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

Purpose - 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.

Design/methodology/approach – Theconceptualising of gender discourse as statement and languaging performativityacts is translated into a systematic methodological path into empirics using Orderof Discourse guide (Foucault, 1981). Initiated by the lack of FTSE100 womenon board 2010, we examine Tesco’s ARs gender discourse sections 2015/2020, andHampton-Alexander Review and the truth battles between statement forms.

Findings – The [non-]glottographic statements’ interplay,produce fundamentally different gender truth claims and shifts the Order ofDiscourse 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 aswriting.

Research limitations/implications – We provide anew route to empirical studies of gender discourse that add layers of analysisto gender discourse in critical accounting and beyond (McKinlay, 2010),alongside new possibilities for (re-)investigating material already collectedand those wating to be collected.

Originality/value – We offer an extended non-glottographicstatement ‘package’ of Butler’s promoting further gender discourse studies, addingwhat has been absent into presence in research in critical accounting andbeyond, reshaping (gender) discourse regularities about what gets ‘said’ and ‘not-said’.