Using Antenarrative to Uncover Systems of Power in Mid-20th Century Policies on Marriage and Maternity at IBM

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jul 2016

Using Antenarrative to Uncover Systems of Power in Mid-20th Century Policies on Marriage and Maternity at IBM

Emily January Petersen Utah State University ; Ryan M. Moeller Utah State University

Abstract

In this article, we use extant International Business Machines' internal communications to demonstrate how Boje’s notion of “antenarrative” can serve as a methodology for feminist historiography and as a way of uncovering forgotten and unchallenged systems of power and legitimacy in technical and professional communication. The antenarrative fragments of any official, sanctioned story give us insight into the ways in which power has been distributed throughout an organization and where agency can be claimed in real time. We also see that a methodology that considers the untold and unofficial stories of women in the workplace works to explain current distributions of power. This can be done by investigating the antenarratives that threaten to disrupt the prepackaged grand narrative of organizations; we show this specifically through a case study of International Business Machines' archival memos in contrast with the company’s website and public relations documents.

Journal: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published: 2016-07-01
DOI: 10.1177/0047281616639473
Open Access: Closed
Topics: qualitative research professional writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

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Petersen et al. (2018)

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