THE POLITICS OF SILENCE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON HOW INSTITUTIONALISED PATRIARCHY AND HIGH-POWER DISTANCE CULTURE SUPPRESS FEMALE EMPLOYEE VOICE IN NIGERIAN WORKPLACES

Abstract

This study examines how institutionalised patriarchy and high-power distance culture suppress female employee voice in Nigerian workplaces. The study explores the role of religious norms in reinforcing silence among female employees, thereby addressing a significant gap in existing literature, which has largely overlooked the intersection of religion and gender in shaping employee voice-out behaviour in non-Western contexts. The study is anchored in social dominance theory, which provides a robust framework for understanding how masculine hegemony perpetuates occupational segregation and silences women