related theories (see Table 30). While
seemingly modest steps, the advancement made by Emerald Publications since 2007 met
with encouraging results.
Interpretation of Findings
Historically, the concept of leadership has been associated with men, and early
research placed men at the center of leadership studies (Northouse, 2016; Spector, 2016).
Gendered leadership research was said to have failed to move past the assumption that
leadership was solely focused on the male leader and women should be added as research
participants (Martin, 2015). The findings of this study demonstrated the opposite. The
data revealed that gendered leadership research overwhelmingly placed women at the
center of studies, that further supported Alcoff (1997) and Cundiff et al.’s (2018)
arguments that to assert the biological sex of women as a focal point to research,
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leadership, or otherwise creates an unintended separateness or otherness from their male
counterparts and further emphasizes differences. Women were the focal point in 10 of the
11 peer-reviewed articles, primarily from a position of disadvantage (see Table 30).
Article 014 approached gendered leadership through androgyny. The data showed that
over half of the research studies addressed a female issue within a developing country
(see Table 30), and patriarchy was referenced in Article 001 (see Table 14, power),
Article 014 (see Table 24, power), and Article 017 (see Table 27, power). However, none
of the texts defined patriarchy or broached pressures on men, further extending the
evidence of research focus on women’s issues at the cost of men. The lack of inclusion of
male needs supported earlier research. For example, McDowell (2015) noted that there is
an expectation that a man will begin his career upon completing education, if not sooner,
and provide the bulk of financial support for the family unit. Hurst et al. (2016) and Hurst
et al. (2017, 2018a, 2018b) found that men’s careers were linear and continual, with the
occasional break for family holidays due to the expectation of financial support.
The data showed a bias held by both sexes against women leaders (see Table 19,
gender), that built on Hurst et al.’s (Hurst et al., 2016; Hurst et al., 2017, 2018a, 2018b)
research that showed that women make allowances in favor of men for leadership style
and revealed an implicit expectation of female followers that their female leader would
provide emotional support. Furthermore, the data found evidence to support Martin’s
(2015) meta-analysis of 163 leadership studies that found while concepts of leadership
are becoming more androgynous, leaders are still perceived as possessing masculine
traits. Each of these studies suggests that implicit expectations are placed on men and
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women. In this study, I also found that implicit biases and gendered ideologies remain a
theme across the text on gendered leadership.
Attempts to uncouple the concept of gender as female and leadership as male has
been made by researchers such as Girdauskiene and Eyvazzade (2015), Martin (2015),
and Motschenbacher (2016). This study showed some effort to uncouple the terms to be
present in current literature. Article 014 (see Table 24, gender), published in 2021,
discussed gender androgyny, however stated that there were more Fortune 500 CEOs
named “Steve” than female CEOs. Cox (2019) asserted that feminism and feminist theory
transferred the term gender to be synonymous with female, resulting in studies that
considered gender and leadership to focus solely on women leaders. While the data could
not point to the appropriation of gender as female to feminist theory, the data found
Cox’s assertion of gendered leadership as female focus to be accurate. Article 001 (see
Table 014) focused on Turkish women in banking and the need to modernize. Article 002
(see Table 015) discussed challenges Indian migrant females face as entrepreneurs.
Article 003 (see Table 016) focused on Nigeria and the influence of family, culture, and
religion on the career choices of women. Negative linguistic strategies were used in that
all three articles advocated women working outside the home and discounted the value of
contributions made and necessary at a family and community level. In essence, worth is
tied to money. Article 013 (see Table 23, gender) discussed gender diversity from the
female board member perspective. Acknowledgment of male concerns, discrimination, or
gender binding was rarely, if at all, discussed, and in no instance was male gender or
200
male sex present in the keywords (see Table 30). Lack of attention to male concerns
suggests attitude towards gender remains feminine.
The framework for the study was situated in CDA theory. CDA is a specific, cross
discipline approach to discourse analysis primarily concerned with the innate nature of
language’s ability to change and, over time, take on new meaning through a focus on one
or more social problems (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). The eight points defined as
CDA’s theoretical underpinnings are as follows (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018):
Addresses Social Problem
CDA must address a problem or issue that is oriented to social problems such as
sexism, racism, or social inequality (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018). The findings of this
study indicated that sexism and social inequality were fostered, maintained, and
encouraged in research on gendered leadership against men. Gender was represented
along normative, binary male/female sexes rather than a construct of the social
differences between women and men (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018b). In this study, I
intended to examine how research in the field of gendered leadership has changed over
time and what messages are presented in gendered leadership research. Modest advances
have been made; however, the 2021 publication of text reflected focus of gendered
leadership was women focused in all but one article (see Table 28).
Interdisciplinary or Multidisciplinary
CDA must approach a topic from an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary
perspective with a special focus on discourse and society (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018).
The findings of the study demonstrated a multidisciplinary approach to the text, with a
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special focus on gendered leadership discourse. The findings of the study via a
triangulated approach found evidence of historical-reliance (see Table 21, performance),
textual silence (see Table 16, gender), and linguistic strategies (see Table 12, gender) to
demonstrate how power, performance, and gender were reproduced or resisted across the
text.
Explicit Critical Approach, Position, or Stance
CDA is positioned as the primary foci and does not perform as a subdiscipline of
discourse analysis; instead, CDA is an explicit critical approach, position, or stance to
study talk or text (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018). To conduct CDA is to critically question
the meaning of a word, phrase, or passage for possible underlying or alternative, hidden,
or omitted information. The study’s findings provide numerous examples of alternative,
hidden, or omitted language with the ability to shape the opinion of the consumer on
gender (see Table 16, gender), performance (see Table 23, performance), power (see
Table 18, power), and leadership (see Table 17, performance).
Reproduction or Resistance of Power, Dominance, and Inequality
CDA focuses on relations of power, dominance and inequality and how each is
reproduced or resisted by social group members (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018). In this
study, I found that power, dominance, and inequality were reproduced by the topic of
study, design of the study, and word selection of the research authors. Often power,
gender, and performance became intertwined (see Table 16, performance). For example,
the use of metaphors (see Table 14, gender) reproduced ideologies of gender inequality
against women placing males as dominant; however, the exact text could be argued to
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reproduce ideologies of gender inequality and gave power to men as the text relied on
resisting positive advances toward equality to sustain the female agenda.
Underlying Ideologies That Shape Reproduction or Resistance
CDA seeks to understand the underlying ideologies that shape reproduction or
resistance within a social group (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018). Throughout this study,
gender role and gender stereotypes ideologies were presented to reproduce and resist
ideologies that would move the field of gendered leadership from normative, binary
perceptions of sexed based gender to one of true gender ideology (e.g., Table 14, gender;
Table 15, gender; Table 16, gender).
Strategies of Manipulation, Manufacturing, and Legitimization
CDA directly points out strategies of manipulation, manufacturing, and
legitimization of discursive power, dominance, and inequality through the examination of
implicit, hidden, or omitted information to influence the consumer of text or speech
(Amousson & Allagbe, 2018). I found quantitative analysis as the primary form of
research across studies (see Table 30). Research studies possess a level of expert power
in the use of study designs that use language and methods inaccessible to the layperson,
making the consumer of the text dependent upon the ability and willingness of the
author(s) to prove a clear and objective translation of the findings. Additionally, the data
revealed instances of textual silence through omission or application of text that could
reshape or legitimize new meaning. For example, phrasing such as “33% of businesses
across the globe have no women in senior leadership roles” required the reader to both
recognize that 66% of businesses around the world, or 66 out of every 100, have women
203
in leadership roles and, by extension, make a determination if 66/100 is an acceptable
amount (see Table 25, gender).
Concern for Implicit, Hidden, or Omitted Information
CDA’s concern for implicit, hidden, or omitted information positions research as
critical or in opposition to those who abuse their power (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018). In
this study, I found and laid out instances of implicit, hidden, or omitted meaning in each
area examined (e.g., Table 25, power, Table 27, performance, Table 17, gender).
Seeks Solidarity or Unification of Groups
CDA seeks solidarity or unification of groups by providing alternative
perspectives and possible solutions to address and resolve the social wrong through
counter-ideologies (Amousson & Allagbe, 2018). CDA is unique to other forms of
discourse analysis as the final step is a call to action. I found evidence of the continuing
misalignment of gender as female prevails throughout the text on gendered leadership. As
such, the data demands the path forward as the decoupling of biological sex and gender.
The advances made in the 2021 issue of GIM analyzed found modest advances have been
made.
Limitations of the Study
In essence, the study’s scope was limited to normative, bifurcated aspects of
gender, and consideration regarding race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and
gender identity were delimited as factors within the study. Instead, I focused on how
aspects of the generalized concepts of gender were used in research and ways that
squarely place maleness or femaleness as a factor in leadership within leadership.

