IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v31y2024i6p2549-2567.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The workplace as a site of abortion surveillance

Author

Listed:
  • Fiona Bloomer
  • Danielle Mackle
  • Nóirín MacNamara
  • Claire Pierson
  • Stephen Bloomer

Abstract

Analysis of the experiences and resulting inequalities in reproductive health in the workplace has generated studies of pregnancy, miscarriage, menstruation, fertility and menopause. One issue that has remained outside of this literature is abortion. How abortion is talked about (or not talked about), experienced and perceived as a workplace issue were the central questions in our research undertaken in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in 2017. Our study comprised a survey (3180 respondents) followed by a series of online focus groups (61 participants) with trade union members from a broad range of workplaces, with the aim of investigating how abortion was positioned in workplaces within legally restrictive regimes. We conceptualize how self‐disciplining, silence and abortion stigma are reproduced in workplaces, drawing on a feminist Foucauldian framework to examine disciplinary power. We examine evidence of how, in conservative societies, abortion talk is suppressed, and we generate new theoretical knowledge on how disciplinary power undermines resistance to anti‐abortion norms and demonstrate the function of the normalizing gaze in the workplace. We conclude by offering avenues for future research on abortion stigma and disciplinary power, to extend further knowledge and conceptual framing of abortion as a workplace issue.

Suggested Citation

  • Fiona Bloomer & Danielle Mackle & Nóirín MacNamara & Claire Pierson & Stephen Bloomer, 2024. "The workplace as a site of abortion surveillance," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(6), pages 2549-2567, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:31:y:2024:i:6:p:2549-2567
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.13100
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13100
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.13100?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
    ---><---

    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:31:y:2024:i:6:p:2549-2567. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.