The Feminization of Body Work

This article explores the relationship between ‘body work’ and gender, asking why paid work involving the physical touch and manipulation of others' bodies is largely performed by women. It argues that the feminization of body work is not simply explicable as ‘nurturance’, nor as the continuati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGender, work, and organization Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 42 - 62
Main Authors Cohen, Rachel Lara, Wolkowitz, Carol
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2018
Subjects
body work
care
Cultural values
Data
Division of labor
Females
Feminization
Gender
gender segregation
hairdressing
Housework
Human body
Labor process
Manipulation
materiality
Meaning
Nurturance
Printing industry
touch
Women
Work
Work organization
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Summary:This article explores the relationship between ‘body work’ and gender, asking why paid work involving the physical touch and manipulation of others' bodies is largely performed by women. It argues that the feminization of body work is not simply explicable as ‘nurturance’, nor as the continuation of a pre‐existing domestic division of labour. Rather, feminization resolves dilemmas that arise when intimate touch is refigured as paid labour. These ‘body work dilemmas’ are rooted in the material nature of body work. They are both cultural (related to the meaning of inter‐corporeality) and organizational (related to the spatial, temporal and labour process constraints of work on bodies). Two sectors are explored as exemplars: hairdressing and care work. Synthesizing UK quantitative data and existing research, the article traces similarities and differences in the composition of these sectors and in how gender both responds to and re‐entrenches the cultural and organizational body work dilemmas identified.
ISSN:0968-6673
1468-0432
DOI:10.1111/gwao.12186