Expertise as a silencing device? Spiral of exclusion and identity insecurities among women in STEM organizations

Expertise is believed to be critical to the development of human resources, and multiple discourses of expertise are inherent to organizations. The current study explores how expertise discourses are simultaneously positioned and shaped by contextual and cultural practices. Eighty-six qualitative interviews with women in STEM careers suggest that personal, educational, organizational, and societal perspectives shape and simultaneously get altered by the construct of expertise in organizations, delineating the enabling and constraining role of communication. The results suggest that expertise is simply not about knowledge but the entrenched power of discourses, organizational practices, and communicative infrastructures, which are gendered and seek to marginalize and obscure the domain knowledge of women in STEM. Theoretical and practical implications of expertise as a silencing device are discussed.