Gendered Talk at Work: Constructing Gender Identity Through Workplace Discourse

How do we talk at work? Are there distinctively ‘feminine’ or particularly ‘masculine’ ways of interacting in the workplace? If so, who uses them, and in what contexts? This book explores the ways in which gender contributes to the interpretation of meaning in workplace interaction, and examines how women and men negotiate their gender identities as well as their professional roles in everyday workplace communication. Using original and insightfully analyzed data, Janet Holmes focuses not on how women and men differ in the ways they communicate power and authority, but rather on the ways in which both draw on gendered discourse resources to enact a range of workplace roles.

List of Figures. Acknowledgements. 1. The role of gender in workplace talk. 2. Gender and leadership talk at work. 3. Relational practice – not just women’s work. 4. Humour in the workplace – not just men’s play. 5. Contest, challenge and complaint – gendered discourse?. 6. Women and men telling stories at work. 7. Giving women the last word. Appendix: Transcription Conventions. References. Index.

Janet Holmes holds a personal Chair in Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington. Her publications include The Blackwell Handbook of Language and Gender (2003; co–edited with Miriam Meyerhoff), Power and Politeness in the Workplace (2003; with Maria Stubbe), and Women, Men and Politeness (1995).

" Gendered Talk at Work offers rich empirical texture to support subtle and careful analysis of gender in workplace talk. Janet Holmes’s highly readable yet theoretically sophisticated book will be required reading not just for sociolinguists but for everyone interested in promoting gender equity in employment." Sally McConnell–Ginet, Cornell University "A particular strength of this book is its accessibility to non–linguists: it will assist women and men in the workplace to gain a more sophisticated understanding of how gender interacts with power in producing different ways of speaking." Anne Pauwels, The University of Western Australia "Janet Holmes’s account of gender and workplace discourse represents sociolinguistic scholarship at its best. Her detailed and wide–ranging analysis of language in interaction provides unique insights into the linguistic culture of the workplace and challenges stereotypical conceptions of gendered speaking styles – an invaluable resource." Joan Swann, The Open University "Holmes′s text is a well–written accessible book that not only gives the reader an understanding of much of the work on gendered workplace talk but advances with equal clarity into Holmes′s own subtle and nuanced additions to the field." Discourse & Communication