An examination of gender equality in corporate communication within the context of women-friendly brand management

This study examines corporate communication and brand management processes through the lens of gender equality, focusing on how "women-friendly brand" discourse is constructed in social media content and to what extent it is consistent with representations of women. The central assumption of the research is that a brand's sustainable success depends not only on its marketing performance, but also on its ability to develop an equitable and inclusive corporate culture, demonstrate sensitivity to social issues, and support this approach through a consistent communication strategy. The research was conducted based on publicly accessible project communication content produced by five brands selected from award-winning initiatives recognized for their women-friendly discourse. The dataset consists of project-oriented posts and one promotional video for each brand. Krippendorff's content analysis approach was adopted, and the materials were evaluated contextually through a coding scheme developed around the dimensions of representation, language, discourse, visual narration, and discourse–representation consistency. The findings indicate that women-friendly brand discourse is constructed through different thematic frameworks, and that the most significant distinction among brands emerges in the degree of consistency between discourse and representation. While the discourse is framed in a more sustainable and convincing manner in content supported by projects focused on women's employment, entrepreneurship, and structural transformation, superficiality and consistency problems become more visible when the discourse remains limited to campaigns or special-day oriented communication. In addition, in some cases, the emphasis on equality and empowerment being supported by limited representations points to risks discussed in the literature as "pinkwashing" (or the "femvertising trap"). In conclusion, the study demonstrates that being a women-friendly brand is not merely a communicative preference, but a holistic process that requires corporate values, project design, and representation strategies to be addressed together. This research is expected to enhance the corporate communication literature while also providing an analytical framework for brands that aim to institutionalize the principle of gender equality at the corporate level.