9th Biennial International Interdisciplinary conference, 29th June-1st July, 2016
Keele University, UK
GWO2016 Call for Abstracts
Class based experiences of work
Stream Convenors:
Caroline Essers, Radboud University, NETHERLANDS
Huriye Aygören, Jönköping University, SWEDEN
Maria Villares, University of Birmingham, ENGLAND
Maja Cederberg, Oxford Brookes University, ENGLAND
Sally Jones, University of Leeds ENGLAND
Sara Nadin, University of Liverpool, ENGLAND
Robert Smith, University of the West of Scotland- SCOTLAND
The aim of this stream is to place class at the centre of our understandings of gender and work. This follows an increasing awareness that inequalities related to class have been overlooked in the study of work, whilst other forms of social division such as gender and ethnicity have gained much more attention in recent decades (Anthias, 2001). Contemporary studies of workplace inequalities have effectively used the perspectives of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1996) and positionality (Anthias, 2008, 2013) to unpack the complex and multifaceted nature of disadvantage. However, whilst class is often acknowledged as one intersecting force, there are actually few examples that empirically and theoretically focus on class alongside gender. Partially due to reductionist approaches to measuring class, classed and gendered experiences of work still remain under-theorised and empirically limited. Gender, Work and Organization has published a number of papers in which class has been a key focus in regards to different realms of work and employment, such as organisation studies (Holvino, 2010; James, 2010), entrepreneurship (Knight, 2014), class-based masculinities and femininities (Lupton, 2006; Lewis, 2012; Ricket and Roman, 2013), and mobilities (Berry and Bell, 2012). Our stream builds upon these contributions to consolidate academic dialogue about the neglect of class, encouraging theoretical and theoretically informed empirical submissions, which take class, alongside gender and other axes of disadvantage, as their focus. Adopting Ackers definition of class, "enduring and systematic differences in access to and control over resources for provisioning and survival" (Ackers 2006:444), the aim of this stream is to understand the intersection of gender and class with other markers of difference in the realm of work. Such differences are sustained and reproduced through the structuring of power relations within the world of work, reflected in organisational hierarchies, which are themselves a manifestation of the patriarchal values of society. Such hierarchical relationships naturalise economic inequality as well as other advantages associated with the patriarchal blueprint of the public realm of work, running the risk of essentialising and depoliticising difference. For example, whilst professional women have benefitted from increased career opportunities and there are positive signs of women now having a greater presence in more 'powerful' roles, both within large organisations and as entrepreneurial business leaders, far less attention has been paid to women at the bottom of the hierarchies, including those in menial jobs and 'entrepreneurs' whose activity is heavily constrained due to limited access to resources.
Within organisations, ways of organising and managing people (e.g. HRM; recruitment; pay/reward) reinforce and naturalise inequalities, invariably favouring white middle-class men and, to a lesser extent, white middle-class women. Similarly, within the rhetoric of entrepreneurship, the heroic male is valorised, and whilst female entrepreneurs are increasingly present, it is largely as the middle-class 'super-woman', which is emerging as the ideal. If class is mentioned in relation to entrepreneurship, it is commonly in the form of individualistic 'rags to riches' stories and as a distancing from working class roots. For employees and entrepreneurs alike, the assumption is of a level playing field where all can be successful with hard work, irrespective of their initial class location. A damaging corollary of this is that those who do not succeed `have only themselves to blame' thus shifting the focus from structural inequalities (Ahl, 2006). Much research has been done to unpack the inequalities faced by women, revealing the ways in which men are advantaged over women in the workplace (e.g. work schedules incompatible with elder and child care). In this stream, we focus attention on the role of class to reveal how gendered and sexualised assumptions shape the class situations of men and women in different ways (Acker 2006:444), and how different class processes impact on gender structures, roles and identities.
Holvino (2010) argues for the need for more intersectional analyses although her focus is on the simultaneity of race, class and gender. Suggesting that 'white women are privileged too', she contends that only certain women have benefitted from the 'freedom' to pursue professional work opportunities – middle-class white women – at the expense of working-class black women, who find themselves concentrated in low paid menial jobs (cleaning / childcare). Whilst this body of work places emphasis on the salient categories of gender and race, the experiences of white working-class women and men have been overlooked. Extending Holvino's sentiment, 'some white women and men are more privileged than other white women and men'. In overlooking class-based (dis)advantages we fail to illuminate how these factors impact upon the femininities and masculinities played out by all women and men, including those who are middle class. More research is needed to illuminate how both women and men deal with this positioning, especially amongst working-class men where `appropriately' masculine roles / jobs are in limited supply. A class focus thus furthers the disruption of essentialised cultural and gendered work experiences for both men and women of all ethnicities.
