Facial outrage: discursive clashes and recognition of female leadership in Petrobras

Abstract

Organizational speeches and issues concerning the process of affirmation and recognition of women’s identities in the corporate world are the focus of this article. They address the dimensions of the anti-feminist dilemmas involved in the organizational speeches, at different moments and mediated by various communication media. Drawing on the apparition of feminine leadership in the public space, we have chosen as conceptual guides of the facial and notional outrage as a basis for a brief communicational analysis sedimented on Graça Foster’s face, the first woman to occupy the presidency of Petrobras. The hybrid methodology developed for a qualitative reading of the mediatic productions in the matter joins the elements of the analysis of the discourse with others that are proper of the semiotics, considering the ethical and aestheticexpressive dimensions of the textualities and images contained in the productions analyzed. The results achieved point to the need for a critical view of organizational communication that values ethics, abandoning the stereotypes usually used in organizational discourses, especially those that use women as themes.