204
Originally, limitations to the study included risks such as the small number of researchers
who publish within the field of gendered leadership and concerns the text would be
primarily authored by feminist-females writing on women’s workplace issues. The data
revealed that the number of researchers is increasing, and more recent research has been
authored by nearly equal numbers of female and male authors.
gender. Therefore, the study excluded other factors that could have been considered, such
as race, gender identity, or gender reassignment, that may have added to the research’s
discourse identities and voices (see Gee, 2014a, 2014b, 2017). Data collection and
analysis revealed some information about the authors, such as education and areas of
interest. The biological sex of each author was documented; however, information about
gender identity was not examined. In consideration of this study’s assertion of the need to
decouple biological sex from concepts of gender, a limitation to the study was that it did
not allow exploration of information that emerged beyond the data points outlined in the
study design or allow for discussion of the influence of gender identity on gendered
leadership research.
Recommendations
gender as male and female (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018b). Therefore, I excluded other
factors that could have been considered, such as race, gender identity, or gender
reassignment, that may have added to the research’s discourse identities and voices or
inserted a level of unconscious bias (Gee, 2014a; Ravitch & Carl, 2016). Some
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information was gleaned about the authors through data collection and analysis, such as
education and areas of interest (Gee, 2017). The biological sex of each author was
documented; however, information about gender identity was not examined. Gender
identity (Szymanska & Rubin, 2018) is the personal and individualistic sense of one’s
gender and how it correlates to biological sex within a given context, situation, or
community combined with the of perception of biological sex and how sex overlays with
concepts of gender categories manifests in one’s social identity (Lortie et al., 2017). This
paper has discussed the relationship between the research topic and the author’s interest
however, additional research could be conducted to understand the influence of gender
and social identities that manifest in published research. A limitation to the study was the
relationship between text authors and country of origin, as six of the 11 peer-reviewed
research articles referenced and addressed a female-focused issue within a specific
country (see Table 30). Future research could be conducted to examine the influence of
cultural components on gendered leadership studies and influences that assert western
mentalities and ideologies are standards that should be adopted worldwide. Furthermore,
there appears to be a trend toward collaborative research (see Table 29), and analysis on
the development of the informal networks that result in collaborative studies is warranted.
Additionally, this paper has argued the need to decouple binary sex from concepts
of gender. Therefore, I recommend additional research focus on the gender identity of
gendered leadership researchers (Szymanska & Rubin, 2018). Finally, the execution of
the study found the design and methodology to be trustworthy and could be replicated
infinitely across research text (Fairclough, 2016; Wodak & Meyer, 2016). This study
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compared two issues of a scholarly peer-review journal; therefore, I recommend analysis
be conducted on additional text.
Implications
It has been said that research about leadership has been conducted by men, for
men, and focuses on male attributes (Northouse, 2016). On the other hand, it has been
asserted that gender research has been conducted by women, for women, and to identify
women’s issues (Morgenroth & Ryan 2018a). Through this project, I aimed to contribute
to positive social change by assisting gendered leadership researchers to consider
utilizing frameworks and models outside of female-oriented feminist theory. While the
findings of the study did not indicate explicit use of feminist theory to support the studies
presented, it did find that women were placed at the center of nearly all text which is a
hallmark of feminist theory (Cox, 2019). The findings, however, should be sufficiently
compelling to academia and researchers alike to apply theories or structure research
studies that move beyond women-focused to reframe studies of male/female relations,
expand conversations to encompass both sexes, and move gendered leadership towards a
more unified approach.
The implications of this study toward positive social change have been
demonstrated through the exposure of the subtle yet powerful messages that reinforce
perceptions of gender inequality between men and women at work. This study takes steps
toward positive social change by discussing how to focus on perceived inequalities based
on biological sex, yet using the term gender, may be contributing to perceptions of
inequality and the inability of female leadership within the research community with the
207
ability to impact change across all levels of society. Opportunity for positive social
change is extended through discussion to create awareness of the power of the academic
voice, written or spoken, on consumers that may unintentionally shape and influence
beliefs about each sex.
Conclusion
Throughout this project, emphasis has been placed on the exploration of
discursive messages found in gendered leadership research through the application of
CDA. CDA (Fairclough, 2016) asserts the need to look past obvious meaning in written
or spoken word to address a social wrong from the semiotic aspect and to identify
obstacles to addressing that social wrong. However, CDA requires consideration of
whether the social needs the social wrong and identify possible ways past the obstacles.
This study found that gendered leadership research continues to place women at
the center of studies, and the needs of men are ignored (see Table 30). The study also
found women and gender are used interchangeably to the exclusion of men. Therefore,
the end of this study is to return to its opening paragraphs. Current media emphasis has
been placed on the fluidity of gender (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2018a), making it crucial the
research field of gendered leadership uncouple the use of gender as female and include
men equally into studies of language, leadership, and gender. Concepts of gender in the
United States and other first-world countries have moved beyond bifurcated and binary
representations of boy/girl and male/female. As both sexes presence continues to grow,
workplaces demand less prescriptive expectations of men as leaders and women as

