Exploiting women’s aesthetic labour to fly high in the Chinese airline Industry

Abstract

Purpose Drawing upon the existing theoretical and empirical sourced knowledge of aesthetic labour and gender, this paper aims to explore the exploitation of women’s aesthetic labour in the Chinese airline industry and the underlying causes from a contextual point of view. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study has emerged from a broader research project which aimed to explore women’s experiences of work-family conflict and their career aspirations in the Chinese airline industry in which aesthetic labour was prevalent as a significant issue during semi-structured interviews with female employees and HR/line management. Thus, the study draws upon interview data focusing on recruitment and selection of flight attendants in three Chinese airlines. This is complemented by secondary sources of data from Chinese television programmes and job advertisements. Findings This study reveals that aesthetics is both gendered and context-bound. It exposes that aesthetic labour in Chinese airlines is demanded from women but not men. It highlights that gendered aesthetic labour is continuously shaped by four influential contextual issues – legislation, labour market practices, national culture and airline management practices. Originality/value By uncovering the dynamic interconnectedness of gender and aesthetics and illustrating the exploitation of women’s aesthetic labour for commercial gains in Chinese airlines, this paper contributes to the understanding of the gendered aesthetics in the airline industry. It also offers new insights into the theory of aesthetic labour by locating it in a context that differs significantly from other socio-cultural contexts.

Women's self‐presentation and the transition from classroom to workplace

“…This existing work has focused on how embodied identities and appearance come to change once women are within an occupation or organization; that is, once they become socialized according to a given habitus (Adamson & Salmenniemi, ; Anderson et al, ; Elias et al, ; Entwistle, ; Haynes, ; Mears, ; Ren, ). By focusing on women's transition from outside of a professional environment into one, this article has demonstrated the impact of understandings of bodily/aesthetic capital of a given context on those outside of it, trying to get in, expanding the use of this concept.…”

“…Bourdieu's theories of capital and habitus and their further expansion to bodily/aesthetic capital enable an understanding of the embodied impact of different contexts on women's self-presentation and how and why change comes to occur (Anderson et al, 2010;Bourdieu, 1984Bourdieu, [2010Bourdieu, ], 1986Elias et al, 2017;Haynes, 2012). The development of the term aesthetic labour gave name to the unpaid work employees undertake to meet organizational appearance requirements, requirements that often reflect broader social inequalities (inequality regimes) (Acker, 2006(Acker, , 2012Donaghue, 2017;Ren, 2017).…”

“…Bodily or aesthetic capital has been identified to enable the acquisition of career progression and further capital within numerous professions and workplaces including: air stewards, freelance workers, academia, service workers, law firms, banking and creative industries (Adamson & Salmenniemi, ; Anderson et al, ; Brown, ; Elias et al, ; Entwistle, ; Haynes, ; Mears, ; Ren, ). The definition of what a profession is is somewhat contested (Muzio & Tomlinson, ) but predominantly (particularly within a British context) it is used to refer to established occupations (usually holding high cultural status) that are seen as knowledge gatekeepers, requiring a specific qualification and which, through institutionalization, are able to regulate themselves and their field of practice (Adams, ; Larson, ; Muzio, Ackroyd, & Chanlat, ; Muzio & Kirkpatrick, ; Muzio & Tomlinson, ).…”

Gendering expert work and ideal candidacy in Finnish and Estonian job advertisements

“…The research into management and the sociology of work has shown how recruitment, particularly of young men and women is not based on learned skills and acquired qualifications alone but increasingly on gendered appearances and the "suitability" of a person and often weighted with idealized gender-related aspects (Bradley, 2016;Simpson, 2014;Wolkowitz, 2006;Hochschild, 1983). This is audible in employees' narratives describing the need for branding (Vallas and Cummins, 2015) and aestheticizing the job and the work (Ren, 2017;Witz et al, 2003;Warhurst and Nickson, 2007). Several researchers suggest that the current discourse on personal branding and the gendering of work are indeed truly pervasive among jobseekers for all expert jobs (Vallas and Cummins, 2015;Ren, 2017).…”

“…This is audible in employees' narratives describing the need for branding (Vallas and Cummins, 2015) and aestheticizing the job and the work (Ren, 2017;Witz et al, 2003;Warhurst and Nickson, 2007). Several researchers suggest that the current discourse on personal branding and the gendering of work are indeed truly pervasive among jobseekers for all expert jobs (Vallas and Cummins, 2015;Ren, 2017). The evidence also suggests an interesting shift in the definitions of gendered work and the demands that recruited experts face (Vallas and Cummins, 2015).…”