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Abstract
Construction is one of the most gender‐segregated sectors of the UK economy; men constitute over 99 per cent of the employees in the building trades. This article focuses on the role of discourse in reflecting and reproducing the absence of women in the construction trades. A small excerpt from an industry report is described, interpreted and explained using critical discourse analysis. The analysis takes as its starting point one phrase, ‘most jobs in the construction industry can be done by women’ and places it in its structural, institutional and historic context, showing its dependence on presuppositions about women's abilities, and the ideological basis of those assumptions. Male construction workers' masculine identity is defined in relation to their ‘tough’ job. The culture of taking safety risks, and working long hours in primitive working conditions suits some employers very well. The report's assertion that women can do ‘most jobs’ in construction appears to challenge the dominant ideology but it actually reproduces it, helping to maintain gender segregation. Thus it contributes in a small way to sustaining existing power relations by containing potentially transformative movements.
... The skilled trades include electro-technology, automotive, metal fabrication, mining and construction trades (bricklaying, carpentry, painting/decorating and plumbing, installation, renovation, maintenance, and repair work) and are considered non-traditional work for women. 1 The 'skilled trades' is the term commonly used in the US, Canada and Europe, whereas in the UK the trades are referred to as 'the crafts' (Bridges et al., 2020). The barriers to recruitment and retention for women in the skilled trades are the focus of much research in academia, industry and government (Agapiou, 2002;Bridges et al., 2020;Byrne et al., 2005;Fielden et al., 2000;Galea, 2017;Galea et al., 2020;Jenkins et al., 2019;MacIsaac and Domene, 2014;Ness, 2012;Oxenbridge et al., 2019;Rosa et al., 2017). Interest is driven by the recognised economic advantages of a genderdiverse employee base, skills shortages, and equity and inclusion issues. ...
... These percentages are consistent with global trends across Western nations. In Canada, women represent 2% of workers in the skilled trades (MacIssac and Domene, 2014); in the US 3% (Wagner, 2014) and in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain and Italy women make up less than 1% (Bryne et al., 2005;Ibáñez, 2016;Ness, 2012). ...
... While sociocultural influences such as gender perceptions of work, gender roles and gendered expectations are known barriers to women's entry into the skilled trades, barriers that operate at work are more pervasive (Bridges et al., 2020). Within the industry, tradeswomen experience workplace discrimination related to flexibility (Fielden et al., 2000), opportunity and promotion (Agapiou, 2002;Fielden et al., 2000), and formal and informal marginalisation and social exclusion (Bridges et al., 2020;Ness, 2012). These issues are further exacerbated by an occupational culture that tolerates bullying, hazing, harassment and the sexualisation of women (Bridges et al., 2020;Denissen, 2010). ...
Social and cultural capital are valuable assets that assist individuals to succeed in work. This article reports on gender segregation in the skilled trades. We use Bourdieu’s theory of capital to illuminate how women are successfully recruited and retained in the skilled trades. Our findings indicate that women with pre-existing forms of capital are advantaged. Notably tradeswomen utilise masculine gender capital while maintaining aspects of feminine and female gender capital. In doing so, they re-gender the skilled trades and do gender differently. The study also found that female and feminine gender capital detracts from other forms of capital women bring with them or acquire in their trades work. Male gender capital privileges men and disadvantages women. We conclude that capital is an important point of intervention where women can be supported; however, the problems that gender capital creates for women can only be resolved by cultural change.
... Research Cluster 1: Gender Roles and Work Culture Although gender is a social concept used to differentiate between men and women, gender roles continually are shaped by ideological, religious, ethnic, cultural, social, and economic determinants (Kehinde and Okoli 2004;Lingard and Francis 2005;Ness 2012). In some cultures and societies, women are not allowed or not encouraged to work outside the home, limiting their participation in the construction sector (Arslan and Kivrak 2004;Kehinde and Okoli 2004;Enshassi et al. 2008;Regis et al. 2019). ...
... Previous studies also have found that, as opposed to construction trades, men in management positions do not assert their superiority and hostility openly (Dainty et al. 2004;Clarke et al. 2005;Ness 2012). Senior male managers resist changes to procedures to force women to comply with male-oriented work practices and create several obstacles to the career progression of women (Dainty et al. 2000(Dainty et al. , 2004. ...
... Women in senior roles experience unfair treatment and they feel neglected while trying to contribute to crucial decisions of the organization (Aboagye-Nimo et al. 2019). Additionally, employers approve the values of masculine culture, such as long working hours, competition among colleagues, endurance of discomfort, and self-sufficiency for their benefit (Ness 2012). Research Cluster 2: Glass Walls and Glass Ceiling This significant cluster included research on both glass walls (i.e., barriers that make it difficult for women to enter the industry in the first place) and the glass ceiling (i.e., barriers that prevent women from moving up the career ladder) barring the employment and retention of women in the construction industry (Oakley 2000;Styhre 2011). ...
Women are underrepresented in almost all occupations and professions within the construction sector. Consequently, several studies from across the globe have examined different aspects of gender inequality and gender segregation in the context of the construction industry. This study conducted an in-depth inquiry into research on women in construction using a scientometric review approach covering 128 relevant journal articles published over the last 20 years (2000-2019). The review found four major research clusters: (1) gender roles and work culture; (2) glass walls and glass ceiling; (3) job satisfaction; and (4) gender diversity initiatives. Research on women in construction is scarce in the context of many developing countries, despite the fact that the majority of women workers and professionals live in these countries. Similarly, research on mentoring and training of women, migrant women workers, women entrepreneurs, women worker's health and safety, and human resource practices concerning women have received less attention. The review also brings together the recommendations made by various researchers to highlight the need for a more holistic approach to address gender inequality in construction.
... Previous research on gender in the construction industry has to a large extent focused on how masculine ideologies and the stereotypical image of the male construction worker as brave, risk-taking, technically talented and strong continue to inform the industry [e.g. 25,28,32,42,54]. Most studies on women in the construction industry have dealt with obstacles facing them, many of them qualitative studies on women in a particular workplace or country [e.g. ...
... As mentioned, research on gender in construction has to a large extent focused on the masculine culture of the trade [e.g. 21,28,32,42,54]. Apart from showing that construction is a male-dominated industry, these studies have pointed at the existence of a particular gender hierarchy where notions of toughness and roughness play a crucial role in determining workers' position in the hierarchy. ...
... Other typical features of the masculine culture are objectification of women, heavy drinking, horseplay and larrikinism [28,60]. In this male world, the presence of women, and men deviating from the prescribed norm, is shown to constitute a threat [15,28,42,60]. If women and "weaker" men can do the job, as problematized in Ness' [42] study, the glorified male culture falls apart. ...
Increased female participation has been highlighted as necessary to fill a labor shortage in the construction industry, but also to promote equality and efficiency. Despite initiatives to recruit women, the industry remains one of the most gender-segregated industries in the world. Increased knowledge about gender has been identified as needed to change the status quo. The aim of this study is to contribute with new insights into gender in construction by exploring how women in the industry are discursively represented, and how they talk about their workplace. It is based on analyses of texts from the web. The search engine WebCorpLive was used to retrieve and sort the material to enable linguistic analysis. The study shows that although the overarching message in the material is that there are many opportunities for women in the industry, closer analysis of it shows that women entering the industry are met with gender-biased attitudes, discrimination and unrealistic demands.
... Various patterns to promoting workforce desegregation have been highlighted (e.g. Johansson and Ringblom, 2017;Ness, 2012;Noon, 2010). First, there is an instrumental or 'business' case. ...
... First, there is an instrumental or 'business' case. This is depoliticized utilitarianism, promoting a female workforce as profitable or as something that increases productivity (Ness, 2012). Women are objectified -we/they are positioned as a means to achieve ends of more profit and higher productivity. ...
... Hence proponents of quotas faced opposition from men and women (McDonald, 2016;Tiessen, 2004), recalling experiences of dealing with taken-for-granted sexism and misogyny (Ali and Syed, 2017;Johansson and Ringblom, 2017). Viewing desegregation as a matter of organizational language (Johansson and Ringblom, 2017), an instrumental win-win (Ness, 2012) or as simply requiring senior leadership commitment (French and Strachan, 2015), is limited and risks perpetuating a politics-as-usual approach -hence the need felt by our participants for agonistic practice. While the quotas policy analysed here did have the commitment of senior leaders, which undoubtedly helped drive change, over-reliance on this aspect of desegregation could result in the neglect of deeper and more systemic contestations. ...
Organization studies offers a detailed understanding of the roots of gender segregation and the obstacles to its dismantling in practice but has not proposed a conceptual framework that can help us understand how radical forms of desegregation may be made sense of and approached, particularly within a hotly contested organizational context. We provide an empirical analysis of the UK's only positive discrimination intervention, in the British Labour Party, and offer a conceptual framework of desegregation as political work, contributing by expanding knowledge of the contestations and possibilities inherent in desegregating organizations. We argue that successful radical desegregation is based on disrupting and contesting the foundational ontological values and identifications of a profession or organization, as gender is intimately enmeshed in these. From this basis we propose two political practices of desegregation: ‘standing up' and ‘walking with'.
... The discussion of women in construction has been explored by analysing women's position in multiple roles and occupations. Examples of research into exploration of women's roles in the industry include senior female managers in small construction firms (Lu and Sexton 2010); women in managerial and employee levels in construction organisations (Watts 2012); women in construction education (Richard et al., 2018); women apprentices in construction (Struthers and Strachan 2019); women in construction occupations studies including engineering (Cadaret et al., 2017), women in electrical construction roles (Perrenoud et al., 2020); women quantity surveyors (Greed 1991); women in architecture (Matthewson 2015); and women in the construction trades (Ness 2012;Regis et al., 2019). This approach to exploring the experience of women has mostly focused on their position as employees in the construction industry and in the challenges that these women face in these roles. ...
