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The Feminization of Body Work

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  • Rachel Lara Cohen
  • Carol Wolkowitz

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between ‘body work’ and gender, asking why paid work involving the physical touch and manipulation of others' bodies is largely performed by women. It argues that the feminization of body work is not simply explicable as ‘nurturance’, nor as the continuation of a pre†existing domestic division of labour. Rather, feminization resolves dilemmas that arise when intimate touch is refigured as paid labour. These ‘body work dilemmas’ are rooted in the material nature of body work. They are both cultural (related to the meaning of inter†corporeality) and organizational (related to the spatial, temporal and labour process constraints of work on bodies). Two sectors are explored as exemplars: hairdressing and care work. Synthesizing UK quantitative data and existing research, the article traces similarities and differences in the composition of these sectors and in how gender both responds to and re†entrenches the cultural and organizational body work dilemmas identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Rachel Lara Cohen & Carol Wolkowitz, 2018. "The Feminization of Body Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 42-62, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:25:y:2018:i:1:p:42-62
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12186
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nancy Folbre & Julie A. Nelson, 2000. "For Love or Money--Or Both?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 123-140, Fall.
    2. Carol Wolkowitz, 2002. "The Social Relations of body Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(3), pages 497-510, September.
    3. Gail Hebson & Jill Rubery & Damian Grimshaw, 2015. "Rethinking job satisfaction in care work: looking beyond the care debates," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 29(2), pages 314-330, April.
    4. Donna Baines & Ian Cunningham, 2011. "‘White knuckle care work’: violence, gender and new public management in the voluntary sector," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 25(4), pages 760-776, December.
    5. William Baumol, 1996. "Children of performing arts, the economic dilemma: The climbing costs of health care and education," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 20(3), pages 183-206, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anna Galazka & Joe O’Mahoney, 2023. "The Socio-Materiality of Dirty Work: A Critical Realist Perspective," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(2), pages 432-448, April.
    2. Bianca Stumbitz & Ameeta Jaga, 2020. "A Southern encounter: Maternal body work and low‐income mothers in South Africa," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1485-1500, November.
    3. Mohammed Cheded & Alexandros Skandalis, 2021. "Touch and contact during COVID‐19: Insights from queer digital spaces," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S2), pages 340-347, July.
    4. Owain Smolović Jones & Sanela Smolović Jones & Scott Taylor & Emily Yarrow, 2022. "Theorizing gender desegregation as political work: The case of the Welsh Labour Party," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 1747-1763, November.
    5. Denise L. Spitzer, 2022. "Working intimacies: Migrant beer sellers, surveillance, and intimate labor in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 906-921, May.
    6. Laurence Romani & Patrizia Zanoni & Lotte Holck, 2021. "Radicalizing diversity (research): Time to resume talking about class," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 8-23, January.
    7. Vijayta Doshi, 2021. "Symbolic violence in embodying customer service work across the urban/rural divide," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 39-53, January.
    8. Nickie Charles & Carol Wolkowitz, 2024. "‘Basically He’s a Pet, Not a Working Dog’: Theorising What Therapy Dogs Do in the Workplace," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(4), pages 976-997, August.
    9. Rachel Lara Cohen, 2020. "‘We’re not like that’: Crusader and Maverick Occupational Identity Resistance," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 25(1), pages 136-153, March.

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