ABSTRACT
The Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) profession presents a striking example of “occupational sex segregation”: men make up only 3.2% of SLTs in the UK. This chapter discusses parts of a research project which explored the gendered discourses that construct speech and language therapy as a gendered profession or as “women’s work”. Data were collected via questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups with SLT graduates, Speech and Language Therapists, SLT lecturers and careers advisors in London, UK; and analysed qualitatively using grounded theory principles, iterative thematic analysis, and discourse analysis. The findings show that the gender imbalance (in terms of numbers) in this profession is shored up by a range of gendered discourses and their associated social practices: discourses of SLT as a gendered profession; gender differences discourses; discourses of women as “carers/nurturers” and as “superior communicators”; and discourses of gender and career progression. These discourses were sometimes taken as given and reinforced by research participants and other times contested. The research presented here constitutes a much-needed starting point in the investigation of an under-researched area and extends our understanding of the topic from a critical discursive perspective.
