Gender Parity, Gender Equality, and Intersectionality : Public Perceptions of a ‘50:50’ Workforce

Abstract: Gender parity. Gender equality. Diversity and intersectionality. Are they understood to be one and the same thing? Whilst there is much public data and opinion on economic benefits to having gender parity within organisations and how it can help support women’s empowerment and inclusion in male dominated professional sectors, public perception on the topic may paint a different picture. In this thesis, the social media platform Twitter is used to collect data to conduct a content analysis in order to understand public sentiments in response to one company’s perceived success in their organisational gender parity initiative. That company is American tech organisation, Duolingo. In 2018, Duolingo posted via Twitter that they had achieved a 50:50 male:female ratio in their recruitment of new engineering hires. The response on Twitter reveals that whilst many Twitter users agreed with Duolingo that this was a success, many did not. The Tweets are classified and analysed according to sentiment and coded according to the core topic in their communication – gender parity, gender equality, and diversity and intersectionality - to gain an in-depth understanding into how the public understands and reacts to these concepts. By analysing 275 Tweets through textual and visual analysis, this thesis supports an investigation via case study as to whether or not gender parity is publicly perceived and understood as a positive organisational strategy towards gender equality. Or whether it is seen to be exacerbating gender inequalities and perpetuating gender and intersectional stereotyping, biases and norms.