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Title:
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Language and Discrimination: A study of gender and discourse in workplaces in Kenya
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Author:
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Felicia Yieke
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Vienna University
, Department of Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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2002
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Discourse Analysis
Sociolinguistics
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Director(s):
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Florian Menz
Ruth Wodak
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Abstract:
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Why is it that somehow, women in the world, and specifically in Kenya seldom make it to the top, or even in the middle level positions in the corporate world? What is it that confines them to these low-levelled positions? This study describes the workplace situation in Kenya in relation to gender and discourse. It admits that many factors act as obstacles to women's ascent to powerful positions in the corporate world. The study is interested in the language factor; specifically, the discursive practices which ensure that women are discriminated against, and never rise beyond a certain level (the glass ceiling). The use of interruptions, questions and topic organisation as interactional resources within the turn taking process was thus observed and analysed. The issue of context was also taken into consideration.
Committee meetings of management and divisional types were audio-recorded. These were subjected to transcriptions using the HIAT system. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as an interpretative and theoretical framework, issues of power, ideology, gender and discourse were addressed and discussed. Conversation analysis was used as a tool for the analytical process under the wider framework of CDA. It was found that both gender and power had an influence on the interaction patterns of men and women, although gender was found to be more deterministic than power. What ultimately emerged was a picture where male styles of speaking were significantly different from female styles. These differences, it was found, are subtle features, which act as further forces to marginalize or relegate women to the rear.
This study hopes that through CDA, women would be sensitised further, to know exactly their social and linguistic positioning in the public and formal domain. This opens way for (re)negotiations for their rightful positions within the corporate society. This in turn would help in the emancipation and eventual improvement of the women lot specifically in Kenya.
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