Gender Representation in the System of Saudi’s Universities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33977/0507-000-068-006Keywords:
Ideology, gender, gender representation, power relationsAbstract
Methods:
The paper draws on van Dijk’s approach (van Dijk, 2008, 2013) to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Van dijk’s approach is based on the perspective that social problems are constituted of cognitive, discursive, and social dimensions. These dimensions are dialectically related and serve to reproduce and maintain unequal power relations. Based on this perspective, this paper conducts a textual analysis of the rules of universities to uncover the cognitive and the discursive dimensions that serve to reproduce women’s under-representation in positions of leadership.
Results:
The analysis shows that the text relies on masculine lexicals in order to refer to both women and men as well as to denote titles of leadership’s positions. This shows that the text is based on a sexist mental model that is based on the ideological view; male as the norm - female as the deviant.
Conclusions:
The paper argues that these discursive structures function to reproduce the existing power relation system through reinforcing ideological beliefes that serve to naturalize men’s dominance.
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