Globalization, geopolitics, and gender in professional communication. By LouiseMullany and StephanieSchnurr (ed.), London and New York: Routledge. 2022. pp. 240. US$160.00 (Hardback). ISBN: 9781003159674
本书通过社会语言学视角，分析全球不同地区职场中性别不平等如何通过语言和沟通实践运作，涵盖家庭、教育、商业和政治领域，适合研究性别、沟通与地缘政治的学者。
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the issue of women's gender equality. The McKinsey intersectional study (2021) states that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted three categories of women because they lost their careers due to the demands of domestic work, such as working mothers, women in senior management positions, and black women. Globally, UN Women 2020 reveals an increase in domestic gender-based violence. The affordances of digital media have become intensive because of the social distancing policy and working from home during the pandemic, which led to increased online abuse, marginalization, and discrimination against women (Rights of Women, 2021). These facts are the constituents of the research raised in this book, how gender-based social inequality has been a global phenomenon with geopolitical roots because the sociocultural context in each region binds it. Overall, this book examines how gender inequality in workplaces operates through language and occurs in various professions in the family, education, economic, business, and political sectors. Jo Angouri and Judith Baxter (2021, p. 6) locate “work” and “workplace” as the substance of social mobility and economic stability, where all individuals negotiate the meaning and power hierarchies through daily interactions. Gender and cultural variables are significant perspectives for examining gender inequality in the workplace as apparatuses of ideology. Language is an empirical medium for information circulation and value transformation in the individual and social spheres, reflecting gender dispositions (Hall et al., 2020). The sociolinguistic approach will reveal how language and discourse in professional communication contain the hidden meaning of traditional gender ideologies. The book examines five critical issues related to the conflict discourse about family and work roles (Chapter 2), the discrimination and marginalization which operate through the geopolitically language (Chapter 4), the implications of issues of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and social class for women leaders and migrant workers on the representation of identity and global challenges (Chapters 3, 5, and 6), the leadership stereotypes based on gender, “thinking leaders, thinking men” (Chapter 7 and 9), and the stereotypes of sex roles in the profession and domestic constructed by the sociocultural order and implemented in the language and category of the professional gender (Chapter 8 and 10). In Chapter 2, Stephanie Schnurr investigates the discourse about family and work by analyzing the successful women interviewed as celebrity leaders from the Middle East, India, the USA, and Nigeria on the TEDx Talks YouTube account. The research reveals that the story-teller constructs women leaders' experiences to struggle to live in traditional norms, and the role as a household is an advantage rather than an obstacle in their professional success. The narrative is oriented to convincing the audience that women must struggle and succeed to be mothers and prosperous entrepreneurs. In contrast, society has a perception that the roles are incompatible options. The discourse still reflects the mainstream narrative and fails to counter the gender inequality practice through digital communication as global media. The core topic of gender discrimination and stereotyping against women's leadership in the education workplace are explored in Chapter 4. This chapter discusses how gender represents asymmetrical power relations that affect work mechanisms in the academic field. Hale Işık-Güler and Erdoan-ztürk examine the discourse of women's leadership in senior academic positions in Turkish universities. The research findings suggest that the dominance of masculine values and systems forms a strong network in senior management teams where minority women experience intimidation in the selection, division of labor, and task processes. Gender disparities operate in a micropolitical order where women are stereotyped as incompetent administrators. They struggle to deal with emotional barriers within their leadership practices, particularly concerning familial responsibilities, role conflicts, and the gendering of work. Gendered discourses and stereotypes around women's leadership shape a discursive strategy to create a counter-narrative in everyday language. The marginalization toward women is not only based on gender but also the intersectionality of their race, religion, ethnicity, and social class. Chapter 3 analyzed women's contestation as political leaders. Then Chapters 5 and 6 explore discrimination from a women's labor perspective. Research by Louise Mullany and Peter Masibo Lumala (Chapter 3) reveals that the failure of women's leadership as political candidates in the parliaments of East African countries reflect the broader perspective about gender inequality against women's leader. The entrenchment of patriarchal values constructs negative stereotypes and practices of gender injustice in the political sphere. The women's capabilities are oppressed through discrimination against gender, age, marital status and tribal rules. They are judged by discriminatory communication patterns and experience gender-based violence through threats that harm their human rights and existence. Instead of drowning and suffering, they keep struggling and become NGO leaders concerned with women's activism and advocacy. In Malaysia, the discourse on women's empowerment hides the meaning of discrimination against Migrant Domestic Workers (MDW) who are judged not to have enough capital and capacity to compete. Melissa Yoong (Chapter 5) critically analyses digital language on the Flexworklife.my and Talent Matters website, specific reviews of The Career Comeback Stories. This research finds that neoliberal feminist values affirm the discourse “happy work-family balance” that women can balance career and family affairs. Even women are obliged and required to be successful in these two fields as an output of self-confidence and personal growth. The role of MDW is invisible or even marginalized by the disposition of language as “maids” and “domestic help” rather than “domestic worker”. On the other hand, Catho Jacobs, Dorien Van De Mieroop and Colette Van Laar (Chapter 6) address the women with Turkish and Moroccan migration workers who dealt with