Women, Individual Responsibility, and Overachievement

Abstract

This thesis examines how the discourse on diversity exercises power in the field of technology entrepreneurship in Denmark, and how that exercise of power creates conditions of possibility for the diverse subject. Social inequality is a global problem (George et al., 2016). Simultaneously, societies are experiencing a slowdown in productivity growth (Goldin et al., 2024). Therefore, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is a frequently researched topic. Meanwhile, a large part of the literature in that field of research is situated in North America. Consequently, there is a need for literature on social inequality situated in other contexts than North America (Erdur, 2020; Jonsen et al., 2011). Not only is there a call for research in different contexts, there is a call for research which examines diversity in a context and analyses the context itself (Ahonen et al., 2014). An analysis of the context in which research on diversity takes place will illuminate what conditions and rationales affect diversity in specific contexts. This thesis contributes to filling the gap in diversity literature by performing an analysis of the power exercised through the discourse on diversity informed by a genealogical analysis of diversity in the Danish field of technology entrepreneurship. To conduct my analysis, I draw on Foucault’s notion of power along with Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory.

My analysis finds that the discourse on diversity in the Danish field of technology entrepreneurship exercises power by constructing diversity as good business. Furthermore, the Danish context means that a discourse of equality paradoxically rules out diversity by excluding affirmative action. The business discourse on diversity also rules out the breakdown of structural barriers for underrepresented groups in technology entrepreneurship because the construction of diversity as good business endorses passivity on an organizational and societal level. That results in three distinct conditions of possibility for the diverse subject in Danish technology entrepreneurship. The only marker of diversity is “woman”, the diverse subject is individually responsible for its inclusion in the field, and the diverse subject needs to overachieve in spite of ignorance towards unequal conditions for participation in the field