IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v29y2022i5p1676-1691.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘I’ll never be one of the boys’: Gender harassment of women working as pilots and automotive tradespeople

Author

Listed:
  • Meraiah Foley
  • Sarah Oxenbridge
  • Rae Cooper
  • Marian Baird

Abstract

Significant research has examined sexual harassment in male‐dominated occupations, but gender harassment — harassment that is not necessarily sexual in nature but is targeted at individuals, or a group of individuals, because of their sex or gender — has received relatively less attention. Drawing on in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews, we analyse the lived experience of gender harassment among women working as pilots and automotive tradespeople in Australia. We find that women in these occupations face a daily barrage of belittling jokes and demeaning comments from colleagues, managers and customers, and such behaviours are retribution for encroaching on traditionally male occupational domains. Although women found these behaviours humiliating, intimidating, and offensive, they lacked a comprehensive vocabulary to define or condemn them. This article contributes to an emerging literature arguing that gender harassment needs to be more clearly problematized, organizationally and legally, as a form of sex‐based harassment constituting unlawful sex discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Meraiah Foley & Sarah Oxenbridge & Rae Cooper & Marian Baird, 2022. "‘I’ll never be one of the boys’: Gender harassment of women working as pilots and automotive tradespeople," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1676-1691, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:29:y:2022:i:5:p:1676-1691
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12443
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12443
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12443?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antecol, Heather & Cobb-Clark, Deborah, 2006. "The sexual harassment of female active-duty personnel: Effects on job satisfaction and intentions to remain in the military," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 55-80, September.
    2. Katherine Ravenswood & Candice Harris, 2016. "Doing Gender, Paying Low: Gender, Class and Work–Life Balance in Aged Care," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(6), pages 614-628, November.
    3. Sandra Kensbock & Janis Bailey & Gayle Jennings & Anoop Patiar, 2015. "Sexual Harassment of Women Working as Room Attendants within 5-Star Hotels," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 36-50, January.
    4. McCarthy, Faye & Budd, Lucy & Ison, Stephen, 2015. "Gender on the flightdeck: Experiences of women commercial airline pilots in the UK," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 32-38.
    5. Tessa Wright, 2013. "Uncovering sexuality and gender: an intersectional examination of women's experience in UK construction," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(8), pages 832-844, August.
    6. Laura Good & Rae Cooper, 2016. "‘But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’: Employees Coping With and Contesting Sexual Harassment from Customers in the Service Sector," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(5), pages 447-469, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wendy O’Brien & Clare Hanlon & Vasso Apostolopoulos, 2023. "Women as leaders in male‐dominated sectors: A bifocal analysis of gendered organizational practices," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(6), pages 1867-1884, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kate Grosser & Meagan Tyler, 2022. "Sexual Harassment, Sexual Violence and CSR: Radical Feminist Theory and a Human Rights Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 217-232, May.
    2. Emily H. Starr, 2022. "“Women of ill repute”: Pariah femininities, retaliatory violence, and the negotiation of rebel identities among women bartenders," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 800-816, May.
    3. Jenny Rodriguez & Evangelina Holvino & Joyce K. Fletcher & Stella M. Nkomo & Tessa Wright, 2016. "Women's Experience of Workplace Interactions in Male-Dominated Work: The Intersections of Gender, Sexuality and Occupational Group," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 348-362, May.
    4. Uju Violet Alola & Simplice A. Asongu & Andrew Adewale Alola, 2019. "Linking supervisor incivility with job embeddedness and cynicism: The mediating role of employee self-efficacy," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 19/091, African Governance and Development Institute..
    5. Laura Good & Rae Cooper, 2016. "‘But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’: Employees Coping With and Contesting Sexual Harassment from Customers in the Service Sector," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(5), pages 447-469, September.
    6. Ragbir, Nadine K. & Rice, Stephen & Winter, Scott R. & Baugh, Bradley S. & Milner, Mattie N. & Gupta, Madhur Bharat & Valecha, Drishti O. & Candelaria-Oquendo, Karla & Capps, John & Neal, Jan G., 2021. "An examination of consumer bias against female and minority commercial pilots," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Aviad E. Raz & Gavan Tzruya, 2018. "Doing gender in segregated and assimilative organizations: Ultra†Orthodox Jewish women in the Israeli high†tech labour market," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 361-378, July.
    8. Sánchez, Gonzalo E. & Rhodes, Lauren A. & Espinoza, Nereyda E. & Borja, Viviana, 2022. "Assessing the Gap between Social and Individual Perceptions of Sexual Harassment," MPRA Paper 112711, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Yaşar Dinçer, Fatma Cande & Yirmibeşoğlu, Gözde, 2024. "Constraints on women pilots in airline industry: A rising sector of international trade," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    10. Judith K. Pringle & Candice Harris & Katherine Ravenswood & Lynne Giddings & Irene Ryan & Sabina Jaeger, 2017. "Women's Career Progression in Law Firms: Views from the Top, Views From Below," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 435-449, July.
    11. Antecol, Heather & Barcus, Vanessa E. & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A., 2007. "Gender-Biased Behavior at Work: What Can Surveys Tell Us About the Link Between Sexual Harassment and Gender Discrimination?," IZA Discussion Papers 2647, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. repec:lan:wpaper:3016 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Valerie Caven & Elena Navarro Astor & Vita Urbanavičienė, 2022. "Gender inequality in an “Equal” environment," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1658-1675, September.
    14. Chitra Jogani & Gerardo Ruiz Sánchez, 2023. "An empirical analysis of sexual harassment case outcomes in academia," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(4), pages 1593-1600.
    15. Kathleen Riach & Gavin Jack, 2021. "Women’s Health in/and Work: Menopause as an Intersectional Experience," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-17, October.
    16. Amitrajeet A. Batabyal & Hamid Beladi, 2020. "A game-theoretic model of sexual harassment," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1281-1291.
    17. Abi Adams-Prassl & Kristiina Huttunen & Emily Nix & Ning Zhang, 2022. "Violence Against Women at Work," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 064, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    18. Donna Bridges & Larissa Bamberry & Elizabeth Wulff & Branka Krivokapic‐Skoko, 2022. "“A trade of one's own”: The role of social and cultural capital in the success of women in male‐dominated occupations," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 371-387, March.
    19. repec:lan:wpaper:3171 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Pat O’Connor & Margaret Hodgins & Dorian R. Woods & Elisa Wallwaey & Rachel Palmen & Marieke Van Den Brink & Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt, 2021. "Organisational Characteristics That Facilitate Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Higher Education?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-13, November.
    21. Mareike Adler & Sylvie Vincent-Höper & Claudia Vaupel & Sabine Gregersen & Anja Schablon & Albert Nienhaus, 2021. "Sexual Harassment by Patients, Clients, and Residents: Investigating Its Prevalence, Frequency and Associations with Impaired Well-Being among Social and Healthcare Workers in Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-18, May.
    22. Smith, Whitney E. & Cohen, Scott & Kimbu, Albert N. & de Jong, Anna, 2021. "Reshaping gender in airline employment," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:29:y:2022:i:5:p:1676-1691. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.