Success, femininity and business: journalistic representations of powerful women

Abstract

The narratives of successful women are more and more widely praised by the media, sounding out that gender inequalities are close to an end. This article throws light on two stories by Brazilian magazines on the book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg, the current COO of Facebook. The works drive women into starting out a revolution on the job market. The methodology investigates how speeches that pave the way for women´s self-reflection to do the right choices are set together by the journalism. The conclusions indicate that powerful women succeed when achieving an individual balance between traditional femininity and professional high performance.