21st century bridling: Non-disclosure agreements in cases of organizational misconduct

Human Relations · 2023 · Volume 76 · Issue 11

DOI: 10.1177/00187267221119129

Abstract

In this article I argue that non-disclosure agreements represent the latest in a continuum of tools used to silence women who seek justice in response to the misconduct of those in authority. I draw a connection between the use of these apparently objective, non-corporeal organizational processes and the historic use of the scold’s bridle, a corporeal instrument of control applied to physically silence. Specifically, I argue that both are on a continuum of violence from the antiquated, overt and embodied, to the present day, covert and epistemic with embodied effects. This article offers a critical phenomenological analysis of the effects on women who submitted evidence of their experiences to the UK Parliament Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry into the use of non-disclosure agreements in Discrimination Cases. By critically analysing these accounts I offer a contribution toward a continued understanding of the ways in which oppressive organizational practices according to gender continue to function and reproduce through practices of embodied epistemic injustice.

Keywords

embodiment, epistemic injustice, non-disclosure agreements, power, silencing, women

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