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Femininity work: The gendered politics of women managing violence in bar work

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Listed:
  • Julia Coffey
  • David Farrugia
  • Rosalind Gill
  • Steven Threadgold
  • Megan Sharp
  • Lisa Adkins

Abstract

This paper explores how women bar workers manage violence at work. Women bar workers in our study described that the capacity to recognize, intervene, and defuse potentially violent situations was a pragmatic response to the problem of men's violence in the night‐time economy. We analyze the gendered norms and expectations at play in how violence in bar work is managed by staff and locate this as a form of “femininity work” extending from the modes of attentive, emotionally‐attuned femininity that labor feminist labor studies theorists have described. In a context where hospitality labor already makes complex and often unexamined demands on young workers, the positioning of women bar staff as being more adept at managing violent situations suggests a particularly important demand made of women bar workers, central for understanding the enduring gendered power relations in contemporary interactive service labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia Coffey & David Farrugia & Rosalind Gill & Steven Threadgold & Megan Sharp & Lisa Adkins, 2023. "Femininity work: The gendered politics of women managing violence in bar work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 1694-1708, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:30:y:2023:i:5:p:1694-1708
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.13006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Julia Coffey & David Farrugia & Lisa Adkins & Steven Threadgold, 2018. "Gender, Sexuality, and Risk in the Practice of Affective Labour for Young Women in Bar Work," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 23(4), pages 728-743, December.
    2. Laura K. Brunner & Maryanne Dever, 2014. "Work, Bodies and Boundaries: Talking Sexual Harassment in the New Economy," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 459-471, September.
    3. Tracy Wilcox & Michelle Greenwood & Alison Pullen & Anne O’Leary Kelly & Deborah Jones, 2021. "Interfaces of domestic violence and organization: Gendered violence and inequality," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 701-721, March.
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