This study examines how women leaders in project-based creative industries navigate the double bind dilemma through discursive communication strategies to construct and sustain leadership legitimacy. Drawing on feminist organizational communication theory and discursive leadership perspectives, the research employs Critical Thematic Analysis (CTA) with in-depth interviews of 11 (eleven) women leaders in Event Organizer (EO) and Wedding Organizer (WO) sectors. Findings reveal four interconnected communicative patterns: relational communication as a power practice, adaptive team communication as negotiated power, emotional expression as affective labor, and fluid role dynamics as structural negotiation. The study advances the argument that double bind is not merely a psychological dilemma but a communicative practice actively negotiated through daily organizational interactions. Women leaders function as communicative agents who strategically deploy discursive strategies to construct legitimacy within contradiction-laden organizational environments. This research contributes to the theoretical reframing of double bind as a discursive phenomenon and highlights the agentic capacity of women leaders in dynamic, project-based work contexts.

double bind, women leaders, discursive legitimacy, feminist organizational communication

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