“ You know there are comments sometimes little things here and there ”: Examining women's experiences of unwelcome behavior in a professional organization

Women in professional organizations still encounter a range of unwelcome behavior that may negatively impact their performance and that of the organization. In this study, we interviewed seven women students at the United States Naval Academy (USNA). In this unique organizational context, the women we interviewed are full-time students embedded within the military. We use discourse-analytic methods, including conversation analysis, to examine how these women construct unwelcome experiences. By working with the women's language and the constructs they use, we are able to detail the nature and content of their experiences within the organization and identify that the women present such experiences using discursive minimization. We offer discourse analysis as a method for “seeing below the surface” and suggest the mnemonic HeAR to help other organizations better understand experiences their employees might be hesitant to articulate.