Gendered Discourses Produced Within the Corporate Sustainability Context: An Analysis on Turkiye

Öz

The current global political context of women’s empowerment is focusing on a sustainable economy and society. Corporate sustainability practices on women’s empowerment outgrow the concept of the struggle for gender equality at the workplace. Although women’s empowerment is positioned as one of the solutions for sustainability, there is a debate on the results of the corporate-led empowerment agenda, where remains a discursive terrain of such initiatives. The purpose of this research is to analyze the discourses produced by corporate companies in Turkey within the context of women’s empowerment for sustainable development and to present an empirical inquiry to bring up whether gendered discourses are produced. This research draws from all the approved corporate sustainability reports of Turkish companies and the findings of this research emerge from the literature review, field research, and theoretical and empirical work all together. Forty two companies out of the analysed 53 have statements on women’s empowerment and research findings show that these statements include gendered discourses. Gendered discourses are grouped into 5 groups (according to the idea of gendering) as: discourses produced with gendered biases, discourses reflecting power domination, discourses that include gratuitous premodifiers, discourses othering women, and discourses including gender generic nouns. All groups of discourses are discussed through related theories of gender and power. The research findings provoke new directions for future research problematizing ‘doing gender’ through language with the new questions it calls over the power politics of gender equality and empowerment of women.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Corporate Sustainability
• Women Empowerment
• Gender Equality
• Gendered Discurses
• Critical Discourse Analysis

Kurumsal Sürdürülebilirlik Bağlamında Üretilen Cinsiyetçi Söylemler Üzerine Bir Analiz: Türkiye Örneklemi

Öz

Toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliği ve kadınların güçlenmesinin mevcut küresel siyasi bağlamı sürdürülebilir bir ekonomi ve topluma odaklanmaktadır. Kadınların güçlenmesi amacı ile yürütülen kurumsal sürdürülebilirlik çalışmaları her ne kadar sürdürülebilirlik çözümlerinden biri olarak konumlansa da, bu tür girişimlerin söylemsel alanının ürettiği cinsiyetçi yaklaşımlar ihmal edilmemelidir. Bu araştırmanın amacı, sürdürülebilir kalkınma odağında kadınların güçlenmesi bağlamında Türkiye’de kurumsal şirketler tarafından üretilen söylemleri analiz etmek ve cinsiyetçi söylemlerin üretilip üretilmediğini ampirik bir araştırmayla ortaya koymaktır. Araştırma kapsamında Türk şirketleri tarafından halka açık yayınlanan kurumsal sürdürülebilirlik raporları veri seti olarak incelenmiş ve bulgular literatür taraması ile tartışılmıştır. İncelenen 53 şirketten 42’sinin kadınların güçlendirilmesine ilişkin beyanları bulunmaktadır ve araştırma bulguları bu beyanların cinsiyetçi söylemler içerdiğini göstermektedir. Cinsiyetçi söylemler, üretildikleri düşüncelere göre 5 gruba ayrılmıştır: cinsiyetli önyargılar ile üretilen söylemler, iktidar tahakkümünü yansıtan söylemler, ön niteleyiciler içeren söylemler, kadınları ötekileştiren söylemler, ve cinsiyetçi jenerik isimler içeren söylemler. Tüm söylem grupları, ilgili toplumsal cinsiyet ve iktidar kuramları üzerinden eleştirel söylem analizi ile tartışılmıştır. Araştırma bulguları, toplumsal cinsiyet eşitsizliğini yeniden üreten cinsiyetçi söylemler ile güç politikalarını sorunsallaştırarak gelecekteki araştırmalar için yeni yönelimler önermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Kurumsal Sürdürülebilirlik
• Kadınların Güçlenmesi
• Toplumsal Cinsiyet Eşitliği
• Cinsiyetçi Söylemler
• Eleştirel Söylem Analizi

Kaynakça

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