Cover not available
Part of
Identity Struggles: Evidence from workplaces around the world
Edited by Dorien Van De Mieroop and Stephanie Schnurr
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 69] 2017
► pp. 147–164

Chapter 8
Indian women at work

Struggling between visibility and invisibility

Over the last two decades, an increasing number of women have joined the Indian workforce, but, as Indian society is still largely patriarchal, they struggle for full membership in the professional ingroup. Drawing on Lewis and Simpson’s ‘(In)visibility Vortex’ (2012), we investigate from a discursive angle how these concepts are talked into being in interviews with female Indian professionals. Zooming in on one interview, we found that the interviewee’s stories demonstrate a general tendency towards ‘invisibility’, but they also uncover gender-based boundaries within the male dominated workplace. Finally, we also discuss how the interviewee’s transgression of such boundaries clashes with Indian cultural norms of acceptable female behavior, and instead of leading to inclusion in the workplace, it actually leads to ‘visibility’ and an emphasis on the interviewee’s otherness in identity terms.
Keywords: India, gender, narratives, interviews, identity, (in)visibility vortex, inclusion, ingroup, otherness, narrative analysis
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The (in)visibility vortex
  • (In)visibility processes from a discursive angle
  • Data description
  • Analysis
    • The invisible woman
    • The (in)visibility dilemma
  • Discussion and conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 26 April 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.69.08cha
References (25)
References
Bamberg, Michael. 2006. “Stories: Big or small; Why do we care?” Narrative Inquiry 16(1): 139–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bhattacharyya, Rica. 2013. “New company law gives a big push to gender diversity at workplace.” The Economic Times 24–12–2013. Retrieved December 09, 2014 from [URL].
. 2014. “Nearly 60% of companies at an entry level on gender maturity scale in India.” The Economic Times 07-11-2014. Retrieved December 09, 2014 from [URL].
Bruner, Jerome S. 1991. “Self-making and world-making.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 25(1): 67–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Budhwar, Pawan, Saini, Debi and Bhatnagar, Jyotsna. 2011. “Women in management in the new economic environment: The case of India.” Asia Pacific Business Review 11(2): 179–193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burr, Vivien. 1995. An Introduction to Social Constructionism. Routledge: London. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buttny, Richard. 1997. “Reported speech in talking race on campus.” Human Communication Research 23(4): 477–506. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carranza, Isolda E. 1998. “Low-narrativity narratives and argumentation.” Narrative Inquiry 8(2): 287–317. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Derek and Potter, Jonathan. 1992. Discursive Psychology. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Freeman, Mark. 2006. “Life “on holiday”? In defense of big stories.” Narrative Inquiry 16(1): 131–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra. 2006. “Thinking big with small stories in narrative and identity analysis.” Narrative Inquiry 16(1): 122–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holmes, Janet, Marra, Meredith and Vine, Bernadette. 2011. Leadership, Discourse and Ethnicity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, Gail. 2004. “Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction.” In Conversation Analysis; Studies from the first generation, Gene H. Lerner (ed.), 13–31. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. 1977. Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Labov, Willam and Waletzky, Joshua. 1966. “Narrative analysis: oral versions of personal experience.” In Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, June Helm (ed.), 12–44. Universiy of Washington Press: Seattle.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 2006. “Narrative pre-construction.” Narrative Inquiry 16(1): 37–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Patricia and Simpson, Ruth. 2012. “Kanter revisited: Gender, power and (in) visibility.” International Journal of Management Reviews 14(2): 141–158. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Linde, Charlotte. 1993. Life Stories: The Creation of Coherence. Oxford University Press: New York / Oxford.Google Scholar
Mullany, Louise J. 2010. “Gendered identities in the professional workplace: Negotiating the glass ceiling.” In Language and Identities, Carmen Llamas and Dominic Watt (eds.), 179–191. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
O’Connor, Patricia E. 1994. “‘You could feel it through the skin’: Agency and positioning in prisoners’ stabbing stories.” Text 14(1): 45–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1986. “Extreme case formulations: A way of legitimizing claims.” Human Studies 9(2): 219–229. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Population Census. 2011. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2014, from [URL]/
Prince, Ellen F., Frader, Joel and Bosk, Charles. 1982. “On hedging in physician-physician discourse.” In Linguistics and the Professions, Robert J. Di Pietro (ed.), 83–97. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Widdicombe, Sue. 1998. “Identity as an analysts’ and a participants’ resource.” In Identities in Talk, Charles Antaki and Sue Widdicombe (eds.), 191–206. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Van De Mieroop, Dorien, Marlene Miglbauer & Abha Chatterjee
2017. Mobilizing master narratives through categorical narratives and categorical statements when default identities are at stake. Discourse & Communication 11:2 ► pp. 179 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.