Balancing Power: The Discursive Maintenance of Gender Inequality by Wo/Men at University

Abstract

There is a substantial and growing critical and pro/feminist literature examining the interrelated topics of the discursive construction of masculinities, gender relations and gender inequality. However, despite discourse theory generally promoting an anti-essentialist view of gender and a turn to the text, there is a tendency towards focusing research on a particular biological sex - for example, research on `men and masculinity' and how men maintain their privileged position. This implies that only men construct masculinities, and that only men maintain their position of power (or only men are of interest), which absents women's voice and neglects women's contributions to the maintenance of an oppressive status quo. This article goes some way towards addressing this trend. A critical discourse analysis was performed on data obtained from five group discussions with female and male undergraduate psychology students. Three repertoires were identified: `equality as imminent/achieved', `women as oppressors/men as victims' and `women as manipulators'. These repertoires are read as serving the common ideological function of `balancing power' through painting a picture of equality between the sexes.

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