discrimination and stereotyping of gender, religion, and ethnic identity as a minority group in Belgian workplace. The research concludes that gender bias toward men with a migration background isnegative and more significant than women because they are seen as a monolithic category. Men are judged only by their nationality, but women are also judged by their gender and religious identity. Women who do not wear a scarf will be perceived as emancipation and modern. This is an opportunity for women of ethnic minority group to deal with the challenges of migration. Chapters 7 and 9 explain that the system of patriarchy established a professional field based on gender disparities to reinforce men's leadership domination. In Chapter 7, Janet Holmes and Meredith Marra identify and discuss unrecognized gender biases in everyday conversations at work. They demonstrated the impact of “gender order” or “cultural order” in daily workplace interactions between colleagues by analyzing the interaction of audio recordings and authentic video recordings derived from the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project. The study shows that patriarchal hegemony operating in underground battles means that the dominance of cultural norms has a hidden authority that forces women to conform to the ethics of society as feminine. This veiled order of masculinity also cannot be separated from the history of New Zealand's colonialism as a commonwealth country. This research conveys how gendered linguistic stereotypes contribute (often unconsciously) to legitimizing and reifying gender disparities in the workplace area (Mullany & Yoong, 2017). In Chapter 9, Joanne McDowell examines the gender gap between teachers for elementary schools in applying students' disciplinary values. The essentialist view of gender construction is challenging because male teachers are perceived to be more capable in terms of assertiveness and leadership (masculine). In contrast, female teachers emphasize affection and tenderness (feminine). This research focuses on how teachers can use transactional and relational approaches to shape student discipline. Based on the in-depth interviews of six male and six female teachers in the UK, the research findings show that each teacher has a style and strategy that is influenced by personal relationships with their students and the culture of their workplace, not by gender. Teachers can discipline students through positive reinforcement, politeness, or group solidarity. Chapters 8 and 10 discussed how the marginalization toward women is practiced in daily interaction and language. Joelle Loew (Chapter 8) describes the gender prejudices faced by women who successfully own male-dominated professions in IT-based companies in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States and the discursive strategies they employ. This research explored data from in-depth interviews with seven women professionals who have experience and knowledge of “the agile IT” work patterns, which means having flexibility in place and time. The research findings show the existence of gender naturalization stereotypes that have become a workplace discourse, that men are synonymous with programmers while women are designers. Sexism and discrimination become a part of their working lives, where humor and daily conversation trivialized women by labeling them as “too emotional” or “not assertive enough”. Victoria Howard, in Chapter 10, explains the use of humor in professional communication in the political context of the British Parliament, the House of Lords, which represents the upper class and is male-dominated. The inequality of women's participation in politics in the British parliament became the basis for examining how politicians place their identity based on their gender, social class, and nationality through language discourse in their speeches. Based on the speech analysis of 4 Scottish and Welsh politicians, the research findings reveal that professional communication in this political setting is typified by a range of masculine interactional norms, including speakers using militarized language and “entertaining impoliteness”, rivalrous humor, sporting talk and a competitive, direct and assertive speech style. This book provides critical reflection to researchers, communities, organizations, companies, and society concerning the global issues of gender inequality related to the specific context of social culture and language in professional communication. All collected chapters are presented as structured and comprehensive research about women's discrimination in the global landscape based on a professional communication perspective. The empirical data strengthen the sociolinguistic analysis to explore the discrimination phenomenon against women in various professions in geopolitical contexts. Although all chapters successfully capture the problem in the family, business, academic, and political areas, this book leaves an unanswered question, whether it is a guarantee that gender-based discrimination does not occur in women's organizations involved in gender equality activism. Generally, the research findings of this work will have significant implications for future studies about gender disparities in the workplace field. The book is potentially a scientific and applicable reference for governments, activists, and communication researchers concerned about creating gender equality in society. The publication of this review is funded by Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP) as an Indonesia Endowment Fund for Master's degree students with the scholarship program. We received financial support from Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP). Marina Rospitasari got her Master's in Communication Science from the Universitas Indonesia, where she focused on studying gender and the media. She is a researcher and book reviewer on some topics related to communication studies. Her current research focuses on digital activism and gender equality. Maura Aviolis is currently a student in Media and Cultural Studies student in the Magister Program at Universitas Gadjah Mada, specializing in language, gender, media, and culture studies. She is a researcher and book reviewer on some topics related to media and cultural studies. Her research focuses on language and power relations, gender inequality, and digital media. Siti Rahayu Fatimah Renfaan is currently a student in Media and Cultural Studies in the Magister Program at Universitas Gadjah Mada. She is interested in research on cultural studies, postcolonial studies, gender, and media. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.