Discourse and Enactment: Gender Inequality in Text and Context
研究英国一项旨在增加女性劳动参与率和管理岗位比例的倡议，分析其话语如何无意中强化性别不平等，并探讨认知、行动与结果循环如何维持社会结构。
This paper examines the discourse surrounding a major U.K. initiative designed to increase the “quality and quantity” of women's participation in the workforce and in managerial roles. Texts are studied to explore ways in which the persistence of inequalities may, without apparent intention, be encoded in language. Our analysis suggests that cognitive schemata are framed by the dominant discourse, here of “target-setting” within organizations. We find from commentaries that even potential critics of the campaign were drawn into acceptance of a common agenda and have been thereby diverted from addressing other pressing issues affecting women's opportunities. This analysis draws upon a conceptual scheme which is concerned with ways in which cycles of cognition, action, and outcome collectively actualize social structures, a process referred to as social enactment. We explore how a conventional discourse reinforces enactment processes supporting prevailing structures while new discourse offers the potential for change.