Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Work, Employment & Society
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Watts, J. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Porn, pride and pessimism: experiences of women working in professional construction roles

Jacqueline H. Watts

The Open University, J.H.Watts{at}open.ac.uk

This qualitative study contributes to knowledge about the strategies women use to establish their presence in professional roles in the highly gendered construction sector.The article focuses on construction site culture that is hierarchical and 'laddish' with sexual harassment an entrenched feature of life on site.Women find this threatening but are unable to challenge it, because being part of the 'building team' requires their silence. These negative experiences contrast with the pride expressed in their socially useful work bringing both aesthetic and technical satisfaction. Modernization of the industry that one participant framed as 'dragging it out of the dark ages' was seen as a priority.The two most pressing issues are the long-hours culture and the conflict-ridden nature of the sector. A feminist interpretive lens is used to draw out the continuing problems women face in the industry and concludes that the prospects for change to cultural practices remain bleak.

Key Words: construction • feminist • professional occupations • sexual harassment • women

Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 21, No. 2, 299-316 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0950017007076641
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Work Employment SocietyHome page
A. Liversage
Vital conjunctures, shifting horizons: high-skilled female immigrants looking for work
Work Employment Society, March 1, 2009; 23(1): 120 - 141.
[Abstract] [PDF]