... Most social constructionist studies apply specific social constructs that delineate the positioning of their exploration. The exploration of the experience of women in construction is often based on the understanding that women's socialisation is different, and due to this, they have different experiences that deserve to be analysed separately (Francis 2017;Gurjao 2006;Ness 2012). The three concepts considered to be of particular importance in this research are career, leadership and women's enterprises. ...
Studies on women in construction tend to focus on women in professional roles and building trades. Current literature has a bias towards the assumption that barriers affecting women hinder the efforts to address the gender imbalance in the industry. These barriers have been linked to the vertical and horizontal segregation that the industry exhibits. Although there is a growing number of small construction firms that are owned-managed by women, there is a scarcity of research on the experience of these owner-managers. Thus, exploring women's experience in senior management positions within their organisations offers a complementary perspective to the ongoing discussion of the gender balance in construction. This paper aims to examine how the experience of women in construction has been reviewed to date and to present the need to gain a more situated understanding of the experience of women owner-managers, especially those within small construction firms, which comprise 98% of UK construction businesses. This paper will contribute to a contextualised understanding of why the study of women's individual experience in small construction firms continues to be relevant in construction gender research.
... These masculine characteristics would help male employees to cope with stress occurring at the workplace, resulting in a lower degree of job stress (Conway, 2000;Dial, Downey and Goodlin, 2010;Wu and Shih, 2010;Dodanwala and Santoso, 2021). Since the gender of the respondents plays a role in their perceived stress levels in the construction sector (Dodanwala and Santoso, 2021), which is the focus of this study and is considered heavily dominated by men (Fielden et al., 2000;Adeyemi et al., 2006;Ness, 2012), the authors of the present study have decided to control the effects of gender on job stress. ...
... Table 1 represents the demographic information of the respondents. Of the total sample, 78.8% were male, and 21.2% were female, implying that the sample is in line with previous studies indicating that the construction industry is still male-dominant (Fielden et al., 2000;Adeyemi et al., 2006;Ness, 2012). About 42% of the respondents hold a diploma, 49.6% hold a bachelor's degree, and only 8.4% hold a master's degree. ...
Demographic variables play a vital role in determining stress occurring from workplace demands. Role conflict is a major workplace demand, specifically in the context of construction. However, the way demographic variables influence the stress occurring from role conflict is less explored in the literature. Specifically, the literature does not fully explain the positioning of age and organization tenure on the relationship between role conflict and job stress. Hence, the present study evaluates the moderating role of age and organization tenure on the relationship between role conflict and job stress. A survey was conducted by distributing the questionnaire directly to randomly selected project-level employees of ten large private contractors in Sri Lanka. A total of 274 valid respondents were collected and used to run a factor analysis validated hierarchical regression analysis to assess the research hypotheses. The results showed that role conflict has a positive direct effect on job stress. The findings further revealed that the impact of role conflict on job stress is high for young employees in the construction industry, as young employees do not possess the necessary life skills or experience to cope with role conflict. Contrary to the authors’ expectations, there is no significant contribution from organization tenure to the relationship of role conflict and job stress. Since the young employees are more vulnerable to role conflict, special considerations should be given to improve the well-being of the young workforce. Hence, it is recommended that contractors should assign seasoned supervisors who can nurture the young employees and act as mentors. The supervisors should give clear instructions and inform what the young subordinates need to do when confronted with non-overlapping requests or orders from the other parties involved in the project. Besides, organizations must conduct periodic conflict management and resolution training programs to help the employees cope with the conflicts that occur in the workplace, which is the path to lessen the impact of role conflict as organization tenure accumulates.
... In the existing construction literature, a significant number of studies have turned their attention to the exploration of gender relating issues affecting the experience of women in the sector (Hasan et al. 2021) and the discourses about gender that might reproduce their absence in the industry (Ness 2012). The literature reports the impact of gender in the career progression of women working in the industry, highlighting the differences in the career progression for women and men due to perceived gendered practices in the industry (Dainty et al. 2000;Francis 2017;Lu & Sexton 2010). ...
Despite the growing number of small construction firms that are owned-managed by women, there is limited research into the lived experience enacted by these women who have direct influence over their firms' strategic direction and operational management. This paper aims to revisit the current narratives on gender prevalent in the industry from a social identity perspective. Social identity approach (SIA) posits that individuals have multiple and salient self-concepts that are defined by their social context and experiences. The exploration of the lived experiences of women owner-managers of small construction firms could shed light on how these women identify themselves. The narrative inquiry methodology will be adopted as it is an appropriate way to gather data about lived experience. Findings from this study will contribute to help policy makers and industry stakeholders go beyond examining structural barriers only when it comes to making the construction industry more attractive to women.
... Worral (2010) stated that women are faced with white, male-dominated organisational cultures in the United Kingdom (UK) construction industry. Ness (2012) revealed that in the UK construction industry, women could do most construction jobs. The dominant ideology about who does what work appears to be challenged but strongly classed and gendered roles in society and the job market are actually reproduced. ...
The World Health Organization has identified stress, which can cause a devastating effect on the emotional and physical wellbeing of a person, as the health epidemic of the 21st century. Occupational stress is a severe problem among male and female professionals. This study aimed to compare the significant stressors of male Quantity Surveyors (QSs) working on-site with their female counterparts. A mixed approach consisting of a series of interviews and a questionnaire survey was adopted to collect the data required for the study. Purposive sampling was used to select the interviewees and questionnaire survey participants from among the QSs working on-site for contractors. Heavy workload/overtime/inflexible work was identified as the most significant stressor of both male and female QSs. Heavy domestic responsibilities and inadequate earned income were the second most significant stressor of female and male QSs, respectively. Shortcomings of the tendering process (document discrepancies, under-priced quotations) were the third most significant stressor for male and female QSs, though not mentioned in the literature. The study findings revealed that the stressors affecting male and female QSs working on-site must be considered separately.
... On this occasion, as displayed in Table 5, 61.9% of the sample (837 cases) claims that it is easier for men to be hired. 35.4% (479 cases) does not find any differences in relation to gender when being hired by a company. 2.7% (36 cases) consider that it is easier for women to be hired. ...
Entre todas las actividades industriales que se desarrollan en todo el mundo, el sector de la construcción es sin duda el sector más masculinizado. Por ello, en esta investigación se analiza la opinión relativa a la igualdad de género que poseen trabajadores/as de este sector en España. Para lograr este objetivo, se realizó una encuesta web a 1353 ingenieros/as de la construcción en todo el país (48,7% hombres, 51,3% mujeres). Los resultados muestran que los varones, los trabajadores de mayor edad, los autónomos y los trabajadores con mayores niveles de ingresos en el sector son los que tienen la actitud más desfavorable hacia la igualdad de género en la profesión. Estos resultados también permite vislumbrar en qué colectivos se necesita, con mayor urgencia, implementar acciones de sensibilización para que las políticas de igualdad de género tengan éxito en el sector de la ingeniería de la edificación en España.
... In contemporary engineering education, there is an emerging focus on changing engineering cultures to attract new students, and to adequately equip engineering students for workplace settings. This is particularly true in construction engineering, which has been historically almost exclusively male-dominated and associated with hegemonic forms of masculinity (Ness, 2012). To address this, it has been argued that engineering education needs to change to reflect the heterogeneity of skills and forms of work in which engineers actually engage in the workplace (Faulkner, 2007). ...
... As expected from a male-dominated industry (Ness, 2012), the majority of the sample consisted of males, accounting for 78.9% of the total respondents, whereas females only accounted for 21.1% of the total respondents. More than half of the respondents (55.8%) were aged between 21-30 years, slightly above one-third (35.4%) of the employees were aged between 31-40 years, and only 7.8% of employees were aged above 40 years. ...
Purpose
The present study first explored the different dimensions of work–family conflict and job stress. It then evaluated the mediating role of time and strain-based work–family conflict on the relationship between role overload and psychological stress and role overload and physiological stress.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilized a quantitative data collection approach through a questionnaire design. With the aid of the questionnaire, 308 samples were collected from the project-level staff of ten construction organizations in Sri Lanka. The collected data were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach to address the research hypotheses.
Findings
Results supported the mediating role of work–family conflict on the relationship between role overload and job stress. Specifically, the time and strain-based work–family conflict combined partially mediated the effect of role overload on psychological stress. While strain-based work–family conflict fully mediated the effect of role overload on physiological stress. Hence, the organizations that seek employee well-being should focus on developing a conducive working environment with a focus on a reasonable workload for everyone. Besides, the management should give special consideration to working hours as it affects both the employees' stress levels and family life.
Originality/value
This study added the mediating role of time and strain-based work–family conflict to the previous empirical research on the relationship between role overload and job stress dimensions. Besides, this study discusses the different dimensions of work–family conflict and job stress, which is a less explored area in the construction literature.
... As a minority group in one of the most male-dominated industries with high degree of gender segregation (Ness 2012;Oo, Liu and Lim 2020), it is not hard to find evidence that women workforce in construction have faced barriers related to their career in pre-COVID era. In a systematic literature review, Navarro-Astor, Roman-Onsalo and Infante-Perea (2017) have included as many as 60 publications between 2000 and 2015 on career barriers affecting women in construction. ...
