Gender Equality Policy Communication in Formal Workplaces: An Exploratory Study of Women Workers’ Experiences
Abstract
Gender equality policies in formal workplaces do not automatically produce substantive equality in everyday organisational practice. Their implementation is shaped not only by the existence of formal rules, but also by how such policies are communicated, interpreted, and connected to employees’ workplace experiences. This study examines how women workers experience and interpret the communication of gender equality policies in formal workplace settings. Using a qualitative descriptive-exploratory design, data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with four women workers from different organisational contexts: industry, government or policy consultancy, banking or finance, and digital technology. The data were analysed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña, with attention to dialogic space, employee participation, policy legitimacy, and the internalisation of gender equality values. The findings identify four patterns of policy communication: formal communication, deliberative-participatory communication, compliance-based communication, and digital-participatory communication. Formal and compliance-based communication made policies visible and procedurally clear, but provided limited space for employees to discuss their relevance to everyday work. Deliberative-participatory and digital-participatory communication offered more opportunities for dialogue, reflection, and engagement, allowing employees to connect policy principles with workplace realities. Based on these findings, the study proposes an exploratory model of gender equality policy communication consisting of four interconnected elements: dialogic space, employee participation, policy legitimacy, and the internalisation of gender equality values. The study contributes to discussions on policy communication, organisational culture, and gender equality by showing that gender equality policies become more meaningful when employees are given communicative spaces to understand, question, and interpret them. The findings are exploratory and are not intended to represent all formal workplace contexts.
Keywords:
Gender Equality, Policy Communication, Formal Workplace, Deliberative Communication, Women WorkersReferences
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