208
caregivers. So too, must the methods for studying gendered leadership become balanced
(Subasic et al., 2018).
In conclusion, to continue to place women at the center of gender studies with
emphasis on disparity is to hold women and men hostage to a sex-based ideology. As
Kristeva (as cited by Alcoff, 1997, p. 418) said, “A woman cannot be; it is something that
does not even belong in the order of being. It follows that a feminist practice can only be
negative, at odds with what already exists so that we may say ‘that’s not it’ and ‘that’s
still not it.’” So, too, should be said in the name of advocacy for all.
209
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Appendix A: IPSY 8755 Leadership and Leader Development: Welcome & Course
Readings
Note: Any APA format errors are derived from the source material
1. Akutagawa, L. (2013). Breaking stereotypes: An Asian American’s view of
leadership development. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 4(4), 277–284.
2. Aritz, J., & Walker, R. C. (2014). Leadership styles in multicultural groups:
Americans and East Asians working together. Journal of Business
Communication, 51(1), 72–92.
3. Băeşu, C., & Bejinaru, R. (2013). Leadership approaches regarding the
organizational change. USV Annals of Economics & Public Administration, 13(2),
146–152.
4. Barnwell, D., Nedrick, S., Rudolph, E., Sesay, M., & Wellen, W. (2014).
Leadership of international and virtual project teams. International Journal of
Global Business, 7(2), 1–8.
5. Benefield, M., Fry, L. W., Geigle, D. (2014). Spirituality and religion in the
workplace: History, theory, and research. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality,
6(3), 175–187.
6. Burris, K., Ayman, R., Che, Y., & Min, H. (2013). Asian Americans’ and
Caucasians’ implicit leadership theories: Asian stereotypes, transformational, and
authentic leadership. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 4(4), 258–266.

