Asymmetric institutions and norms: Perspectives from social media on women at board levels in Nigerian private banks

Abstract

Women are increasingly becoming visible despite remaining underrepresented at corporate board levels. Through the lens of social media, this article seeks to assess how the power of texts in a WhatsApp platform can be construed to gender norms that purports women (in)visibility. Using qualitative and inductive approach, data was collected from a WhatsApp platform involving 250 participants. The researchers applied a sentiment analysis in interpreting the data to grasp the content and explore the power of written text. Findings of the study show how social media texts permeate through the society, with the tendency of influencing an individual behavioral intention which may over time result in norms and belief systems with the tendency of affecting women (in)visibility. The use of data from the restricted WhatsApp group limits the generalizability of the findings but support the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Social Constructivism that expose the influences of social media on behaviourial intentions. The study recommends the need for cautiousness and embracing social media as an enabling platform for illuminating positivity towards eliminating gender norms.