A CONTRAPUNTAL ANALYSIS ON THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF FEMALE LEADERSHIP BY MILLENNIAL WOMEN IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The study takes a critical approach to understanding how girls/women discursively construct leadership in way that stabilize and disrupt conventional meanings of leadership by using the lens of Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0. In particular, the study examines 20 interviews with millennial women in Singapore to explore the ways in which cultural discourses of leadership influences young women’s understanding of leadership and female leadership. Contrapuntal analysis revealed that Millennial women negotiate between culturally circulating discourses on leadership and counter discourses of leadership to create new, working meanings of leadership for themselves. The findings of the study have considerable implications for the role of language and culture in influencing gender roles and leadership aspirations of young women in Singapore. The study offers practical suggestions for training and retaining talented female millennials towards leadership positions in organizations.