236
7. Crossan, M., Mazutis, D., Seijts, G., & Gandz, J. (2013). Developing leadership
character in business programs. Academy of Management Learning & Education,
12(2), 285–305.
8. Dragoni, L., Tesluk, P. E., VanKatwyk, P., In-Sue, O., Moore, O. A., & Hazucha,
J. (2014). Developing leaders’ strategic thinking through global work experience:
The moderating role of cultural distance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(5),
867–882.
9. Drescher, M. A., Welpe, I. M., Korsgaard, M. A., Picot, A., & Wigand, R. T.
(2014). The dynamics of shared leadership: Building trust and enhancing
performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(5), 771–783.
10. Eissa, G., Fox, C., Webster, B. D., & Kim, J. (2012). A framework for leader
effectiveness in virtual teams. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics,
9(2), 11–22.
11. Frisch, C., & Huppenbauer, M. (2014). New insights into ethical leadership: A
qualitative investigation of the experiences of executive ethical leaders. Journal of
Business Ethics, 123(1), 23–43.
12. Giltinane, C. L. (2013). Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard, 27(41),
35–39.
13. Hartman, N., Conklin, T., & Smith, J. (2007). What leaders say versus what
academics write: The relevance of leadership theory. SAM Advanced Management
Journal (07497075), 72(4), 32–39.

