IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v18y2004i2p349-368.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Masculinity at Work

Author

Listed:
  • Ruth Simpson

    (Brunel University, UK, ruth.simpson@brunel.ac.uk)

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a research project on the implications of men’s non-traditional career choices for their experiences within the organization and for gender identity. The research is based on 40 in-depth interviews with male workers from four occupational groups: librarians, cabin crew, nurses and primary school teachers. Results suggest a typology of male workers in female dominated occupations: seekers (who actively seek the career), finders (who find the occupation in the process of making general career decisions) and settlers (who settle into the career after periods of time in mainly male dominated occupations). Men benefit from their minority status through assumptions of enhanced leadership (the assumed authority effect), by being given differential treatment (the special consideration effect) and being associated with a more careerist attitude to work (the career effect). At the same time, they feel comfortable working with women (the zone of comfort effect). Despite this comfort, men adopt a variety of strategies to re-establish a masculinity that has been undermined by the ‘feminine‘ nature of their work. These include re-labelling, status enhancement and distancing from the feminine. The dynamics of maintaining and reproducing masculinities within the non-traditional work setting are discussed in the light of recent theorizing around gender, masculinity and work.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruth Simpson, 2004. "Masculinity at Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 18(2), pages 349-368, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:18:y:2004:i:2:p:349-368
    DOI: 10.1177/09500172004042773
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500172004042773
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500172004042773?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. Deborah Kerfoot & David Knights, 1993. "Management, Masculinity And Manipulation: From Paternalism To Corporate Strategy In Financial Services In Britain," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 659-677, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Melero, Eduardo, 2011. "Are workplaces with many women in management run differently?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 385-393, April.
    2. Knut Laaser, 2019. "‘Customers were not objects to suck blood from’: Social relations in UK retail banks under changing performance management systems," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5-6), pages 532-547, November.
    3. Quack, Sigrid, 1997. "Karrieren im Glaspalast: Weibliche Führungskräfte in europäischen Banken," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Organization and Employment FS I 97-104, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    4. Soydan Soylu, 2011. "Creating a Family or Loyalty-Based Framework: The Effects of Paternalistic Leadership on Workplace Bullying," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(2), pages 217-231, March.
    5. Rudi Rusli & Yuswar Zainul Basri & Willy Arafah, 2020. "Role of CEO Leadership towards the Performance of Indonesian SOEs," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 10(2), pages 96-106.
    6. G. Coates, 1997. "Organisation Man - Women and Organisational Culture," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 2(3), pages 15-38, September.
    7. Ghulam Mustafa & Rune Lines, 2012. "Paternalism as A Predictor of Leadership Behaviors: A Bi-Level Analysis," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 2(1), pages 63-92, June.
    8. Beate Cesinger & Katherine Gundolf & Mathew Hughes & Anis Khedhaouria & Francesco Montani, 2023. "The bright and dark sides of the Dark Triad traits among senior managers: effects on organizational commitment," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 1731-1763, July.
    9. Susan Meriläinen & Johanna Moisander & Sinikka Pesonen, 2000. "The masculine mindset of environmental management and green marketing," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 151-162, May.
    10. Miguel Alzola, 2018. "Decent Work: The Moral Status of Labor in Human Resource Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(4), pages 835-853, February.
    11. Mustafa Bilgehan Ozturk & Nick Rumens & Ahu Tatli, 2020. "Age, sexuality and hegemonic masculinity: Exploring older gay men’s masculinity practices at work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1253-1268, November.
    12. Emily Yarrow & Victoria Pagan, 2021. "Reflections on front‐line medical work during COVID‐19 and the embodiment of risk," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S1), pages 89-100, January.
    13. Dawn Lyon, 2016. "Doing Audio-Visual Montage to Explore Time and Space: The Everyday Rhythms of Billingsgate Fish Market," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(3), pages 57-68, August.
    14. Elisabeth K. Kelan, 2008. "The Discursive Construction of Gender in Contemporary Management Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(2), pages 427-445, August.
    15. Holmqvist, Mikael & Maravelias, Christian, 2018. "Management in the “neo-paternalistic organization”: The case of worksite health promotion at Scania," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 267-275.
    16. van den Brink, Marieke & Holgersson, Charlotte & Linghag, Sophie & Deé, Sharon, 2016. "Inflating and down playing strengths and weaknesses—Practicing gender in the evaluation of potential managers and partners," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 20-32.
    17. Tienari, Janne, 2012. "Academia as financial markets? Metaphoric reflections and possible responses," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 250-256.
    18. Helena Liu, 2019. "Just the Servant: An Intersectional Critique of Servant Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 1099-1112, June.
    19. Helena Liu, 2017. "The Masculinisation of Ethical Leadership Dis/embodiment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 263-278, August.
    20. Helen Etchanchu & Marie-Laure Djelic, 2019. "Old Wine in New Bottles? Parentalism, Power, and Its Legitimacy in Business–Society Relations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 893-911, December.

    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:sae:woemps:v:18:y:2004:i:2:p:349-368. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    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.