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‘Don’t Use “the Weak Word†’: Women Brewers, Identities and Gendered Territories of Embodied Work

Author

Listed:
  • Agnieszka Rydzik

    (University of Lincoln, UK)

  • Victoria Ellis-Vowles

    (University of Lincoln, UK)

Abstract

Focusing on an unresearched group of women brewers, and drawing conceptually on embodiment and identity work, this article explores worker corporealities within the gendered landscape of microbreweries and deepens understanding of the body/work/gender nexus in the context of brewer’s work. In doing so, it challenges the marginalisation of female worker bodies in scholarly work on male-dominated occupations. Drawing on interview and observation data collected in the UK in 2015, verbal narratives of women brewers’ experiences of their working lives are utilised to provide insights into how their gendered bodily practices constitute resources for constructing a distinctive ‘brewster’ identity. Women brewers engage in identity work, on both individual and collective levels, through the material and symbolic framing of their embodied and gendered working selves; navigating their physical working environments; downplaying gender to emphasise physical competence; and foregrounding gender in relation to non-physical aspects to accentuate difference and collective contribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Agnieszka Rydzik & Victoria Ellis-Vowles, 2019. "‘Don’t Use “the Weak Word†’: Women Brewers, Identities and Gendered Territories of Embodied Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(3), pages 483-499, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:33:y:2019:i:3:p:483-499
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017018789553
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rachel Lara Cohen & Carol Wolkowitz, 2018. "The Feminization of Body Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 42-62, January.
    2. Nanna Mik†Meyer & Anne Roelsgaard Obling & Carol Wolkowitz, 2018. "Bodies and Intimate Relations in Organizations and Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 1-8, January.
    3. Mats Alvesson & Hugh Willmott, 2002. "Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 619-644, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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