This thesis analyses discourses about the roles and barriers to access for women to decision-making positions in Israeli sport organisations. In particular it focuses on the exploration of discourses of masculinity and femininity that underpin the relatively recent construction of Israel society and the institutions of sport within it. It is observed that for the most part, Israeli sport organisations are governed by men and have served the interests of forms of hegemonic masculinity. In order to understand and explore the social construction of these gendered discourses in Israeli sport, two innovative and significant policy initiatives toward gender equity in sport were explored through the perceptions and discourses of key actors. These include the establishment of a Volleyball Academy for Young Talented Girls (VAYTG) and the creation of the National Project for Women and Sport (NPWS). The theoretical framework for this thesis is informed by poststructuralist feminism, which provided an alternative way to understand and analyse voices of the (predominantly female) 'other' and thus to explore the historical contextual construction of current discourses of masculinity within Israeli sport organisations and society as a whole. The process of narrative revisions and production of gendered knowledge revealed how discourses produce and reinforce gender inequities in Israeli society, such as the discourse of militarisation or the unique political affiliation system in the sporting arena which continue to implicitly exclude women (and some men) from gaining access to leadership positions in sport organisations. Within this theoretical frame, Critical Discourse Analysis was employed as a methodological approach to analyse how female and male interviewees, all considered to be 'insiders' within their organisations, explained the process of the construction of gendered roles and barriers. Included in the interview data was also the auto-ethnographical accounts of the author, who was a primary actor in the process of developing policy in the two case study initiatives addressed. Dominant discourses of femininity (such as the discourse of sisterhood and of the processes of mentoring), and of masculinity (and how these promote uniformity) were identified as mechanisms for reproducing the gendered reality of sport leadership in Israel. The implication of a critical theoretical approach is that it should be emancipatory in its ambitions and impact, and the study is intended to contribute to enhancing the understanding of how discourse not only reflects but also creates barriers and opportunities so that the construction of such barriers can be challenged in progressive policy discourses.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:27:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lenita.pdf: 1898462 bytes, checksum: 457ad33d85044e1a8b55de17c2fd1bb3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-31 / This research aims to demonstrate that the texts of national and international advertisements diffused in the media convey a racist appeal in the representation of black women and how, implied or otherwise, prejudice is manifested by the linguistic materiality and imagery. The corpus consists of five commercials, conveyed in print and/or television with examples of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, selected by portraying black and white women differently. The advertisements are: N.K Fairbank Company (1860), Benetton (1991/92), Sony (2006), Dove (2011) and Bombril (2012). The theoretical foundation supports itself mainly on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), from the work of Norman Fairclough (2001), based on the category of interdiscursivity. I also apply the gender studies by Lauretis (1994) and Nicholson (2000), the postulates about racism by Van Dijk (2008), the propositions on media by Chauí (2010), the techniques of image analysis by Joly (2010) and Thompson´s concept of ideology (1995). The research results confirm the hypothesis, that is, they demonstrate that all analyzed advertisements feature verbal and visual texts that make up a typical construct of discourse steeped in racism and in the sovereingty of the white women. This enables the display of discriminatory practices at the service of the elite that values the white race and makes explicit the meanings that maintain and reproduce ethnic prejudice by perpetuating racism / Este trabalho de pesquisa tem como objetivo demonstrar que nos textos de anúncios publicitários nacionais e internacionais veiculados na mídia há incitação racista na representação de mulheres negras e de que forma, implícita ou não, o preconceito se manifesta por meio da materialidade linguística e imagética. O corpus é constituído por cinco anúncios publicitários, veiculados em mídia impressa e/ou televisiva com exemplos dos séculos XIX, XX e XXI, selecionados por retratar as mulheres negras e brancas de forma diferenciada. Os anúncios escolhidos são: N. K. Fairbank Company (1860), Benetton (1991/92), Sony (2006), Dove (2011) e Bombril (2012). A fundamentação teórica ampara-se, principalmente, na Análise Crítica do Discurso (ACD), a partir da obra de Norman Fairclough (2001), com base na categoria da interdiscursividade. Utilizo ainda os estudos de gênero de Lauretis (1994) e Nicholson (2000), os postulados acerca de racismo de Van Dijk (2008), as proposições sobre mídia de Chauí (2010), as técnicas de análise de imagens de Joly (2010) e o conceito de ideologia de Thompson (1995). Os resultados da pesquisa confirmam a hipótese, isto é, demonstram que todos os anúncios analisados apresentam textos verbais e visuais que compõem um construto típico de discurso envolto em racismo e na soberania das mulheres brancas. Isso possibilita a exposição de práticas discriminatórias a serviço da elite, que valoriza a raça branca, por explicitar sentidos que mantêm e reproduzem o preconceito étnico, perpetuando o racismo

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