Women Whistleblowers: Examining parrhesia, power and gender with Sophocles’ Antigone

Abstract

How do gender and power intersect in whistleblowing situations? In this article, we deepen understandings of whistleblowing as a contemporary form of parrhesia, involving a process of self-constitution while speaking ‘truth to power’ from below. To explore the complex interactions of gender and power, we analyze in-depth, qualitative data from senior women managers whistleblowing in financial services organizations in France, Ireland and the US. Sophocles’ play Antigone, via a feminist lens, inspires a novel theoretical framing for understanding how structures of gender and power can be subverted, as women whistleblowers move between positions of masculine, feminine, subjugation and control. Our article contributes to organizational research on whistleblowing by showing how parrhesiastic risk intersects with gender in nuanced ways: violent gendered reprisals can occur in momentary interactions that are painfully internalized, yielding a search for support from outside sources in order to survive. These acts of exclusion necessitate the creation of new subject positions beyond those on offer within the organization. Overall our article demonstrates how experiences of ‘outsider truth-telling’ from the margins, shed light on the power dynamics at play in whistleblowing situations.