237
14. Hoch, J. E., & Kozlowski, S. W. J. (2014). Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical
leadership, structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 99(3), 390–403.
15. Hoch, J. E., & Morgeson, F. P. (2014). Vertical and shared leadership processes:
Exploring team leadership dynamics. Academy of Management Annual Meeting
Proceedings, 1607–1612.
16. Hoch, J. E., Pearce, C. L., & Welzel, L. (2010). Is the most effective team
leadership shared? The impact of shared leadership, age diversity, and
coordination on team performance. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 9(3), 105–
116.
17. Horn, P. (2014). Branding, vision statements, and core values – What’s the
connection? ESOP Report, 3–6.
18. Ishikawa, J. (2012). Transformational leadership and gatekeeping leadership: The
roles of norm for maintaining consensus and shared leadership in team
performance. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 29(2), 265–283.
19. Johnson, R. E., Lanaj, K., Venus, M., Changguo, M., & Chu-Hsiang, C. (2012).
Leader identity as an antecedent of the frequency and consistency of
transformational, consideration, and abusive leadership behaviors. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 97(6), 1262–1272.
20. Kaiser, R. B., & Curphy, G. (2013). Leadership development: The failure of an
industry and the opportunity for consulting psychologists. Consulting Psychology
Journal: Practice & Research, 65(4), 294–302.

238
21. Kaiser, R. B., Lindberg McGinnis, J., & Overfield, D. V. (2012). The how and the
what of leadership. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 64(2),
119–135.
22. Kastenmüller, A., Greitemeyer, T., Zehl, S., Tattersall, A. J., George, H., Frey, D.,
& Fischer, P. (2014). Leadership and information processing: The influence of
transformational and transactional leadership on selective information search,
evaluation, and conveying. Social Psychology, 45(5), 357–370.
23. Lee, J., & Wei, F. (2011). The mediating effect of psychological empowerment on
the relationship between participative goal setting and team outcomes - a study in
China. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(2), 279–295.
24. Levine, M., & Boaks, J. (2014). What does ethics have to do with leadership?
Journal of Business Ethics, 124(2), 225–242.
25. Lorinkova, N. M., Pearsall, M. J., & Sims, H. P., Jr. (2013). Examining the
differential longitudinal performance of directive versus empowering leadership
in teams. Academy of Management Journal, 56(2), 573–596.
26. Lovelace, J. B., & Hunter, S. T. (2013). Charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic
leaders’ influence on subordinate creative performance across the creative
process. Creativity Research Journal, 25(1), 59–74.
27. Luciano, M. M., Mathieu, J. E., & Ruddy, T. M. (2014). Leading multiple teams:
Average and relative external leadership influences on team empowerment and
effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(2), 322–331.

239
28. Magni, M., & Maruping, L. M. (2013). Sink or swim: Empowering leadership and
overload in teams’ ability to deal with the unexpected. Human Resource
Management, 52(5), 715–739.
29. Mead, N. L., & Maner, J. K. (2012). On keeping your enemies close: Powerful
leaders seek proximity to ingroup power threats. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 102(3), 576–591.
30. Nelson, R. E. (2014). Leadership, personal values, and cultural context in Brazil,
China, and the USA. BAR - Brazilian Administration Review, 11(1), 47–63.
31. Nicol, A. (2014). More mission, less statement. Product Design & Development,
69(3), 34.
32. Nieminen, L., Biermeier-Hanson, B., & Denison, D. (2013). Aligning leadership
and organizational culture: The leader-culture fit framework for coaching
organizational leaders. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research,
65(3), 177–198.
33. Small, E. E., & Rentsch, J. R. (2010). Shared leadership in teams: A matter of
distribution. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 9(4), 203–211.
34. Sperry, L. (2013). Executive coaching and leadership assessment: Past, present,
and future. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 65(4), 284–
288.
35. Srinivasan, R. R. (2014). Visioning: The method and process. OD Practitioner,
46(1), 34–41.
240
36. Stouten, J., van Dijke, M., & De Cremer, D. (2012). Ethical leadership: An
overview and future perspectives. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 11(1), 1–6.
37. Terrell, S., & Rosenbusch, K. (2013). Global leadership development: What
global organizations can do to reduce leadership risk, increase speed to
competence, and build global leadership muscle. People & Strategy, 36(1), 40–
46.
38. Thomas, C., Jr. (2014). Cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to
organizational change. SuperVision, 75(3), 3–7.
39. Thorn, I. M. (2012). Leadership in international organizations: Global leadership
competencies. The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 15(3), 158–163.
40. Tost, L. P., Gino, F., & Larrick, R. P. (2013). When power makes others
speechless: The negative impact of leader power on team performance. Academy
of Management Journal, 56(5), 1465–1486.
41. Van Wart, M. (2013). Lessons from leadership theory and the contemporary
challenges of leaders. Public Administration Review, 73(4), 553–565.
42. Wang, D., Waldman, D.A., Zhang, Z. (2014). A meta-analysis of shared
leadership and team effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(2), 181–
198.
43. Warrick, D. D. (2014). What leaders can learn about teamwork and developing
high performance teams from organization development practitioners? OD
Practitioner, 46(3), 68–75.

