Hjælper den måde, vi taler om ligestilling mellem kønnene på arbejdsmarkedet, ligestilling?

Abstract

This master thesis aims to answer the problem statement: Does the way we communication about gender equality, i.e., binary genders, in the labor market, help gender equality? To answer the problem statement, the communication from three organizations is studied. The three organizations are: The influencing organization (meaning an organization that seeks to influence other organizations), The Danish Institute for Human Rights, the legislative organization, Folketingets Ligestillingsudvalg (ed. Gender Equality committee of the Danish Parliament) and the executive organization, VIVE – The Danish Center for Social Science Research. The master thesis is based on an empirical study of documents concerning gender equality in the labor market collected from the three organizations. The study is divided into two analyses. Analysis 1 is based on systems theory formulated by Luhmann and utilizes the two theoretical concepts of codes and problem/solution connections. The two concepts are theoretically linked and in the subsequent analysis only codes, which contains problem/solution connection, are analyzed. Analysis 2 is based on Laclau & Mouffes discourse theory and utilizes the two theoretical concepts of chains of equivalence and floating signifiers. The results of the analyses are that while there is a significant correlation between codes utilized across all three organizations, there is no significant correlation between the contents that are communicated within the codes, and specifically the contents of the problem/solution connections. Furthermore, the discourse analysis shows that even though all three organizations discursivizes offending behavior and equal pay, there is no shared content within those topics. Therefor the thesis concludes that the way we communicate about gender equality in the labor market do not generally help gender equality because the lack of correlation in the communication between the organizations limits meaningful action, i.e., action made meaningful by communication which contains the corresponding contents.