Studying dilemmas in gender-neutral discourse

This paper considers the ways in which discourse analysis can highlight some of the issues that emerge in the use of gender-neutral language in terms of personal development planning (PDP) and work-life balance in occupational careers (WLB). The emergence of this discourse is bound up with national and trans-national policy initiatives directed towards improving both personal opportunities and competitive advantage in a global knowledge-based economy. However, despite an increasing concern with self-direction through the adoption of a gender-neutral discourse, dilemmas and contradictions emerge in the way in which this discourse provides a rhetorical veneer that side-steps the issue of the structural position of women with regard to the labour market and family life.
Recent evidence suggests that support for gender equality appears to be declining across the UK and USA amid concern that women who play a full role in the workforce do so at the expense of family life (Scott, 2008). This appears to revolve around concerns that the welfare of children and of the family are being compromised the more women spend their time at work and find themselves with the double burden of employment and family care. Therefore, women, and in particular, mothers can experience considerable strain when attitudes reinforce the notion that employment and family interests conflict. The ideological effects of the adoption of a gender-neutral discourse that effectively suppresses any engagement with these wider political issues effectively ensures that matters are expressed in terms of choice rather than equality.