Whose gender agenda? Interviewer, radio broadcaster, and business leaders in Desert Island Discs

Since 1942, the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs (DID) has provided first-order insights into life events that shape career choices. This study proposes to investigate career theories in the language and dynamic construction of business leaders’ personal and professional identities (DeRue and Ashford, 2010) through career life stories. We explore the co-construction of gendered meaning through autoethnographic methods with specific focus on interviewer framing. By analysing self-representations and interviewer questions in 40 female and male interviewees based on occupational categories, we highlight (mis-) representation of gendered identity via career transitions and struggles. Methodologically, this study contributes to the few autoethnographic studies available in business and management literature and adds as aspect of verbal representation as opposed to the more common focus on physical appearance (Kelan, 2013) of women professionals in the media. We argue for greater sensitivity to un(conscious) gendered interview questioning for practical application via personal and professional career planning and recruitment interviewing.