Changes and challenges in employment are inevitable under the measures enacted to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Early evidence suggests that the pandemic would disproportionately affect women compared to men. Focussing on women workforce in construction, this exploratory study examines the challenges associated with changes in their job situations, the adopted strategies in addressing the challenges and their opinions on employment situation of women workforce during the pandemic. Results of a content analysis show that the top ranked challenges are: (i) overworked; (ii) working space; (iii) social interactions; (iv) collaboration; and (v) parenting. The most cited strategies in addressing these challenges are: (i) increased visual communication; (ii) a dedicated workspace; (iii) self-scheduling; (iv) flexible working arrangements; and (v) breaking out work time and personal time. The evidence is suggestive that most challenges are interrelated, and the strategies adopted by the respondents are multi-level and interdependent. The results also show that the most mentioned opinion is the increased caring and domestic responsibilities among women workforce. Under the uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic and future contagion waves, these findings are critical in informing employing organizations’ human resource management challenges to better support their female employees during pandemic time and beyond.
... A focus on attracting women into the sector in numerical terms, rather than addressing inequality holistically (Bagilhole, 2009), hinders progress and may contribute to unintended outcomes ( Van den Brink and Benschop, 2012;Powell et al., 2010;Navarro-Astor et al., 2017). Further, equality policies, training and other initiatives based on presumed agreement on the need for action (Ness, 2011) are unlikely to gain cooperation from a workforce that may be hostile or dismissive to minorities. More broadly, critical diversity studies acknowledge these power relations (Gotsis and Kortezi, 2014) and the limitations of diversity networks to offer support to employees (Dennissen et al., 2020) or training to combat discrimination (Noon, 2018). ...
Policies and actions to address gender inequalities are widespread across a range of institutional and organisational contexts. Concerns have been raised about the efficacy and impacts of such measures in the absence of sustained evaluation of these activities. It has been proposed that important contextual factors may propel or inhibit measures to promote gender equality, including a critical mass of women, role models, diverse leaders and inclusive organisational cultures. This paper explores relationships between organisational justice and equality interventions to better understand gaps between equality policies and practices using a comparative case study approach in a male-dominated sector. A combination of questionnaire and interview data analysis with employees in three case organisations in the construction sector are used to outline links between perceptions of gender equality initiatives and organisational justice, and the mechanisms used to reinforce in-group dominance. The findings culminate in the development of an Employee Alignment Model and a discussion of how this relates to the organisational climate for gender equality work. The findings suggest that the development of interactional organisational justice is an important precursor for successful gender equality interventions in organisations. These findings have implications for those looking to minimize unintentional harm of policies or interventions to improve gender equality.
... Women feel powerless to challenge this behaviour because of wanting to 'fit in' (Dainty, Neale and Bagilhole 2000;Dainty et al 2004;Dainty and Lingard 2006). Some locate the sexism and gender-based discrimination encountered by women within a more encompassing understanding of the structural forces at play (Ness 2012). There are studies indicating that women get paid less than their male peers when they leave university with a degree in construction and enter the workforce (Artess, Ball and Mok 2008;Bilbo, Bigelow, Rybkowski and Kamranzadeh 2014;Dainty et al., 2000;Fielden, Davison, Gale and Davey, 2000;Poon and Brownlow 2016). ...
Gender diversity in the workplace results in the increased effectiveness of an organisation. However, within the commercial property profession in many countries including New Zealand (as in a number of other professions), only a small number of women are reaching senior positions. This research investigates why this might be. The study comprises one-to-one in-depth interviews with women currently working or who have previously worked in the commercial property profession in Auckland, New Zealand, to develop an understanding of what forces are at play in women’s choices to participate in the commercial property industry in Auckland – or not. Common lived experiences are identified including passion for the industry and the importance of an effective human resources department, they demonstrate gender imbalance, issues around having children, and difficulties around promotions and wage negotiations. Common challenges were workplace bullying, attitudes towards women, socialising, ‘fitting-in’ and coping with male banter. The study concludes that women working in the commercial property profession in New Zealand have thrived through mentorship, taking ownership of their careers and finding a good employer. The insights as to how women perceive the professional commercial property industry can be used to increase effectiveness by increasing gender diversity and inclusion.
... However, gender capital can work against women in an industry that presumes a male body and assumes that men are more naturally suited to the work (Wulff et al., 2021). Women's abilities and skills can be devalued in male-dominated industries because they are seen to displace gender norms (Smith, 2013), to speak the wrong language (Ness, 2012) and therefore, cultural capital is more difficult for them to acquire (Taylor et al., 2015;Wulff et al., 2021). Yet, gender theorists agree that women can accumulate appropriate forms of cultural capital from education and work (Huppatz & Goodwin, 2013;McCall, 1992;Reay, 2004;Skeggs, 2004;Taylor et al., 2015). ...
The skilled trades are highly gender segregated occupations. Unsurprisingly, research about women in this male‐dominated sector focuses on the various barriers to inclusion. In contrast, this article identifies factors that have contributed to women's successes. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with tradeswomen, we found that the success factors for women in the skilled trades were aligned with social and cultural capital. Findings also indicate that women's success is driven by their individual attributes and resources rather than any forms of systematic support. There is limited evidence of a coordinated approach from industry and government to increase gender equity and inclusion. Success for women is, therefore, most likely to be singularly occurring, unpredictable and difficult to replicate. We use a Bourdieusian approach to understand how capital facilitates women's success and how forms of capital can be translated into measurable and repeatable strategies. We argue that capital offers women an opportunity to circumvent traditional resistance to gender inclusion because it provides cultural legitimacy. Replicating social and cultural capital through industry initiatives that are measurable and repeatable are likely to be the most constructive ways forward. We recommend a coordinated industry approach to improve diversity and inclusion in the sector.
... Workplace hazards experienced by women onsite in construction include gender-based discrimination, lack of access to training and education, underemployment, inflexible working time arrangements, lack of support, and work-family conflict (Dabke et al. 2008, Ness 2012, Oo et al. 2020. These hazardous workplace conditions are identified as a major contributor to poor employee health and well-being (Burgard and Lin 2013). ...
Women working onsite in construction contend with multiple work hazards arising from the masculine-based work culture. Resilience has been proposed as an important asset for trades and semi-skilled women to manage work hazards and retain work focus. An explanatory sequential research design incorporating survey and interview data was used to explore the resilience of women. One hundred and sixty-eight Australian trades and semi-skilled women completed the Employee Resilience Scale and forty-three of these participants were interviewed. Survey results indicate that participants had a high level of employee resilience, suggesting a strong ability to adapt and succeed in a challenging work environment. Thematic analysis of the interview data identified that resilience is considered as a mandatory capability by women working onsite to manage gendered workplace hazards and attain career success. The findings indicate that these women had high levels of resilience despite little to no support from their workplace. Given its importance, it is recommended that resilience development be included in apprenticeship programs to support retention and career success for tradeswomen. Developing the resilience of semi-skilled women requires more consideration from the industry given their precarious employment status and career pathway. More broadly, the results reiterate that more needs to be done to provide a safe working environment for women working onsite. Rather than relying on women to navigate hostile workplaces, construction employers must protect the safety and health of all workers irrespective of gender.
... This is a programme that in the Swedish context predominantly attracts young, middle-class men (UKÄ 2020) and as such it opens up the possibility to explore how power works from the perspective of female students who are in a minority, and therefore might have the possibility to more easily to identify gendered norms. The programme is also particularly interesting due to the history of construction engineering as male-dominated and associated with hegemonic forms of masculinity (Ness 2012) and in comparison, to for example, the architectural engineering programme, where women are in the majority (UKÄ 2020). ...
This article explores how female university students’ abilities to present themselves as ‘authentic’ engineers are imbricated with discursive constructions of gender and gender equality. The empirical data comes from interviews and video diaries collected with three female engineering students. The analysis demonstrates the power of the Swedish gender equality discourse to inform the students’ talk as they negotiate their gendered identities to become intelligible as engineering students and engineers. We suggest that gender equality is used as a resource in the repertoires, but we also demonstrate that this discourse becomes a dilemma in that it limits possibilities for gender performances to go beyond old patterns. Despite this, the article still shows three unique ways of negotiating gender and other social categories in different situations connected to university learning and participation in internships.
... As expected from a male-dominated industry (Adeyemi et al., 2006;Fielden et al., 2000;Ness, 2012), the majority of the sample consisted of males as they accounted for 78.9% of the total respondents, whereas females only accounted for 21.1% of the total respondents. More than half of the respondents (55.8%) were aged between 21-30 years, slightly above one-third (35.4%) of the employees were aged between 31-40 years, and only 7.8% of employees were aged above 40 years. ...
Purpose
Work–family conflict plays a vital role in employees’ work-related satisfaction and emotional exhaustion measures. Yet, the theoretical interrelationship between work–family conflict, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction has not been fully explored in the construction literature. Hence, this study aims to assess emotional exhaustion’s mediating role in the relationship between work–family conflict and job satisfaction of the construction professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from a cross-sectional survey of 308 project-level construction professionals in Sri Lanka. A confirmatory factor analysis followed by three structural equation models was used in analyzing the research hypotheses.
Findings
The results support the mediation model of emotional exhaustion, in which the emotional exhaustion fully mediated the relationship between work–family conflict and job satisfaction. Hence, the authors concluded that a higher level of work–family conflict would directly contribute to a greater degree of emotional exhaustion, which in turn lessens the job satisfaction of the project employees.
Originality/value
In identifying how work–family conflict, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction are linked together, the present study added the mediating role of emotional exhaustion to the previous empirical research on the relationship between work–family conflict and job satisfaction in the context of the construction industry.