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44. Welch, D., Grossaint, K., Reid, K., & Walker, C. (2014). Strengths-based
leadership development: Insights from expert coaches. Consulting Psychology
Journal: Practice & Research, 66(1), 20–37.
45. Witherspoon, R. (2014). Double-loop coaching for leadership development. The
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 50(3), 261–283.

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Appendix B: Analytical Memo
The memo below was taken from an entry written May 27, 2020, discussing the
decision to abandon the original article selected for the practice exercise
DATE: May 27, 2020
KEY THEMES OR WORDS: Gender
ID: 000
MEMO
I have decided that I will use an article for creating examples in Chapter 3 for the
process that I will use for data for analysis. I have selected a random article from
the leadership class I took as a part of my coursework. I discarded the original
article that I analyzed months ago because it was overly simplified, and it was
disappointing as an article on leadership. The article randomly selected this time
is also a female researcher.
The process I have used thus far:
1. Saved the original PDF

2. Copied PDF and pasted to Word
3. Snipped tables and placed them in the corresponding sections where there
was a logical break near the corresponding point.
4. The original article was two columns, and I elected to use a single column
to make it easier to code.
5. The font was changed to 12 point Calibri because it is easier to read
6. Space was added temporarily between paragraphs and will be removed
once the article is formatted for coding
7. I added a citation to the precoding template to capture the publication
year, which is essential for historical reliance
I intentionally avoided reviewing the article, so I did not approach it with a
preconceived notion. As I am formatting the article, I realize it is an article and
not a formal study. While I am disappointed in this, I feel I must continue with the
article so that I am not cherry-picking. Also, I may encounter opinion pieces when
I conduct the formal study.
243
Appendix C: Instrumentation Validation
Article
Thorn, I. M. (2012). Leadership in international organizations: Global leadership
competencies. The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 15(3), 158–163.
Abstract
This article briefly describes research identifying emerging findings on the current
and future qualities and attributes of leaders of international organizations. The author
provides a partial review of some of the preliminary findings of the research and will
describe the ways in which the international leaders’ development was influenced, the
qualities they consider to be most important for success for their organization today, and
the leadership attributes needed to meet the challenges of the future. The author will
compare the research findings with the management development competencies at the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), identify the “leadership development gaps” between
the current and future qualities of leaders, and recommend human resource programs to
close those “leadership development gaps.”
Summary
Power relates to the language’s ability to steer the opinion of the consumer of the
text. The power of research language to influence the perception, expectation, and
continuation of the participant in the discourses begins at the onset of interaction with the
abstract. The content within the abstract is crafted at the leisure of the author with the aim
to pique the interest of the reader to continue in the discourse. The relationship of power
exchange begins with the consumer of the text’s desire to learn from the research actor,
244
that serves as authority and subject matter experts. The consumer is willing to accept the
text presented as truth, and therein lies the power of text as an active actor in discourse.
In the context of the pilot study, once entering the text’s body, the article
immediately applies textual silences and linguistic strategy by introducing the definition
of desirable leadership as the transformational model of leadership. To the unaware
consumer of text, no alternative or comparison is offered or made that other styles of
leadership are available or have a place as effective displaying and assumption of
knowledge or shared meaning. Textual silence and linguist strategy are combined with
historical reliance on Lines 33 through 41:
“According to a global survey of human resource executives by the Human
Resource Institute (1997), leadership was considered to be the most important
issue for managing people in organizations today by executives from the United
States and Asia. Leadership was ranked fourth by European respondents.
Executives believe that developing leaders is the most important human resource
goal for achieving global success. The competencies and qualities that are cited as
important include honesty, integrity, teamwork, communication, and risk-taking.
These competencies and qualities are also highlighted in Dr. Rosen’s (Rosen,
2000) global leadership research based on interviews of business leaders from 30
different countries to identify the universal competencies and practices of global
leaders.”
Until this point, leadership has been textually positioned and tied to a
transformational model. The text employs textual silence and historical reliance in that
245
research cited from 1997, a full 15 years prior, found leadership as critical to companies’
success. By this point, the consumer of text has been primed to interject, accept, and
assume transformational leadership as the desirable leadership style, thereby overlaying
and elevating transformational leadership as vital to organizational success. Instances of
the desirability of transformational leadership can be found through the use of the
metaphor “global citizen” (L30) and to societal goodness-of-fit through phrases such as
“desirable and planned changes” (L13); “motivation and morality” (L16,) and “inspiring
followers” (L18) among others. Perhaps most profoundly, the text states that
transformational leaders “move followers beyond their self-interests for the good of the
group, organization and society” (L20). All told, the positive association with
transformational leadership and desirable attributes as an individual draws the consume
of text in to see alignment between self and leadership. Instances of transformational
leadership to incite alignment between consumer desire and text are located explicitly in
the text:
L5-L7: influences, qualities, & attributes.
L12: Good leaders are transformational
L13: Leaders are needed to make desirable and planned changes in an
organization.
L14: Transformational leaders join leaders and followers for a higher purpose.
L15: Transformational leaders join leaders and followers for high levels of
motivation and morale.
L16-L19: Characteristics of transformational leadership

