Gender and the economy

Consequences of unemployment on one’s identity as a man

“in particular, for men, the loss of a goof factory job often means facing not only the prospect of socioeconomic downward mobility but also an explicit or implicit rethinking of one’s identity as a man and one’s role as a father and husband”

Downsizing masculinity: Gender, family and fatherhood in post-industrial America READING POINTS

• Breadwinning and what it means to be a man

• maytag workers lose their jobs and rethink their identities

• “culture of the mind” in going back to school → many relied on physical labour not mental smarts, so this is daunting

Downsizing masculinity: TAKE HOME POINTS

• the stereotype (construction) of male breadwinning is in tension with/losing ground to the new type of business masculinity or transnational business masculinity of the post-industrial/deindustrialized work world that is characterized by “increasing egocentrism, very conditional loyalties, and a declining sense of responsibility to other”

• while the idea of “male breadwinning”/the stereotype of “male breadwinner” is pervasive and powerful, their research suggests it too is subject to change and renegotiation by individuals, as highlighted by the maytag workers responses to job loss.

T/F?: Economy and ideas of gender are not linked

False