... The construction industry is one of the most male-dominated industries with greatest degree of gender segregation (Ness, 2012). There is a large collection studies on barriers faced by women and strategies aimed at improving their retention and career progression in the industry (Navarro-Astor, Román-Onsalo and Infante-Perea, 2017). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unique circumstances to women workforce in construction including the need to work from home, changes in job situations and family responsibilities following the lockdowns. This exploratory study was conducted around six months into the pandemic in examining the changes of their job situations, and their perceptions of career aspects during the pandemic. The results show that most respondents were employed full-time at the time of survey, and that there were profound changes to their work location and working hours including working from home and worked more hours than usual. Their perceived negative impacts of the pandemic on their capacity to engage in paid work activities due to caring responsibilities, pay or earnings, job security, and career progression and advancement are modest. They were also seemingly confident in staying in their job in the next 12-month. Their perceptions have been found significantly associated with their age, education level, and years of experience in the industry. These findings provide a critical insight on women’s job situations in the industry during the pandemic, with implications for human resource practices towards addressing the challenges in retention of women workforce during and post COVID-19 pandemic.
... Of the total sample, 78.8% were male, and 21.2% were female, implying that our sample is in line with previous studies indicating that the construction industry is still male-dominant (Adeyemi et al., 2006;Fielden et al., 2000;Ness, 2012). The average age of the respondents was 31.24 ...
Purpose - The present study examines the mediating role of job stress on the relationship between job satisfaction facets and turnover intention of the construction project professionals in Sri Lanka.
Design/methodology/approach - Data were gathered from a cross-sectional survey of 274 project-level employees of 10 construction organizations in Sri Lanka. A path analytical model is developed to assess the research hypotheses.
Findings - Results support the mediation model of job stress, in which satisfaction with supervision and job security directly contributed to a reduction in stress levels, which in turn lessened the turnover intention. Full mediation is observed from supervision, and partial mediation is observed from job security. Satisfaction with pay and co-workers directly predicted a decline in turnover intention. Contrary to the authors' expectations, the authors could not find any significant effect from promotion to job stress and promotion to turnover intention. The results further illustrated that demographic variables, i.e. gender, age and organization tenure play a role in determining employees' stress levels.
Originality/value - In identifying how job satisfaction facets, job stress and turnover intention are linked together, the present study added the mediating role of job stress to the previous empirical research on the relationship between job satisfaction facets and turnover intention.
... Having women on-site and in trades is a threat to the masculine identity as it essentially challenges the male gender myth of big strong macho men. This challenge to their masculinity results in behaviour designed to exclude women, such as inappropriate jokes, dangerous physical actions, and threats of rape (Ness, 2012), all of which were mentioned by participants in our research. ...
... Tradeswomen thus continue to bear the cost of reflexively juggling role shifts between feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral presentations of themselves (Denissen 2010). Not only are gender ratios in construction exceptionally small, but building trades have a special symbolic charge, as many men and women see them as the last bastion or refuge of the unreconstructed "real man" (Ness 2012). This suggests that they will be among the last to fall. ...
... Figure 1 presents the profile of the 71 respondents from the first section of the questionnaire. The construction industry is still male-dominated [50] and, at best, unappealing to the female workforce [51]. More students in South Africa do specialize in QS than CM due to the purported better job satisfaction [52]. ...
This paper builds on an earlier conference presentation at the West-East Institute, Harvard University in 2019. Following further critical dialogue on mass experimental online learning influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the now two authors sought to answer the question of how can educators make course evaluation exercises count? The objective was to assess the viability of reflective journaling as an alternative form of course evaluation. Consequently, the authors used a mixed-method approach to, firstly, analyze ordinal data collected from seventy-one (71) postgraduate engineering candidates (89% response rate) on their attitudes towards learning. Secondly, the authors analyzed the textual data on the candidates’ self- and educator-led initiatives to enrich their learning experiences. The findings revealed a paradox—the candidates hope to have gained in-depth knowledge at the end of their courses (topmost-ranked: mean = 4.704 and SD = 0.700) but do not attend most classes with questions in mind that they want to be answered (bottom-ranked: mean = 3.451 and SD = 1.072). Analysis of the textual data showed face-to-face lecture/class attendance and the overall course design as the most common student-led and educator-led approach, respectively. Finally, the authors discuss the practical and theoretical implications considering the burgeoning online education.
... While the observed ratings may partially reflect children's sensitivity to voice cues underlying qualities of speakers, many such attributions are nowadays irrelevant to job competence. For instance, there is considerable overlap in men's and women's physical strength, and many heavy manual jobs are now machine-operated, which means that many women are physically capable of doing such work (Ness 2012). ...
The adult voice is a strong bio-social marker for masculinity and femininity. In this study we investigated whether children make gender stereotypical judgments about adults’ occupational competence on the basis of their voice. Forty-eight 8- to 10- year olds were asked to rate the competence of adult voices that varied in vocal masculinity (by artificially manipulating voice pitch) and were randomly paired with 9 occupations (3 stereotypically male, 3 female, 3 gender-neutral). In line with gender stereotypes, children rated men as more competent for the male occupations and women as more competent for the female occupations. Moreover, children rated speakers of both sexes with feminine (high-pitched) voices as more competent for the female occupations. Finally, children rated men (but not women) with masculine (low-pitched) voices as more competent for stereotypically male occupations. Our results thus indicate that stereotypical voice-based judgments of occupational competence previously identified in adults are already present in children, and likely to affect how they consider adults and interact with them in their social environment.
... Gambar 6.2 Bidang keilmuan pendukung Era Digital (Pehlivanli and Esra, 2016) Dalam banyak kasus pekerjaan seorang engineer melibatkan risiko terutama jika bekerja di pabrik atau laboratorium yang berurusan dengan gas dan bahan kimia, pekerjaan kontruksi bangunan, infratruktur, minyak dan gas (Ness, 2012) serta developer pada teknologi informasi yang berkaitan dengan perangkat lunak dan perangkat keras pada bidang komputer ( Hayes, 2014;M.J. et al., 2009;Reuters, 2018;Erdley, 2006;Amit Arrawatia and Meel, 2012;Sultana et al., 2019). Selain itu juga beberapa pekerjaan menargetkan waktu dalam penyelesaiannya serta harus berkunjung ke lokasi yang mungkin akan menyita waktu yang tidak dapat diprediksi (Nemoto, 2013;Doherty, 2004;Bacik and Drew, 2006;Au, Hauck and Hollingsworth, 2013;Tolbert and Moen, 1998;Curran, 1988;England, 2006)women have begun emerging into the public sphere and the public/private divide has been eroding. ...
Revolusi industri 5.0 merubah cara peradaban dunia salah satunya diantaranya adalah perkembangan science dan teknologi. Perempuan di era ekonomi digital dihadapkan pada situasi dimana perempuan dapat berkarya tanpa perbedaan gender serta gelar pendidikan yang telah diraihnya. Keterkaitan perubahan revolusi industri 5.0 dan perempuan dalam perkembangan suatu bangsa dapat mendukung infrastruktur industri, sedangkan proses menuju perkembangan suatu bangsa tidak lepas dari kebutuhan engineer guna mendukung infrastruktur.
... A growing body of research investigates different facets of the construction industry relevant to the social and economic relations of work. This research has focused on labour shortages (Barnetson and Foster 2014), recruitment and training (Fellini et al. 2007;Power 2017), workplace management and organisation (Dainty and Loosemore 2013), gender and workplace cultures (Ness 2012;Thiel 2013), work-life balance (Francis, Lingard & Gibson 2006) and (non)-unionisation (Berntsen 2016), among other subject areas. Of interest in this special issue on construction in Canada and Australia is the way in which an intrinsic feature of the construction industry -the site-based but transient nature of the work, requiring extensive and varied forms of employment-related geographical mobility (E-RGM) to and within work (Haan et al. 2014) -intersects with these and other topics. ...
This introduction serves several purposes. First, it provides some context around the phenomenon of Employment-Related Geographical Mobility. Second, it introduces the papers included in this Special Issue.
... Tradeswomen thus continue to bear the cost of reflexively juggling role shifts between feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral presentations of themselves (Denissen 2010). Not only are gender ratios in construction exceptionally small, but building trades have a special symbolic charge, as many men and women see them as the last bastion or refuge of the unreconstructed "real man" (Ness 2012). This suggests that they will be among the last to fall. ...
Analyses of women’s experiences in building trades confirm that hegemonic male organizational culture continues to discourage women’s entry and retention. Theories of tokenism analyze the effects of race, gender, or other group proportions within organizations, suggesting that higher sex ratios in construction would foster a climate more supportive of women. Kanter’s (1977a) theory of tokenism is tested on 2002-3 interview data from women building trades workers in a central-Midwestern U.S. state. These findings support her hypothesis that skewed gender ratios generate tensions among women, as well as between men and women. The heightened visibility of tokens generates polarization between subgroups and promotes role entrapment, undermining solidarity across gender and among women. While tokenism theory predicts tensions between subgroups and among tokens, it must be supplemented by gender-, race- and class-based analyses of privilege for a fuller account of the complex gender dynamics in construction work. Pre-apprenticeship programs for women, mentoring, networking, and advocacy programs have been shown to contribute to increases in tradeswomen’s recruitment and retention.
