Gender gap truth battles: conceptualising and analysing statement forms in annual reports

To radically reframe and explore gender discourse by building bridges between Bassnett et al.’s (2018) extension of Foucault’s (1972) statement now including three forms, speech, glottographic and non-glottographic writing, Butler’s (1993; 1999) ‘utterance’ and empirics; provide a systematic methodological path into empirics; showing how these statement forms interplay in gender truth battles/claims in Annual Reports discourses.

The conceptualising of gender discourse as statement and languaging performativity acts is translated into a systematic methodological path into empirics using Order of Discourse guide (Foucault, 1981). Initiated by the lack of FTSE100 women on board 2010, we examine Tesco’s ARs gender discourse sections 2015/2020, and Hampton-Alexander Review and the truth battles between statement forms.

The [non-]glottographic statements’ interplay, produce fundamentally different gender truth claims and shifts the Order of Discourse and ‘conditions of possibilities in what can be [not] said. It also raises the question if (gender) discourses can continue overlooking the non-glottographic statement form as writing.

We provide a new route to empirical studies of gender discourse that add layers of analysis to gender discourse in critical accounting and beyond (McKinlay, 2010), alongside new possibilities for (re-)investigating material already collected and those wating to be collected.

We offer an extended non-glottographic statement ‘package’ of Butler’s promoting further gender discourse studies, adding what has been absent into presence in research in critical accounting and beyond, reshaping (gender) discourse regularities about what gets ‘said’ and ‘not-said’.