246
L20: Transformational leaders join leaders and followers past self-interests
towards a greater good.
L27-28: Assumption made that global leaders interviewed are transformational,
effective, and liked.
Although the article seemingly relies heavily on performance measure and little
on gender, to the discourse analysts who are challenged to look past apparent meaning,
the relationship between gender and performance are implicitly and significantly present
throughout the text. Transformational leadership style has been suggested to align more
closely to feminine communal or relational attributes emphasizing concern for others. In
contrast, transactional leadership is assigned male agentic attributes such as independence
and self-assertion. Although sex or gender is explicitly referenced once on Line 75 as
participants for the qualitative study consisting of 8 men and two women, to the
consumer of text, implicit alignment or misalignment to performance based on gender
norms are prevalent throughout the offering. According to the information presented,
characteristics associated with transformational leadership are noted on Lines 16 through
19 as communal, relational or feminine attributes to which women may see themselves
excelling in more than men:
“Characteristics often associated with transformational leaders include:
determining and building a common vision, inspiring followers, encouraging new
approaches to problem-solving, continuously developing the skills of
subordinates, and establishing superior performance.”

247
Negative behaviors listed on Lines 159 through 161 are traditionally assigned to
male attributes:
1. Being a loner and asocial (self-protective);
2. Being non-cooperative and irritable (malevolent); and
3. Being dictatorial
However, qualities defined by the 1997 research study noted by the Human
Resources Institute are a combination of agentic (masculine) and communal (feminine)
behaviors listed on Line 38:
The competencies and qualities that are cited as important include honesty,
integrity, teamwork, communication, and risk-taking.
In summary, although weak in structure, evidence, and citation for influential
leaders, the research presented does not explicitly reference gender as an actor in
transformational leadership. It is only significant with exposure to leadership theory and
gender theory that a relationship between the text used and instances of power, gender,
and performance can be seen. Subliminal messaging notwithstanding, as a researcher, it
is essential to question overthinking or examining meaning to the same degree; it is
essential not to do the same. As consumers of information, the reader seeks to find
aspects of themselves in the text or instances and opportunities to see themselves as
leaders. As a discourse analyst, interpretation to the extreme would suggest the female
author and researcher sought meaning and designed supportive research between being
female and leader. As the text’s critical discourse analyst, I must admit to seeking similar
meaning and support to being female and leader. However, removing the lens to find
248
fault, I suggest that if more research on leadership looked past sec as a facto to leadership
and spoke only to leading others’ positive qualities, women could see themselves more
readily as leaders. Men would feel it was acceptable to take on more communal attributes
to create high-performing organizations consisting of happier group members.
Notes:
Reading the article purely from an academic perspective, I noticed the paper is not
thoroughly cited, and much of which should be supported is written as common
knowledge. As an academic scholar on leadership, I immediately noticed the author
considered no alternative styles of leadership beyond transformational as effective in
leading in a global environment.
Disclosure:
I was pleasantly surprised at the unexpected article selection. I did not consider
the topic to focus on global leadership, or the author is female.
As a doctoral candidate and discourse analysis who studies leadership, language,
and gender, there are several red flags I need to consider:
• What influence does my knowledge of the author’s sex have, in my opinion of
the article?
• Do I immediately go one way or another because the author is female or
male?
• How can I mitigate bias based on the author’s sex?
• How can I balance yet keep in check what I know based on the considerable
amount of research I have read?