... For example, Greene and Stitt-Gohdes (1997) found that the four critical factors that influence women's choices to work in trades are: (i) perceived innate ability to perform the trade they had chosen; (ii) strong sense of self; (iii) desire for independence; and (iv) role models. Authors had also highlighted that the relatively high wages, and the high degree of job autonomy and task variety are key factors influencing women's choice of trades career (Dabke et al., 2008;Moir, Thomson and Kelleher, 2011;Ness, 2012). While different cohorts of female workforces share many common factors influencing their career choice in construction, the career choice decision process itself is complex and affected by many interrelated factors (Dainty and Lingard, 2006). ...
The recruitment, retention and development of early career women have always been a challenge in the construction industry. With the focus on early career women or new female construction management degree graduate hires in construction, this study explores: (i) factors influencing their choice of career in construction; (ii) the extent of which their career expectations were met in their first few years of job experience; and (iii) how their met or unmet career expectations are related their overall job satisfaction. Data was collected using an online survey questionnaire. The results show that the top significant factors influencing the respondents’ career choice are career opportunities and belief of getting better pay. Their career expectations, on the other hand, were met or exceeded to a great extent for almost all the measurement items. The results also show that the respondents have a relatively high overall job satisfaction level. Although there is lack of evidence that their overall job satisfaction increased as met career expectations increased, there are statistically significant positive correlations among the career expectation measurement items. These findings have implications for human resource practices of construction employers that aimed to attract early career women into the industry, and to reinforce their met career expectations and job satisfaction.
... The results most likely would be different if women migrant workers were included in the study. The male-dominant workplaces may contribute to the nature of social relations at the workplace, as masculinity can provide the basis for (collective) identity (Ness, 2012). Almost all the migrant workers in our case studies are intra-European migrants who have special characteristics and are highly influenced by social and historical contexts, which may limit the generalisability to other migrant groups. ...
Transnational labour migration challenges collectivism as well as migrant workers’ labour market rights, due to employers’ strategies such as segregating workers, and the migrant workers’ individualistic strategies. This article, arguing that there are no intrinsic impediments to creating (instrumental) collectivist solutions encompassing both migrants and host-country workers, develops a dynamic, conceptual framework of four preconditions – workers’ closeness, feeling of unity, shared problem perception and reference groups – which are necessary for migrant workers to develop collective labour market strategies. The article then utilises the framework in three empirical cases to illustrate how the framework, combined with union strategies, help explain the different degrees of migrant workers’ labour market inclusion and help understand why gaps between migrant workers and host-country workers may form.
... Construction management is considered by some people to be a lower status occupation (Lippa, Preston, Penner, 2014). There is a culture around construction that tends be interpreted as "masculine" and often requires working long hours in physically challenging conditions (Ness, 2012). This can make it particularly challenging for women to find support from their families and friends when they express an interest in construction. ...
... The 'macho' attitude is prevalent throughout the male-dominated construction industry, which creates barriers surrounding the acknowledgement of mental health problems and seeking required help (Ness, 2012). This can result in many people suffering in silence, as they resist opening up and asking for help. ...
This is a report of a mixed-methods research study into enhancing the mental health and well-being of construction workers in the UK. Data collection concerning current practice involved an extensive literature review, interviews with construction and medical professionals and an email survey of 126 workers using 77 questions. The findings indicated that there are major mental health problems within the industry, which are proving difficult to combat because of the associated stigma. The research highlighted that in many physical health incidents, participants may neglect their responsibilities by inadequate control measures or incomplete protective equipment. There was investigation of workplace sentiments, environmental conditions, workload and pressure, social context and stigma, hazard awareness, mental health training, education and advice. Recommendations included group activities in appropriate spaces, self-help programmes and guides, volunteering, health screenings and site-specific briefings with suitable visual aids. An implication for practice is that management should focus more on the thoughts and feelings of workers to improve their engagement with the workplace and assist with their work/life balance while maintaining a safe working environment at all times. This paper concludes with a list of improvement strategies for consideration by both employers and workers.
... Such deeper explorations are, however, not only warranted for site managers, but also for other categories of professionals in the construction industry. This is suggested because free and independent work has, in fact, been identified as a central feature for all categories of craftsmen working on construction sites (Applebaum, 1999;Hayes, 2002;Ness, 2012;Thiel, 2013), as well as for organizational managers at middle-and top levels in construction companies (L€ owstedt and R€ ais€ anen, 2014). There seems, therefore, to exist a broader community of professional workers that strongly identify with this kind of work Thiel, 2013;L€ owstedt and R€ ais€ anen, 2014). ...
Research concerned with standardization of the construction process has generally considered the challenges from only rational and instrumental perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to foreground a social perspective of this challenge. Specifically, the work of construction site managers is explored through a professional work lens in order to emphasize significant misalignments with the principles of standardized production in the construction industry.
Data are drawn from a longitudinal (2014–ongoing) case study of site managers’ work in a large Swedish construction company. The research design is characterized by an explorative approach, altogether consisting of 44 in-depth interviews at the site manager level (28) and at other managerial levels (16). All the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed particularly to highlight two contrasting dominant discourses: “standardized construction production” and “site manager work.”
The findings show that site manager’s work is enmeshed with a particular type of professional expertise and identity that is ideologically crafted around a proclivity for free and independent work. It is outlined in detail how these social dimensions of work are enacted to form an ongoing (and successful) resistance to organizational initiatives that are based on principles of standardization.
This study improves our understanding of an unresolved social challenge that impedes the transformation toward more standardized construction production. It adds new perspectives and value to current research by reminding that (and how) significant changes in production processes also seriously implicate professional work.
Play is a highly valued pedagogy in early learning settings around the world. Supporters of play have emphasised the benefits of this approach in promoting children’s development and learning and their alleged freedom to choose, explore, and follow their interests. Feminist research, however, has shown that play contexts can be key sites that perpetuate gender inequalities. Building on this scholarship, I apply a critical feminist lens to examine the gendered effects of a recent shift in a Canadian province towards full-day play-based learning in kindergarten. Analysis of ethnographic data collected in two classrooms reveals that not all children may benefit from play-based learning. Instead, the findings show that the play settings in this study implicitly propagated patriarchal values that upheld hierarchal gender divisions and legitimized sexist practices among children in play. Specifically, in this paper I examine the subordination of girls through role allocations in the big blocks center. Given these findings, I discuss the need for critical gender literacy and transformative action among early education stakeholders.
This edited volume explores storytelling methodologically and in practice. The interdisciplinary chapter content provides insight into the diversity of academic disciplines using stories as data and makes explicit the interaction between story, storytelling and storyteller.
The autoethnographic story presented in this chapter explores bullying between women in male-dominated environments. To this end, we explore what has become known as the Queen Bee Syndrome. Although the Queen Bee Syndrome implies superficially—and somewhat patronisingly—that women are their ‘own worst enemies’, our data suggest it is a phenomenon that is deeply entrenched in organizational norms, the parameters for which have typically been defined by influential men. We further argue that bullying between women in male-dominated industries persists because it often takes a form which many men struggle to identify; it thus remains ‘veiled’.
Globally, the construction industry presents a cause of concern for the wellbeing of its workforce. Mental health issues in the industry are on the rise, and literature trends are beginning to recognize this. However, women have been widely neglected from such literature. Thus, this paper aims to identify future research directions on the mental health of women in construction through a review of current related publications. The mental health review is approached from three lenses: challenges, consequences, and wellbeing outcomes. A total of 27 peer-reviewed English-language articles published from 2010 onwards are analysed and cross-examined. In each mental health study, the ‘challenges’, ‘workplace consequences’, and ‘wellbeing outcomes’ experienced by women in construction are highlighted. Within these three categories, 58 concerns are identified. The review reveals that the proportion of issues faced by on-site professionals is significantly larger than that of other construction occupations. Furthermore, the categories ‘workplace consequences’ and ‘wellbeing outcomes’ lack research compared with ‘challenges’. Lastly, there is little evidence of cause-and-effect analysis between the challenges, consequences, and wellbeing of women in construction to uncover systems-based connections between these concerns. The paper provides an insight into these issues that will inform future research investigations and quantifications.
Oregon’s Highway Construction Workforce Development Program aims to improve the recruitment and retention of a diverse construction workforce, through pre-apprenticeships that provide alternative pathways into apprenticeship as well as financial and non-financial retention services that aim to help apprentices complete their apprenticeships. This evaluation research examines the impact of the Program on recruitment and retention trends, drawing on administrative data from the Program as well as interviews with program participants. We find pre-apprenticeship programs have improved the recruitment of women into the trades. We further find that non-financial services, ready supplies, and childcare services have a positive impact on completion, with receipt of non-financial support having the largest impact on completion. Gas/travel services are positively associated with completion among apprentices of color. Interview data suggest that additional support services for apprentices as well as structural changes to the industry are needed to achieve construction workforce diversity goals.
