Where Are the Women? Gender, Labor, and Discourse in the Noida Export Processing Zone and Delhi

Soni-Sinha, Urvashi

doi:10.1080/13545700600670442

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…She notes the ambiguities and complexities in the definition of skill, how it is related to masculinity and is socially constructed. Soni‐Sinha (, ) explores how men constitute their masculine subjectivities by investing in the discourses around their work as ‘tough’ and ‘skilled’. In our case study, men discursively construct their work identity in opposition to women, using ideas of ‘heavy’ and ‘tough’ to feed into their masculine identities and reinforce gendered work practices.…”

Section: ‘Dirty Work’ Intersectionality Identity and Unionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘Dirty Work?’ Gender, Race and the Union in Industrial Cleaning

Soni-Sinha¹,

Yates²

2013

Gender Work & Organization

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The study uses an eclectic framework and through an intersectional analysis and use of narratives explores the meaning of janitorial work, the gender division of labour (GDL), the unions and organizing for janitors engaged in industrial cleaning for a big cleaning company, Pluto, in Toronto. Pluto was organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 2006. The study is based on the organizing drive for Pluto and uses participant observation and interview methods. Intersectional analysis is useful in understanding the worker's perceptions of the racialized, gendered and classed constitution of cleaning work as 'dirty' and their resistance to these constructs. We explore GDL in industrial cleaning and the construction of women's work as 'light duty' and men's work as 'heavy duty'. We conclude that union membership is important not only for material benefits of the janitors but also for their alternative identity construction. However, there is a persistence of GDL and gender pay equity is not addressed seriously in the organizing drive or upon organizing.

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Section: ‘Dirty Work’ Intersectionality Identity and Unionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two women who crossed the GDL did not find ‘heavy duty’ particularly heavy. A similar conceptualization of men's work as ‘heavy’ and of women's work as ‘light’ has been noted in several other studies (Beechey and Perkins, ; Soni‐Sinha, , ).…”

Section: Gender Division Of Labour and The Unionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Dirty Work?’ Gender, Race and the Union in Industrial Cleaning

Soni-Sinha¹,

Yates²

2013

Gender Work & Organization

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“…2. I analyse in depth the role of language, discourse and subjectivity in the gendering process in NEPZ and Delhi in the paper Soni-Sinha (2006). 3.…”

Section: N O T E Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of the `field': multiple standpoints, narrative and shifting positionality in multisited research

Soni-Sinha

2008

Qualitative Research

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The article contributes to the epistemological debates in feminism through the analysis of multisited research on jewellery production in India. The multisited research focuses on different localities -Noida Export Processing Zone (NEPZ), Delhi and villages of Medinipur having direct and indirect links to the global market. It analyses how the multiple sites structured by gender, class and age hierarchies reveal the multiple and fluid standpoints of different actors. The multiple standpoints of different actors feed into discursive practices of a complete exclusion of women from the production process of handmade jewellery in NEPZ, their marginal presence in Delhi, and their invisibility despite preponderance in the villages of Medinipur. These narratives constitute the subjectivity of men as 'breadwinners' and of women as 'housewives'. However, some women contest the discourses around marginalization of their work and present points of break in the configuration of power, questioning their subject position as 'housewives'. Weaving these complex webs of narratives, I am reflexive of my multiple positionality as Indian, non-Bengali, elite, woman and the fluidity of my position as an insider/outsider in the 'field'.

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“…Masculine identity is socially constructed through paid work, which is embedded in an occupation and often within an organization (Cheng, 1996: xiv). Soni-Sinha (2006 explores how men constitute their masculine subjectivities by investing in the discourses around their work as 'tough' and 'skilled'. Collinson (2003: 529) argues 'that the growing interest in selves and subjects within the workplace has not always fully appreciated the analytical importance of insecurity for understanding the subjective power relations, practices and survival strategies of organization'.…”

Section: Subjectivity Identity Unions and Precarious Employmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intersectionality, subjectivity, collectivity and the union: a study of the ‘locked-out’ hotel workers in Toronto

Soni-Sinha

2012

Organization

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The study uses narrative analysis to understand the workers discursive constructions of their classed, gendered and racialized subjective identities and their investments into the collectivity of the union in the context of the lock-out. It goes beyond the Marxian analysis and uses poststructural feminist analysis to understand how the intersectional subjective identities are constituted and their interrelationship to the investments in and constitution of collectivities in the context of industrial action. The study is based on participant observation and interviews of hotel workers in the food and beverage section of a hotel in Toronto, who were locked-out in 2007, and of other workers on the picket line supporting the locked-out workers. These workers are members of UNITE HERE-Local 75 (Now HERE-Local 75), who had been in the process of renewal of their contracts at the time. I would argue that the intersectional subjectivities of the hotel workers and their investments in the collectivity of the union are fluid and relate to their pursuit of material and/or symbolic security through search for an identity as a unionized, active worker or an identity which is secure irrespective of the union.

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Where Are the Women? Gender, Labor, and Discourse in the Noida Export Processing Zone and Delhi

Cited by 7 publications

References 16 publications

‘Dirty Work?’ Gender, Race and the Union in Industrial Cleaning

‘Dirty Work?’ Gender, Race and the Union in Industrial Cleaning

Dynamics of the `field': multiple standpoints, narrative and shifting positionality in multisited research

Intersectionality, subjectivity, collectivity and the union: a study of the ‘locked-out’ hotel workers in Toronto

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