Emotional politics in cleaning work: The case of Israel

Abstract

Emotional politics instil insecurity and doubt in working-class individuals. Researchers examining social degradation through (bad) employment or other stigma have demonstrated the exclusionary impact of this process. Some suggest that individuals respond to such emotional politics and other types of exclusion by identity-management strategies aiming at a sense of worth, whereas others have found self-isolation to dominate. Here we analyse the emotional politics emerging from women's responses to exclusion in the socially degraded field of cleaning in three ethno-national contexts in Israel. The sample was composed of Mizrahi women in the southern periphery, immigrants from the Former Soviet Union and Israeli-Palestinian women from Arab settlements in the north. By analysing cleaning employees' talk, we characterize these women's struggle to derive a sense of worth from their breadwinning experience within a specific ethno-national context in terms of family, community and workplace. We discuss the similarities and differences among these three groups with regard to the relative weight of each of these circles for negotiation of belonging and inclusion.

“I Earn, Therefore I Exist”: Impoverished Bedouin Mothers Who Become Entrepreneurs

“…Their education and socialization prevents them from developing ambitions and vision. They are trained to be at home, to live in it and its immediate surroundings (Abu-Rabia-Queder and Weiner-Levy 2010; Benjamin et al 2010), in a kind of gender contract that preserves the stability of the family (Sa'ar 2010).…”

The Impact of Social Class in the Hiring Process

“…Researchers have explored the impact of social class on a variety of topics such as work attitudes and interactions (e.g., Benjamin, Bernstein, & Motzafi-Haller, 2011;Gray & KishGephart, 2013;Judge & Hurst, 2007), careers and career mobility (e.g., Audretsch et al, 2013;McLeod, O'Donohoe, & Townley, 2009;Snipp, 1985), work life balance (e.g., Lautsch & Scully, 2007), job performance (e.g., Johnson, Messe, & Crano, 1984), and perceptions of risk (e.g., Cooper, 2008). This research often found distinctions between individuals of varying social class.…”

“…Cross-class interactions, which are described as interactions between individuals of differing social class (Ridgeway & Fiske, 2012), have been found to be frustrating (Benjamin et al, 2011;Gray & Kish-Gephart, 2013) as these interactions frequently highlight a lack of shared experiences.…”

Disability and dirty workers: stories of physical, social and moral taint

“…Studies have investigated dirty workers' responses to the shame and humiliation that doing their dirty work might bring (for example , Holmqvist 2009;Benjamin, Bernstein, and Motzafi-Haller 2010). Workers cleaning public lavatories in Israel were found to have varying ethnic, historical and social experiences that negatively impacted their experiences of family, community and work (Benjamin, Bernstein, and Motzafi-Haller 2010).…”

“…Workers cleaning public lavatories in Israel were found to have varying ethnic, historical and social experiences that negatively impacted their experiences of family, community and work (Benjamin, Bernstein, and Motzafi-Haller 2010). Swedish workers found themselves being 'made' into disabled workers (regardless of disability or impairment) due to their work being considered 'suitable' for disabled people, yet too undignified, disgusting, dirty or unpleasant for able-bodied workers (Holmqvist 2009, 875-877).…”