249
Methodological Alignment
• From a historical perspective, the question begs why transformational leadership
was presented as the effective style without acknowledging other forms of
conducting leadership mentioned much less investigated. Without justification,
the author presents the style as superior to another style.
• From a relational-dialectical perspective, the author omits or assumes the reader
understands other forms of leadership have their place and time as appropriate.
Notes:
• The paper is not thoroughly cited, and much of which should be supported is
written as common knowledge.
• The author considered no alternative styles of leadership beyond transformational
as effective in leading in a global environment.
• Other textual silences include interviewees were secured and if the leaders
surveyed were viewed in a positive light. Also, international is assumed as global,
so cultural factors were not considered.
Reflexivity
I was pleasantly surprised at the unexpected article selection. I did not consider
the topic to focus on global leadership, or the author is female.
Since I am a doctoral candidate who studies leadership, language, and gender, there are
several red flags I need to consider.
• What influence does my knowledge of the author’s sex have, in my opinion of the
article?
250
• Do I immediately go one way or another because the author is female or male?
• How can I mitigate bias based on the author’s sex?
• How can I balance yet keep in check what I know based on the considerable
amount of research I have read?

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A Text Analysis of Meaning in Research on Gender, Language, and

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Part of the Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons

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A Text Analysis of Meaning in Research on Gender, Language, and Leadership

MA, Walden University, 2017

BS, Indiana University, 2012

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

discourse analysis as the framework and methodology, a specific cross discipline

approach to discourse analysis primarily concerned with language’s innate ability to

reviewed publications dedicated to the intersection of gender and leadership in

intersection of women in leadership, themes of power, performance, and gender. The

trust the interpretation of findings or possess knowledge to interpret findings.

Westernization emerged as a macrolevel theme, that suggested the need to take on

reframe studies of male/female relations, expand conversations to encompass both sexes,

and move gendered leadership research towards a more unified approach.

MA, Walden University, 2017

BS, Indiana University, 2012

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

To my son, Zack, and daughter, Zarayah, remember to always think for

I have ever known.

meaning. The mind is a powerful thing; make sure to nourish it well.

Critical discourse analysis is a complex approach to language, and its application

is relatively uncommon in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. However, conducting

this study was extremely important to me. I want to acknowledge my committee

Also, I want to acknowledge Walden University’s staff. Specifically, Greg

Murphy, my academic advisor, my champion and my biggest cheerleader.

List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study................................................................................... 1

Problem Statement ........................................................................................................ 5

Purpose Statement ......................................................................................................... 7

Research Question ........................................................................................................ 8

Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 9

Nature of the Study ..................................................................................................... 13

Assumptions, Delimitations, and Limitations ............................................................. 16

Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 25

Literature Search Strategy........................................................................................... 26

Leadership Theories .............................................................................................. 58

Gender, Language and Leadership at Work ............................................................... 79

Chapter 3: Research Method ............................................................................................. 90

Research Design and Rationale .................................................................................. 91

Role of the Researcher ................................................................................................ 97

Gee’s Tools of Inquiry (2014a, 2014b, 2018)..................................................... 112

Gee’s Seven Building Tasks Questions (2014a, 2014b, 2018)........................... 113

Text Selection Logic ........................................................................................... 117

Instrumentation ................................................................................................... 121

Process and Instrument Validation ..................................................................... 127

Data Analysis Plan .............................................................................................. 137

Issues of Trustworthiness .......................................................................................... 139

Credibility ........................................................................................................... 139

Transferability ..................................................................................................... 140