‘Heroes and Matriarchs’: Working‐Class Femininities, Violence and Door Supervision Work

Abstract

Door supervision work is traditionally seen as a working‐class, male‐dominated trade. In addition, it is deemed to be one that is physically risky, where violence is seen as a ‘tool of the trade’ and where ‘bodily capital’ and ‘fighting ability’ are paramount to the competent performance of the job. This paper is a timely analysis on the manner in which the increasing numbers of women who work in door supervision negotiate their occupational identity and construct their work practices. The analysis focused on the way in which discursive constructions of both violence and workplace identities are variably taken up, reworked and resisted through the intersection of gender and class. This resulted in the identification of two main discourses; ‘playing the hero’ and the ‘hard matriarch’. These findings allow us to theorize that multiple, gendered and classed occupational identities exist beyond normative expectations and can be seen to be both emancipatory for working women, while simultaneously bolstering exploitation, workplace harassment and violent practices.

Feminist Relational Discourse Analysis: putting the personal in the political in feminist research

“…To this end, our aims were to understand how police officers negotiated gendered organisational discourses, and to better understand the functions of these discourses for identity. We were also acutely aware from previous accounts of gendered labour that this is often conflicted, difficult, and heavily embodied (Monaghan, 2002;Rickett & Roman, 2013). Thus, we wanted to explore organizational discourses with policewomen with a view to developing a more explicit understanding of the personal functions and implications of these discourses.…”

Doing Gender, Paying Low: Gender, Class and Work–Life Balance in Aged Care

“…As stated earlier, we use professional status, wages and work conditions, and educational attainment as indicators of class (Acker, ; Holvino, ; Hughes, ; Piasna et al , ; Rickett and Roman, ; Weigt and Solomon, ; West and Fenstermaker, ). Access to resources and opportunities at both a macrolevel and an organizational level is one way in which class is enacted in organizations (Acker, ).…”

“…West and Fenstermaker () discuss working or lower class in terms of low wages, often long hours, and poor working conditions — identifiers of ‘one's position within the system of distribution that differentially structures our access to resources’ (p. 28). Working class is associated with ‘blue‐collar’ work, manual labour and ‘unskilled’ workers, compared to the middle class in white‐collar work and professions who would usually hold higher education qualifications (Holvino, ; Rickett and Roman, ; Weigt and Solomon, ). Indeed, educational achievement is often used as an indicator of class status (Acker, ; Piasna et al , ).…”

The Palgrave Handbook of the Psychology of Sexuality and Gender

“…For example, in Rickett and Roman's (2013) work on female door supervisors, the authors identify a discourse of 'playing the hero'. This discourse illuminates and troubles notions of heterosexuality.…”