REVOLVERMAN ELLER BOLAGETS MAMMA? En kritisk diskursanalys av framställningen av kvinnliga och manliga entreprenörer i Dagens Industri

Sammanfattning: Equality in the news media has been a topic of discussion in a variety of contexts and with different aspects throughout history. We continue to ask ourselves what the definition of equality is and when a country can be defined as an equal society. As this is a widespread issue and a question for all different types of research, the purpose of this essay is to examine the issue in a narrower context; the portrayal of successful female and male entrepreneurs in the Swedish business magazine Dagens Industri. Previous research shows that women are underrepresented in the news media in general (Edström & Jacobsson, 2021:21) and in addition, portrayed through gender stereotypes (Van Dijk, 1995:24-25). The proportion of female entrepreneurs in Sweden is at the same time smaller than their male counterparts (Regeringen, 20231 ). The distribution of both women in the news media and women entrepreneurs is what piqued my interest in this field. The exact purpose was phrased as follows; through a critical discourse analysis, investigate and compare how Swedish successful female and male entrepreneurs are portrayed in Dagens Industri. To achieve the purpose, two main questions were stated. The first question worked as a starting point, aimed at understanding how the entrepreneurs were portrayed through verbal and visual communication in the business magazine. The follow up question focused on the similarities and differences between the discourses detected in the first question. The method used to answer these questions, and to achieve the purpose of the essay, was a Critical Discourse Analysis, a type of qualitative content analysis. This type of method is relevant for studies that inquire for knowledge of how discourses, words as a type of social action, is reproduced through all types of media. As a point of departure, descriptions of the method compiled by Berglez (2019) and Machin & Mayr (2012) were used to create an analysis schedule. To find articles written on similar terms, the search for relevant news about entrepreneurs was based on Ernst & Youngs awards for entrepreneurs. In other words, winners of the award were searched for at Dagens Industris website and thereafter selected based on predetermined criteria. Four articles were chosen, two about female entrepreneurs and two about male entrepreneurs. The compilation about the Critical Discourse Analysis was also used as a theoretical staring point (Berglez, 2019) in combination with theoretical perspectives about gender stereotypes described by Ellemers (2018). The results revealed several discourses concerning the portrayal of entrepreneurs which could be explained with gender stereotypes. The female entrepreneurs were described and portrayed as differing from the societal standard and ideal for what a “real” entrepreneur is. They were also personalized in a way which shifted the focus from their careers and achievements to stereotypical female characteristics. Their male counterparts were instead portrayed as experts in their field which lead to them being perceived as legitimate, or “real” entrepreneurs. Through evaluation based on the entrepreneurs performance, in combination with an overall acceptance of strategies without questioning, discourses founded in male gender stereotypes were detected. These results account for the major difference between the portrayal of the entrepreneurs which led me to the conclusion that there are in fact discourses anchored in gender stereotypes that the news media, in this case the business magazine, reproduces. The results are interesting in the sense that this is new knowledge since previous research have not addressed this issue in Sweden or in Swedish business media. It also contributes to a greater picture of how we perceive entrepreneurs and how we expect them to be, that female entrepreneurship is considered a different type of entrepreneurship, an issue that could be investigated by further research. Despite the fact that Dagens Industri is a business magazine, the entrepreneurs were not entirely described through their entrepreneurship which one could expect. The societal norms and expectations for men and women can therefore not be escaped, not even by a medium that says to address other topics. Another interesting topic of discussion that the conclusions raised was the fact that the discourses were hidden beyond the lines in all articles, they were, in other words, not easy to detect with a quick overview but rather concealed in the way the articles were structured. The results raised important questions for further research to analyse, why there are such distinct expectations on entrepreneurs, why we associate the profession with gender stereotypes and what consequences follows with the fact that the discourses were concealed. Since the study were limited due to time and resources, there are still questions to be answered within this field, for example how young or less successful entrepreneurs are portrayed or how different types of news media describeentrepreneurship.