We welcome submissions including but not limited to:
- Conceptualising and theorising gendered experiences of class. How has a feminist perspective of work understood class?; how class and gender are reconfigured within the ideology of neo-liberalism; historical accounts of the shift from society to individual; intersectionality and positionality in class analysis; how labour market regulations and policies (such as welfare reforms) are gendered and classed;
- Legitimation of class-based authority. How do different institutions (the media, political rhetoric, management, work-based human resources management, entrepreneurship education, etc.) legitimise class-based authority? How class-based masculinities and femininities are constructed in and by the workplace; how the ideal (fe)male worker / business owner / entrepreneur is presented and reproduced; processes of stigmatisation of the working class within experiences of (non) work and employment; the role of class and gender ideologies in occupational strategies; the symbolic dimensions of class affiliation in organisations, entrepreneurship and self-employment.
- Theoretically informed empirical papers where class and gender is a central focus with other axes of differentiation. Papers that explore how these intersect to produce different forms of marginalisation or that explain different hierarchies of inequality are encouraged, centred on how class impacts upon the gendered positioning of men and women at work; gendered practices and strategies of those in precarious employment; how femininities and masculinities are enacted, contested and/or reproduced in work and employment; how traditional/new forms of work and employment disrupt or reinforce gender ideologies; how class is enacted/produced through the lenses of different ethnic backgrounds and gender; papers looking at the impact of class and gender on masculinities are also encouraged.
- Mobilities and classed experiences of work. The divergent meanings of class in cross-national studies; gendered and classed experiences of work for migrants and ethnic minorities; how processes of upwards/downwards social mobility impact on gender ideologies; the impact of de-skilling processes among migrants in their class (re)positioning in the countries of destination; etc.
- Methodological issues. Methodological challenges of researching multiple axes of inequality; researcher reflexivity & how academics (re)produce knowledge from particular class positions; exploring methods in class research; breaking Western dominant ontologies we encourage contributions from the Global South, or North-South comparisons on the study of class, gender and work.
Abstracts of approximately 500 words (ONE page, Word document NOT PDF, single spaced, excluding references, no header, footers or track changes) are invited by 1st November 2015 with decisions on acceptance to be made by stream leaders within one month. All abstracts will be peer reviewed. New and young scholars with 'work in progress' papers are welcomed. Papers can be theoretical or theoretically informed empirical work. In the case of co-authored papers, ONE person should be identified as the corresponding author. Due to restrictions of space on the conference schedule, multiple submissions by the same author will not be timetabled. Abstracts should be emailed to: s.jones@leeds.ac.uk Abstracts should include FULL contact details, including your name, department, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address. State the title of the stream to which you are submitting your abstract. *Note that no funding, fee waiver, travel or other bursaries are offered for attendance at GWO2016*.
References
Acker, J. (2006). Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class and Race in Organisations; Gender and Society; Vol 20 (4); 441-464.
Anthias F (2001) The Concept of Social Division and Theorising Social Stratification: Looking at Ethnicity and Class. Sociology, 35(4), 835-854.
Anthias F (2008) Thinking through the lens of translocational positionality: an intersectionality frame for understanding identity and belonging. Translocations: Migration and Social Change,
Anthias F (2013) Hierarchies of social location, class and intersectionality: Towards a translocational frame. International Sociology, 28(1), 121-138.
Holvino, E. (2010). Intersections: The simultaneity of Race, Gender and Class in Organisation Studies. Gender, Work and Organization; On line publication; DOI 10.1111/11468-0432.2008.00400.x
Rickett, B. and Roman, A. (2013), 'Heroes and Matriarchs': Working-Class Femininities, Violence and Door Supervision Work. Gender, Work & Organization, 20: 664–677. doi: 10.1111/gwao.12002
Hughes, C. (2004), Class and Other Identifications in Managerial Careers: The Case of the Lemon Dress. Gender, Work & Organization, 11: 526–543. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2004.00246.x
Berry, D. P. and Bell, M. P. (2012), 'Expatriates': Gender, Race and Class Distinctions in International Management. Gender, Work & Organization, 19: 10–28. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2011.00577.x
Lewis, L. (2012), 'It's People's Whole Lives': Gender, Class and the Emotion Work of User Involvement in Mental Health Services. Gender, Work & Organization, 19: 276–305. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2009.00504.x
Knight, M. (2014), Race-ing, Classing and Gendering Racialized Women's Participation in Entrepreneurship. Gender, Work & Organization. doi: 10.1111/gwao.12060
Lupton, B. (2006), Explaining Men's Entry into Female-Concentrated Occupations: Issues of Masculinity and Social Class. Gender, Work & Organization, 13: 103–128. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2006.00299.x
James, L. (2008), United by Gender or Divided by Class? Women's Work Orientations and Labour Market Behaviour. Gender, Work& Organization, 15: 394–412. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00367.x