Chapter 10: The “Gogglebox” and Gender: An Interdiscursive Analysis of Television Representations and Professional Femininities

Professional career expectations (and trajectories) are constructed and negotiated by decisions based upon individual experiences and interactions with the external social world (Bolton & Muzio, 2008; Elliott & Stead, 2008; Hirschorn, 1989). Numerous researchers have argued that the construction and perpetuation of gendered occupational stereotypes have an important influence on career choice by imparting powerful visual and textual imagery of what it is to be professional and what it is to be gendered in the workplace (Czarniawska, 2010; Gill, 2006; Mavin, 2009). Further, subtle social processes underlie the disparities and inadequacies in women’s professional progress (Carli & Eagly, 2007; Critchett, 2010; Howells, 2014), with gendered media representations influencing constructs of gendered identities and career choices over time (Gill, 2006; Kelan, 2012; Mavin, 2009; Rehn, 2008; van Zoonen, 1994).