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Male privilege revisited: How men in female‐dominated occupations notice and actively reframe privilege

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  • Karin Schwiter
  • Julia Nentwich
  • Marisol Keller

Abstract

Our article aims at refocusing the debate in privilege studies from tackling the invisibility to challenging justifications of gender privilege. Focusing on instances in which men acknowledge that they receive preferential treatment, this study sheds light on how privilege is perceived and talked about in interviews with men in female‐dominated occupations. In contrast to existing literature on the invisibility of privilege to the privileged, our analysis shows that the privileging of men is indeed known to them. However, our interviewees then employ specific discursive strategies to actively reframe and thereby silence privilege. They either justify privilege as an individual achievement or as a natural advantage of male bodies. In our discussion, we show how these discursive reframings build on existing discourses on gendered bodies and neoliberal subjectivity. Based on our key argument that gendered privilege is not invisible, but it is acknowledged and then actively reframed and thereby silenced, we argue for expanding the focus of privilege studies: Instead of primarily investing in making privilege visible to those who have it, we need to challenge the discourses that allow for reframing and silencing it.

Suggested Citation

  • Karin Schwiter & Julia Nentwich & Marisol Keller, 2021. "Male privilege revisited: How men in female‐dominated occupations notice and actively reframe privilege," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 2199-2215, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:6:p:2199-2215
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12731
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Megan Moskos, 2020. "Why is the gender revolution uneven and stalled? Gender essentialism and men's movement into ‘women's work'," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 527-544, July.
    2. Shelagh Mooney & Irene Ryan & Candice Harris, 2017. "The Intersections of Gender with Age and Ethnicity in Hotel Careers: Still the Same Old Privileges?," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 360-375, July.
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    4. Natasha Slutskaya & Ruth Simpson & Jason Hughes & Alexander Simpson & Selçuk Uygur, 2016. "Masculinity and Class in the Context of Dirty Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 165-182, March.
    5. Joanne McDowell, 2015. "Masculinity and Non-Traditional Occupations: Men's Talk in Women's Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 273-291, May.
    6. Ruth Simpson, 2010. "A Reversal of the Gaze: Men’s Experiences of Visibility in Non-traditional Occupations," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Patricia Lewis & Ruth Simpson (ed.), Revealing and Concealing Gender, chapter 11, pages 219-232, Palgrave Macmillan.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Palle Storm, 2023. "Managers' perceptions of masculinity and racialization in Swedish nursing homes," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(6), pages 2175-2187, November.

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