"Meanings, Perceptions and Interpretations: An Investigation of Gender in Business Media"

The influence of the media and how its audiences create meaning continues to attract interest in gender and media studies (e.g. Ang, 1996; Kelan, 2013). Exploring how audiences perceive or engage with media discourses around women leaders is a useful way to explore gender inequalities in organisations, albeit, studies looking at the media coverage of gender in business remain limited (Kelan, 2013). In this paper, we present a qualitative study exploring audience interpretations of business media discourses on women leaders. Specifically, we look at how audiences consume business media texts and how their own experiences shape their interpretations. Our findings show that audiences found the discursive portrayal of a woman leader as traditional, customary or axiomatic, or as progressive and unconventional. Furthermore, we found that self-awareness can play a role in the interpretation of the media and fighting stereotypes deeply embedded in one’s subconscious.