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Volunteering masculinities in search and rescue work: Is there “a place for girls on the team”?

Weller, Sarah Louise; Clarke, Caroline A.; Brown, Andrew D

Volunteering masculinities in search and rescue work: Is there “a place for girls on the team”? Thumbnail


Authors

Caroline A. Clarke

Andrew D Brown



Abstract

This article explores performative enactments of gender at work in a UK-based Search and Rescue voluntary organization, QuakeRescue. Based on ethnographic research, we analyze how gender is performatively constituted in this male-dominated setting, focusing in particular on how hegemonic masculinity is enacted through bodies, physicality, and technical competence. Our findings show how performative acts, predicated on essentialist understandings of superior masculine bodies, constructed femininity as limited, deficient, and Other, legitimizing the assigning of mundane, routine tasks to women volunteers. By endorsing women's presence, albeit as low-status team members, there was sufficient recognition to ensure that sedimented practices of “doing gender” at QuakeRescue remained largely unquestioned. We conclude that hegemonic masculinity predicated on bodily practices in male-dominated workspaces is oppressive in its effects, and until this is recognized and acknowledged, transformative potential is limited.

Citation

Weller, S. L., Clarke, C. A., & Brown, A. D. (2021). Volunteering masculinities in search and rescue work: Is there “a place for girls on the team”?. Gender, Work and Organization, 28(2), 558-574. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12592

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 6, 2020
Online Publication Date Dec 8, 2020
Publication Date Mar 6, 2021
Deposit Date Jun 7, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Gender, Work and Organization
Print ISSN 0968-6673
Electronic ISSN 1468-0432
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 28
Issue 2
Pages 558-574
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12592
Keywords bodies, ethnography, masculinities, performativity, volunteering
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7440276
Additional Information Received: 2019-10-14; Accepted: 2020-11-06; Published: 2021-03-06

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