Ruth Simpson teaches in the Brunel University of London about management and gender in organization. Her research interests are men working in feminine jobs and « dirty » work.
The question of atypical career regarding to gender is important in human resources to support these employees :
- To succeed integration after their recruitment,
- To help them when they suffering of their special status,
- To inform them, in skills assessment, of difficulties of atypical ways.
The author points that there is few researches concerning men in ‘feminine’ work comparing to the reverse. First researches in the domain are colored by the monolithic partriarchy model which place masculinity as the normative standard case. After, the dominant male model is disputed and three approaches to understand masculinity were developed. First approach is called « psychoanalytical approach » : it is based on psychic investments and repudiation of the feminine. Second approach is « social relations » perspective which consider masculinity as a configuration of a social practise. Third approach (taken in the present study) is « post-structuralistic » perspective which study the dynamic of masculinity : « how it is constructed and reconstructed, how it is experienced at a subjective level and how multiple masculinities exist in relation to the dominant form ».
To explore how it goes for men in a feminine work, Simpson interviewed 40 english men in 4 distinct professions : primary school teaching, flight attendance, librarians and nursing.
Simpson distingued three profiles of career based on the Williams and Villemez’s typology (1993, cited by Simpson, 2004) :
- ‘Seekers’ who actively search to exerce the chosen profession,
- ‘Finders’ who arrived accidentally in the profession,
- ‘Settlers’ who tested masculine professions without satisfaction.
Some phenomena are observed like the career effect : men ascend hierarchy more quickly, benefit more rewards and mercy, their expertise are often overestimated and they experience also a « comfort zone effect » (feeling relaxed to working with women and no isolation noted). The constraint of assuming stereotype characteristics of men are associated to the ‘assumed authority effect’ which drives men to performance.
Despite these advantages, the authority effect can be felt as a pressure because not all men want to increase in hierarchy and assuming this special role. Men experience also a conflict between their masculinity image and adopting a feminine approach valued in the job. This conflict is associated to an anxiety concerning the prejudice of being homosexual or to have a sexual perversion, especially for primary teachers. It conducts them to reconstruct their job and to engage in compensatory gendered practises to restore a dominating position. They « relabel » the job in technical skills and « re-cast » it with accentuating appropriate male qualities. Third strategy is to take their distances to the female image with specialization for example.
But, contrary to women in men environments, men are not marginalized in female environments and are not sanctionned if they don’t conform to stereotypes. Studies show that it is more easier, for a woman, to access to male work than the reverse but women have a lot of difficulties when exercising : hostile envrionments, sexual harassment, performance pressure because of high visibility and ‘role trap’ concerning their gender. This confirms that the problems are different between a woman integrated into a men’s team and a man integrated into a women’s team.
The purpose of the study is achieved because the author has distingued a typology and some special phenomena associated to the fact of being a man in a feminine work. However, we can doubt of the link made between the ‘authority effect’ and assuming stereotypes of male gender, particularly as a ‘role trap’. Further researchs must verifiy it.
The post-structuralist approach considers that differences are socially elaborated and can change over time, but we can also promote some of the fixed differences between men and women and think that there is something biological about them.
Because of using interviews, we can point a potential confirmation bias (participants responses may have been guided). We also know that the analysis of the interview is influenced by the researcher’s subjectivity.
But, as mentioned in introduction, this article is a good contribution for human resources when this questioning around gender is a must for the company evolution.
Words I have learned / Keywords : monolithic partiarchy model (modèle de patriarchie monolithique) ; post-structuralistic approach (approche post-structuraliste) ; flight attendance (présence en vol) ; nursing (soins infirmiers) ; career effect (effet de carrière)
Bibliography : Simpson, R. (2004). Masculinity at work: The experiences of men in female dominated occupations. Work, employment and society, 18(2), 349-368.