This article analyses the portrayal of the female corporate manager in
the economic media. More specifically the article examines the ways in
which femininity and gendered power become enacted in feature articles
about high level corporate leaders and managers in the global economic
newspaper, The Economist, and through that enacted as part of the wider
gender asymmetry in the economy. The media has a crucial role in
constructing, changing and stabilizing representations, stereotypes and
images. The article identifies, categorizes and presents managers as
genderspecific
social actors and members of elite business groups. Feature articles in
The Economist about top managers were analysed over the period 2006–2013
with the help of thematic classifications influenced by critical
discourse analysis. The analysis demonstrates that the global
economy-focused
print media has contributed to fending off and defining a ‘suitable
managerial femininity’ for female managers that is aligned with the
ideology of the third spirit of capitalism, but does not threaten the
reigning masculinity of corporate management elite.