Language, Gender, and Identities at Work: Exploring Professional Communication in the IT Industry

— —

Joelle Loew

Language, Gender, and Identities at Work

Exploring Professional Communication in the IT Industry

Joelle Loew

$398.95 $319.42

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Routledge
29 December 2025

Sociolinguistics; Information technology industries

Series: Routledge Research in Applied Professional Communication

This book critically examines gender and professional communication in the IT industry, demonstrating the value of an applied linguistics perspective in better understanding the discourses and gendering of work in the field and more broadly. Drawing primarily from sociolinguistics research but also interdisciplinary lines of inquiry, Loew considers the discursive processes that contribute to the gendering of work in the IT industry.

The volume features discussions of gendered hierarchies and inequalities in the workplace and the ways in which ideologies around professional competency perpetuate stereotypes of gender in IT. The book features data from business interactions and interviews with IT professionals from Switzerland, the UK, and the US, and centres on agile working, whose focus on regular open communication and reduced hierarchies offer opportunities to explore tensions between different gender ideologies. In engaging with these issues, Loew outlines ways forward for engaging with the theoretical, analytical, and methodological issues around the gendering of work without perpetuating binary notions of gender in professional settings.

This volume will be of interest to scholars working on language and gender, professional communication, business communication, and applied linguistics.

By: Joelle Loew
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 630g
ISBN: 9781032719139
ISBN 10: 1032719133
Series: Routledge Research in Applied Professional Communication
Pages: 244
Publication Date: 29 December 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Joelle Loew is a lecturer and researcher in Applied Linguistics with a PhD from the University of Basel. She is also the editor-in-chief of HAZ – Queer Zürich Magazine.

Reviews for Language, Gender, and Identities at Work: Exploring Professional Communication in the IT Industry

""This engaging book explores the role of gender and the processes of gendering in the largely overlooked professional context of agile IT companies. Using naturally occurring interactions and interviews, it convincingly demonstrates how gender and agile are interwoven in complex ways. A must read for anyone researching gender and language!"" Stephanie Schnurr, University of Warwick ""This book presents the first linguistic study to empirically engage with agile methodologies and linking them to gendering processes. It convinces with careful ways of reflecting on theory and methodology and is of interest to scholars of professional discourse, identity construction and gender."" Miriam Locher, University of Basel