Fehlende formale Qualifikationen wirken sich negativ auf Erwerbschancen aus, insbesondere für Frauen. Während die Forschung bisher vor allem makrostrukturelle Faktoren beleuchtete, nimmt dieser Beitrag die Mesoebene in den Blick und fragt danach, wie die Erwerbschancen Geringqualifizierter durch branchenspezifische Formen der Beschäftigung und Arbeitsorganisation beeinflusst werden. Durch den Vergleich zweier geschlechtersegregierter Branchen, dem Bau- und Reinigungsgewerbe in der Schweiz, wird aufgezeigt, wie Systeme der kollektiven Lohnverhandlung, Strategien des Personaleinsatzes sowie Regeln und Praktiken der Beförderung und Weiterbildung zu ungleichen Erwerbschancen beitragen. Analytisch knüpft der Artikel an die Theorie der Unterschätzung von Frauenarbeit an und konzipiert Erwerbschancen als Resultat unterschiedlicher Konstruktionen des Werts von Arbeit. Als empirische Grundlage dienen qualitative Interviews mit Arbeitgebenden, geringqualifizierten Arbeitskräften und Gewerkschaftsvertretern. Zudem wurden die Kollektivverträge der beiden Branchen analysiert. Der Fokus liegt auf Generalunternehmen der Baubranche und auf der Unterhaltsreinigung. Während sich Erstere durch hohe Mindestlöhne sowie institutionalisierte Aufstiegsmöglichkeiten auszeichnen, ist Letztere durch niedrige Löhne, Unterbeschäftigung und mangelnde Möglichkeiten der beruflichen Weiterentwicklung geprägt. Der Beitrag belegt die Vielschichtigkeit der Faktoren, die auf der Ebene von Branchen und Betrieben die Erwerbschancen von Geringqualifizierten beeinflussen.
Writing about sexism and sexual harassment in the field is still generally discouraged outside gender ethnography, despite a growing gender reflexivity in research. This is mostly due to certain established norms and expectations about ethnographic work that tend to ignore how these issues contribute to women’s fieldwork experiences and subsequent ethnographic accounts. In this article, we go against this tendency by setting out our gendered experiences as female ethnographers conducting research on labor mobility in the male-dominated construction industry among Brazilian internal migrants in Rio de Janeiro and among Polish migrant workers in Europe. We foreground how gendered dynamics affected our fieldwork experience and how they generated a degree of self-doubt and self-blame about our methodological choices. Our hope is that writing about our experiences will help female ethnographers to better prepare for and consider the different kinds of sexism that will inevitably shape their knowledge production.
The purpose of the study is to investigate factors influencing career progression of female professional employees in the construction industry in order to identify challenges and suggest possible mitigations. An integrative review of purposively sampled literature on career progression is used to arrive at challenges to career progression faced by female professionals in the South African construction industry. The limitation of the study is its theoretical nature at this stage. Findings show that involvement of women in the construction industry has increased. However, women apparently still face challenges in progressing to senior positions in their careers. Some noted common factors include training, mentoring support, and networking. Implications of the study include the need to study factors influencing female career progression with the support of empirical data. There is also a need to examine the factors that act as barriers and analyse their nature in order to develop possible mitigations, which are also nuanced with the experiences of the subject population. The study forms a basis for understanding influencing factors and challenges to career progression of female professionals. This study is at its early stage of a more extensive research project and will be used as the foundation for empirical studies.
Using the concept of gendered social closure mechanisms, we aim at identifying the social practices and agents involved in the limited access to what we call men's worlds. To do so, we study the ways that women have to access to seven highly male‐dominated occupations in Spain through the analysis of qualitative data based on in‐depth interviews. We propose an analytical model that integrates the structural approach with the microsociological approach and considers that the social closure mechanisms happen at three levels (structural level, occupational/professional level, and organizational level). We state that the time frame of closure mechanisms (pre‐existing, prior to, or threshold of access) is key to understand the impact of such closure mechanisms. The results enable us to show how the mechanisms are cumulative in character rather than exclusive, and to propose a categorization of occupations according to their closure mechanisms. We conclude that any analysis that aims to understand segregation by sex in each profession or occupation must involve a mapping of the gendered social closure mechanisms, as only through a detailed knowledge of the mechanisms and their specific dynamics can we propose changes in practices and policies addressed to improve women's access to male‐dominated occupations
Purpose of this Paper Although gender inequalities exist in the workplace, very little is known about the gender-differences in working conditions in the construction industry. This paper examines the issues relating to women's occupational health and safety in the construction industry. Design/Methodology A comprehensive review of studies available in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus database focusing on gender relations in occupational exposures and outcomes in construction between 2000 and 2020 was conducted. Key terms such as gender, women, health, safety, and construction were used to retrieve 47 related documents. Findings Most of the articles included in this study were conducted in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Philippines, and Australia. Women were found to suffer from occupational injuries and accidents that were gender-specific, unique to their gender, and less prominent among men. It was revealed that a gender-sensitive approach to health and safety might be beneficial in the analysis of men's and women's occupational health and safety experiences. Findings showed that to promote the health and ensure the safety of women on construction sites, factors needing consideration are physical work capacity, personal protective equipment, and anthropometry, biological and physiological composition. Originality/Value This study provides insights on the occupation hazards experienced by women and discusses recommendations on how to address health and safety concerns of women
This chapter aims to: look at the current position of women working in the SET sector from higher education through to the workforce, using data from the UK and USA as examples; consider previous research looking at the lack of women in the sector as a whole and some industries, such as engineering in particular; focus on the construction industry, one of the most gender segregated occupations and working environments (the construction site), in order to examine gendered occupational segregation; provide readers with an in-depth look at women’s underrepresentation in the ICT sector; discuss strategies for including and attracting more women to the computer science and technology occupations, proposed by researchers globally; and highlight why it is important for women to be involved in the creation and production of technology, as well as users and consumers.KeywordsMale Dominated, Underrepresentation, SET, ICT, Stem, Mathematics, Construction Industry, Architecture
Occupations in the skilled trades are highly segregated with women comprising 1–3% of this workforce in Western nations. We report on a systematic review of 26 articles, from 1998 to 2019, which explored women’s recruitment and retention in the skilled trades. Two research questions underpinned the review; the first identified challenges and barriers, the second identified success factors. Furthermore, the review examines why percentages of tradeswomen remain lower than those of women in professional occupations within the industry. The literature included in this review focuses on the barriers to women’s employment without sufficient emphasis on solutions to overcoming those barriers. The most common explanation for the problems of recruitment and attrition made in the literature is the failure of the masculine culture to change. However, we found little theoretical examination of masculinity and masculine culture beyond the hegemonic binary. Whilst many of the barriers exist for all women in construction, we argue that two distinct factors impact women in the skilled trades more than women in other occupations in the industry. These are the gendered body and informal and unregulated employment practices. These significant points of difference shed light on the future focus for research about women in the skilled trades.
The success of built environment projects is closely dependent on strong collective cooperation. Yet abundant anecdotal and academic evidence attests to weak collective cooperation within the industry. To date, no research in the built environment has investigated either the individual-level differences in individualism/collectivism that affect cooperativeness, or how gender may interact with these individual-level traits. In this research we seek to make a positive contribution by using the individual rather than organization as the unit of analysis. We first test the possibility that the built environment may in fact attract uncooperative individuals who are more individualistic than collectivist with respect to two specimen subsectors, i.e. construction management and architecture. At the same time we also employ a nuanced distinction between horizontal and vertical facets of individualism/collectivism, and assess potential interactions with gender. Using individual-level data (N=548), we find that both the architecture and construction management subsectors are occupationally attractive to individuals from opposing ends of the horizontal and vertical individualism/collectivism spectrums, and that these traits interact with gender. We argue that our findings both expose an individual-level source of poor collective cooperation in the built environment industry, and underscore the need to address persistently low female recruitment and retention rates.
In a recent research interview the chief HRM manager of a large global company that is prominent in favouring diversity management, rather than gender equality or equal opportunities as its management strategy, stated: We should aim at benefiting from diversity. There is not just the word 'diversity' but also the issue of gaining benefits. You are right that if we have total diversity it may lead nowhere, we will never arrive at the conclusion. One needs to have some realism here. To summarize the three main business reasons why we think diversity is important I would say that first, we want to encourage creativity in our organization. Second, we need to better understand our customers. And third, we want to have an inclusive working environment allowing us to expand our pool of potential recruits. Our staff should enjoy working for this company. The interview continued: Q: What kind of gender policies do you have in your organization? A: I'm tempted to say that this conversation will be very short if we discuss this issue. Let me rephrase the question. Why would you have gender policies in the first place? Q: Well, what I'm asking is that … A: Yes, yes, but in our culture, everyone is equal and there isn't a need for such policies. Whether this is the reality, whether the practices promote equality is then another story. [Jabbing his finger at the woman interviewer] You shouldn't look at gender policies but practices. That's the real issue. (Hearn & Piekkari, 2004: 15)
This article explores the social partners' role in the gender equality
agenda in construction at skilled operative level. It draws on a survey of the
European construction social partners that investigated the presence of women in
skilled trades and the policies, collective agreements and practices that play a role in women's integration. The responses indicate that the construction industry still
displays inertia and conservatism, and that the social partners corroborate rather
than counter this. They express a 'discourse' of gender equality, but this does not
automatically lead to equal opportunity policies or programmes. The social partners
have the platform to make inroads and to change the industry from within, but need
further encouragement to put this on their agenda.
We start our chapter by introducing the notions of 'critique', 'ideology', and 'power'. These three concepts are constitutive for every approach in CDA, albeit frequently employed with different meanings. Therefore, it is important to clarify how they are conceptualised in the DHA. We then proceed with the delineation of other terms significant for our purposes, such as 'discourse', 'genre', 'text' 'recontextualization', 'intertextuality', and 'interdiscursivity'. Section 2 summarises some analytical tools and general principles of the DHA. In section 3, we illustrate our methodology step by step by focussing on 'discourses about climate change'. In the final section we discuss the strengths and limitations of the DHA and point to future challenges for the field.
This paper examines service work within the contemporary airline industry which has recently been shaped by managerial initiatives aiming to deliver `quality service'. We focus upon the gendered consequences of this. On the basis of original empirical research, three specific arguments are advanced: firstly, recent competitive pressures and accompanying managerial initiatives are intensifying demands upon female employees for the production of emotional labour, subjective commitment to organisational aims and sexual difference within parts of the airline industry; secondly, despite the enormous power of such managerial demands, the `spaces' for female employees to comply, consent and resist remain `open' within the aspects of the industry studied; thirdly, the power of the gendered managerial prescription investigated here is related to the way it is embedded within the structural and inequitable capital-labour relation. The paper is informed by an approach which places the process of gendering inside class relations, and stresses the need to empirically interrogate the historically-specific `lived experience' of gendered power relations in order to adequately analyse and explain such phenomena.
This article explores the social partners' role in the gender equality agenda in construction at skilled operative level. It draws on a survey of the European construction social partners that investigated the presence of women in skilled trades and the policies, collective agreements and practices that play a role in women's integration. The responses indicate that the construction industry still displays inertia and conservatism, and that the social partners corroborate rather than counter this. They express a 'discourse' of gender equality, but this does not automatically lead to equal opportunity policies or programmes. The social partners have the platform to make inroads and to change the industry from within, but need further encouragement to put this on their agenda.
The predominant image of construction is that of a male-dominated industry requiring brute strength and a good tolerance for outdoor conditions, inclement weather and bad language. Reconciling this image with women's participation in the construction industry is problematic. However, there are early signs of a cultural shift in the industry. This paper presents an empirical review of wome's roles within the industry and the ways in which people make sense of their working experience when traditional gender roles are challenged. Based on qualitative research, the study found that men in the industry regarded as the gatekeepers are now finding ways to respond to and make sense of a changing workplace, and the realities that women are now actively encouraged to participate, legally protected against discrimination and more highly represented in non-traditional areas of the construction industry. Women are also findings ways as apprentices and tradespeople to position themselves within this new environment. They identify ways of working that are more likely to ensure a smooth experience for themselves. While the stimulus for the changing face of the workplace is the notion of gender equality, the responses are not gender neutral. All players are trying to negotiate ways to integrate each other into a new environment in a manner which allows them to comfortably reconcile issues of gender.
Currently there are over 11 million women employed in the UK, accounting for 49.5% of the workforce. However, despite increases in the number of women employed in the construction industry over the past decade, they still constitute only 13% of the industry's workforce. This means that construction continues to be the most male dominated of all the major industrial groups. A review is presented of the literature relating to the current position of women in the construction industry. It identifies and examines the barriers preventing women's entry into the industry, the subsequent barriers faced by those working within the construction industry, and initiatives committed to promoting equality for women and men in construction. These barriers arise from a number of sources including: the construction industry's image; career knowledge amongst children and adults; selection criteria and male dominated courses; recruitment practices and procedures; sexist attitudes; male dominated culture; and the work environment.
Descriptions of manual employment tend to ignore its diversity and overstate the homogenizing effects of technology and industrialization. Based on ethnographic research on a London construction site, building work was found to be shaped by the forms of a pre-industrial work pattern characterized by task autonomy and freedom from managerial control. The builders' identities were largely free from personal identification as working class, and collective identification was fractured by trade status, and ethnic and gender divisions. Yet the shadow of a class-based discursive symbolism, which centered partly on the division of minds/bodies, mental/manual, and clean/dirty work, framed their accounts, identities and cultures. The builders displayed what is frequently termed working-class culture, and it was highly masculine. This physical and bodily-centered culture shielded them from the possible stigmatization of class and provided them with a source of localized capital. 'Physical capital' in conjunction with social capital (the builders' networks of friends and family) had largely guided their position in the stratification system, and values associated with these forms of capital were paramount to their public cultures. This cultural emphasis offered a continuing functionality in the builders' lives, not having broken free from tradition or becoming an object of reflexive choice.
This paper examines the role of sexuality in the labour process in a case study drawn from the off-course betting industry, as a contribution to the discussion of forms of service work. It draws on ethnographic research in three betting shops of a major bookmaking company. Echoing recent studies of sexuality and work, the paper argues that sexuality represents a strong undercurrent in organizational power relationships, and in the tacit expectations of employees. Such expectations, often codified in terms of ambiguous references to ‘personality’, impact on both recruitment processes and authority and peer relations in the organisation of work. If such expectations of necessity remain implicit, sexuality is also shown to be an unstable managerial resource which can emerge as a problematic area of social relations in work.
This thesis is based on an ethnographic case study of a London building site. The social organisation of building work and building workers was framed by the city, and cross-cut by class, race and gender, the structures and processes of which are explored throughout. The fieldwork site was characterised by racial divides between subcontracted trade groups, which were organised around informal networks within ethnic communities. Those communities, in their turn, were bounded by patterns of gift-exchange, reciprocity and ensuing loyalties. Networked contacts, which were predominately ascribed by social, ethnic and regional origins, formed an aspect of the perpetuation of race and class structures. Strong notions of trust and loyalty fostered illegitimate activities because information concerning rule-breaking was kept within the communities and went undetected by agencies representing the formal law. Informal networks were also contrived and engineered by entrepreneurial subcontractors whose relationships with building contractors and consultants were characterised by gift-giving. This process shielded competition from rivals and closed down the competitiveness of the construction market. 'Embedded' economic relations excluded recent migrant groups and their subcontracted representatives by blocking access to jobs and contracts, despite the groups' ability to offer cheaper and harder-working labour. Contractual arrangements were informal and sometimes illicit, and this erected barriers to legal and regulatory power. Coupled with short-term and ephemeral working practices, a social order partly supported by the threat of violence was established. The masculinity expressed by builders was, in part, a consequence of this display of violence. The building industry was virtually a 'non-modern ' organisation whose social relations were marked by network morality, nepotism, reciprocity, gift relations and the threat of violence. Yet, violence underpinned forms of social power, which manufactured the imbalance of false reciprocities.
Within the UK, construction has an unenviable status as being the industry with the lowest representation of women and ethnic minority employees. Despite considerable efforts to diversify the industry's labor force, this has had little tangible effect on the numbers of these non-traditional entrants. Empirical studies that have explored aspects of women's and ethnic minorities' employment have tended to deal with the experiences of these under-represented groups separately. In contrast, this paper uses the findings from two research studies to compare women and ethnic minority employees' experiences of gaining employment and working within the industry. Both studies suggest the construction workplace presents a challenging and hostile environment for non-traditional entrants, and women and ethnic minority employees face both similar and different challenges and attitudinal barriers. Discriminatory behavior perpetrated by the dominant white male workforce is commonplace, as are informal recruitment practices, exclusive networks and a competitive and adversarial culture. By comparing and analyzing the results and recommendations from the two studies, the paper identifies where action is required to lead to a more balanced and socially representative workforce in the future. The similarity of the recommendations put forward by these studies suggests that there would be an advantage in developing a more holistic approach towards managing diversity in the sector. It is argued that addressing a broad range of equal opportunities in an integrated and strategic manner would enhance opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, and for the workforce as a whole.
With this paper I want to celebrate the work of Siegfried J. Schmidt. When I just typed his name, I made a significant typo: I wrote SiegFRIEND… It was with him that I shared the beginning of text grammar, text theory and discourse studies, and who was the scholar who invited me for my first ever scholarly conference, in 1969s in Mannheim (Schmidt 1970).
In the decade since the First Edition of this critical and provocative text, many aspects of gender have changed, and many have stayed the same. While the gendered study of organizations is a growing field in its own right, in many real-life organizations gaps in gendered job roles and pay are as entrenched as they were. This new edition is a long-awaited update to an essential text in this dynamic and expanding field of inquiry, incorporating new, international perspectives that incorporate recent theory and debate, and a new chapter on gender and identity. Understanding Gender and Organizations is essential reading for students and academics in management, organization studies, gender studies, social psychology and sociology of work.
This paper examines the role of sexuality in the labour process in a case study drawn from the off-course betting industry, as a contribution to the discussion of forms of service work. It draws on ethnographic research in three betting shops of a major bookmaking company. Echoing recent studies of sexuality and work, the paper argues that sexuality represents a strong undercurrent in organizational power relationships, and in the tacit expectations of employees. Such expectations, often codified in terms of ambiguous references to `personality', impact on both recruitment processes and authority and peer relations in the organisation of work. If such expectations of necessity remain implicit, sexuality is also shown to be an unstable managerial resource which can emerge as a problematic area of social relations in work
Proportions, that is, relative numbers of socially and culturally different people in a group, are seen as critical in shaping interaction dinamics, and four group types are identified in the basis of varying proportional compositions. "Skewed" groups contain a large preponderance of one type (the numerical "dominants") over another (the rare "tokens"). A framework is developed for conceptualizing the processes that occur between dominants and tokens. Three perceptual phenomena are associated with tokens: visibility (tokens capture a disproportionate awareness share), polarization (differences between tokens and dominants are exaggerated), and assimilation (tokens' attributes are distorted to fit preexisting generalizations about their social type). Visibility generates performance pressures; polarization leads dominants to heighten their group boundaries; and assimilation leads to the tokens' role entrapment. Illustrations are drawn from a field study in a large industrial corporation. Concepts are exten...
This book first took shape in my mind as little more than a study of occupational shifts in the United States. I was interested in the structure of the working class, and the manner in which it had changed. That portion of the population employed in manufacturing and associated industries—the so-called industrial working class—had apparently been shrinking for some time, if not in absolute numbers at any rate in relative terms. Since the details of this process, especially its historical turning points and the shape of the new employment that was taking the place of the old, were not clear to me, I undertook to find out more about them. And since, as I soon discovered, these things had not yet been clarified in any comprehensive fashion, I decided that there was a need for a more substantial historical description and analysis of the process of occupational change than had yet been presented in print. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.
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Whether or not manual workers actually valued industrial
welfarism has been largely subsumed within the debate over its productive
or coercive function. Yet many workers seemingly placed little importance
on such benefits, either when demanded by unions or provided by
employers. This rebuttal should not be read only in terms of the primacy
of money wages within a hierarchy of demands. Taking construction as an
example of a male dominated industry, it is argued that key aspects of
welfarism ran counter to masculine constructs of workplace culture.
Improved physical amenities devalued such defining attributes of worker
identity as self-sufficiency and toughness; even cash benefits like paid
holidays were misappropriated by a significant minority who preferred
more traditional manly pleasures. Yet the value placed on "conditions of
work" issues also reflected broader structural changes within the
industry: notably issues of workplace control. Only in such contexts can
attitudes to welfare be understood. It was never simply a question of
want or dislike.
Much organizational restructuring, at least in the UK and USA, seeks to replace organizational regulation by that of the market. These developments centre around an emphasis on relations with customers - the ‘sovereign consumer’- as a paradigm for effective forms of organizational relations; they are apparent in, and underpin, a wide variety of organizational developments: just-in-time, total quality management, culture change programmes.
Understanding these developments requires consideration of the discourse of enterprise of which the culture of the (internal) customer constitutes a key element. Defining internal organizational relations ‘as if’they were customer/supplier relations means replacing bureaucratic regulation and stability with the constant uncertainties of the market, and thus requiring enterprise from employees. This discourse has fundamental implications for management attempts to define working practices and relations and, ultimately, has impact on the conduct and identities of employees.
Understanding these developments is not possible if analysis remains at the level of the organization. It requires that organizational restructurings, and the discourse which supports them, be located within the social and political rationality of enterprise. The certainties of management, the conviction that environmental challenge and competitive threat must be met by the cult[ure] of the customer, are due to managements’largely unquestioned acceptance of the normality and perceived good sense of the discourse of enterprise.
This article addresses the question of whether an increased number of women entering the construction professions is resulting in the build-up of critical mass, with associated changes in the culture of the construction industry, and thus in its organization and conditions of employment. It was found, from recent research, that little such change has occurred so far. Indeed the construction industry seemed to be so self-contained and separate from wider social changes, that it was helpful to visualize it as constituting ‘Planet Construction’ upon which live a series of male-dominated professional tribes, each with its own culture and world view. This article discusses the factors and forces limiting change, and then identifies likely change agents. These comprise top-down agents such as governmental regulatory bodies, and bottom-up agents such as minority groups and community organizations. The most effective bottom-up groups are likely to be those that have a foothold within the professional bodies such as the women-led Equal Opportunities in Construction Taskforce, which has produced and is promoting guidelines for equal opportunities in the industry. But there is still a long way to go before major changes are likely to occur in the employment status, pay and conditions, as women in construction have hardly reached ‘first base’ in terms of being accepted within the industry. This is reflected in high job turnover among women in construction, occupational isolation, and limited promotion prospects, all factors which work against the build-up of critical mass and culture change.
This article considers equal opportunities and diversity management policies in the contemporary British Army for what they indicate, not only about policy frameworks for women's military participation, but also for what they tell us about the construction of ideas about gender and difference within that organization. The article sets out contextual information on women in the British Army and describes the research methodology on which this article is based. It looks at the evolution of equal opportunities policies and the more recent shift towards diversity management policies in the Army, focusing on their contributions towards female equity. The article examines the consequences of the shift towards the management of diversity, noting how embracing the ideas of diversity management is ultimately limited by the Army's construction of female difference. It concludes with a discussion of the issues of female and military specificity in relation to the management of diversity.
This article discusses how women working as civil engineers within the UK construction industry perceive work–life balance and considers strategies they use to achieve this. The findings are presented of a qualitative research project that explored the experiences of women in this role, focusing on the subcultural context of a profession that is dominated by the values of presenteeism and infinite availability. A feminist post-structuralist framework is used to analyse how women negotiate their personal and professional time and the extent to which their other roles as carers and nurturers unsettle male work practices in this highly gendered profession. There are gradually increasing numbers of women in professional construction roles and their success appears to depend on being able to fit in to the dominant masculine culture of long working hours and the male pub gathering. Despite an increased presence, women's minority status in construction continues to challenge their professional identity and this is central to the conflict many face between the dual roles of corporate worker and private non-work person.
This document is also available electronically at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr156.pdf Although the British construction industry is one of the safest in Europe, one third of all work fatalities happen in construction and construction workers are six times more likely to be killed at work than employees in other sectors. A similar situation exists for non-fatal accidents. Although previous research has led to a good understanding of the extent and pattern of accidents in the construction industry, there has been only limited objective analysis of the full range of contributory managerial, site and individual factors. With this background, the study had the following aims: 1. To collect rich, detailed data on the full range of factors involved in a large sample of construction accidents. 2. Using this information, to describe the processes of accident causation, including the contribution of management, project, site and individual factors in construction industry accidents. The research used a combination of focus groups and studies of individual accidents in pursuit of these.
Approximately 37 per cent of architectural students are women and the percentage is increasing. This increase is not reflected in the architectural profession; women represent only 13 per cent of the total and analysis reveals that women are leaving the profession after qualifying. The research reported here was undertaken in 2003 and investigated the reasons why women were leaving. Research methods included the appointment of an expert advisory group, an extensive literature review, a web-based questionnaire aimed at women architects and a series of interviews with women who had left architecture. No single reason emerged from the research to explain why women left but a multiplicity of factors, such as low pay, poor promotion prospects, discriminatory attitudes and sexist behaviour were found to influence departure. The problem has an international dimension as revealed through the web survey and from ongoing academic interest. There are serious implications for the future of the profession if, through its culture and practice, it loses skilled people after they have qualified. Finally a series of key strategic recommendations for the professional bodies as well as practitioners suggest ways of reducing this female brain drain. The aim is to increase diversity in the construction industry and improve the competitive edge of the architectural profession.
Currently, skills shortages are prompting the UK government to introduce initiatives intended to break down notions of stereotyped employment and attract women to non-traditional, male-dominated industries such as construction. Thus, it seems timely to revisit a study of the lived experience of non-traditionally employed women, conducted in Northern Ireland in the mid-1990s. Data from this study are presented here, specifically contextualized within R. M. Kanter's (American Journal of Sociology, 82, 965-90) framework of tokenism. Utilizing this framework, the paper examines the relationship that exists between the sexes (women as 'tokens' and males as 'dominants') in the non-traditional settings examined, indicating that barriers remain that women must surmount for gender equality to be achieved. The paper concludes by briefly examining one initiative working pro-actively to remove these barriers, providing women with greater opportunities to pursue non-traditional careers.
In response to impending skills shortages and changing employment patterns, the UK construction industry recently has made considerable efforts to attract more women to its professions. However, despite their increasing representation, there are indications that women experience difficulties in developing their careers within the industry. This research investigated the careers of men and women working for large construction companies, in order to establish the gender determined influences on women's career progression. A primarily qualitative methodology was employed for the research, in which career profiles were developed through ethnographic interviews with 41 matched pairs of male and female employees. This allowed the gender specific determinants of careers to be established across a range of different organizations, and from informants at different vocational and life-cycle stages. The analysis resulted in the formulation of a set of eight interrelated theoretical models, from which a theory of women's career development was constructed. The theory reflects the belief that the construction workplace is a competitive and conflictual environment, where women are overtly and covertly discriminated against by men, who use structural systems to undermine their participation. The women interviewed were found to have dealt with these barriers in a way which perpetuated existing work cultures. If reflected throughout the industry, this would suggest the existence of a self-fulfilling cycle of women's continued under-achievement. The paper puts forward the radical proposition that women should not be attracted to the industry unless steps are taken to moderate its exclusionary and discriminatory culture.
THE GREAT MORTALITY AMONG CHILDREN of the working class, and especially among those of the factory operatives, is proof enough of the unwholesome conditions under which they pass their first years. These influences are at work, of course, among the children who survive, but not quite so powerfully as upon those who succumb. The result in the most favourable case is a tendency to disease, or some check in development, and consequent less than normal vigour of the constitution. A nine-year-old child of a factory operative that has grown up in want, privation, and changing conditions, in cold and damp, with insufficient clothing and unwholesome dwellings, is far from having the working strength of a child brought up under healthier conditions. At nine years of age it is sent into the mill to work 61/2 hours (formerly 8, earlier still, 12 to 14, even 16 hours) daily, until the thirteenth year; then twelve hours until the eighteenth year. The old enfeebling influences continue, while the work is added to them. . . . but in no case can its [the child’s] presence in the damp, heavy air of the factory, often at once warm and wet, contribute to good health; and, in any case, it is unpardonable to sacrifice to the greed of an unfeeling bourgeoisie the time of children which should be devoted solely to their physical and mental development, and to withdraw them from school and the fresh air in order to wear them out for the benefit of the manufacturers. . . .
Understanding Gender and Organizations Rebuilding Construction: Economic Change and the British Construction Industry Language & Symbolic Power The Field of Cultural Production
- M Alvesson
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Class and gender in the developing consciousness of Appalachian coal miners
- M Yarrow
Yarrow, M. (1992) Class and gender in the developing consciousness of Appalachian coal miners. In Sturdy, A., Knights, D. and Willmott, H. (eds) Skill and Consent: Contemporary Studies in the Labour Process, pp. 108–18.
Undermining Construction. London: Institute of Employment Rights
- M Harvey
Harvey, M. (2001) Undermining Construction. London: Institute of Employment Rights.