The right tools for the job: Constructing gender meanings and identities in the male-dominated building trades
基于对建筑行业女性的深度访谈，研究她们如何在男性主导的工作环境中，通过灵活展现性别身份来应对双重束缚，既符合女性气质又满足工作要求，并揭示这种策略如何可能带来性别规范的抵抗与改变。
For women in male-dominated occupations, the gender beliefs and expectations of men co-workers create dilemmas for constructing and managing an occupational identity. Women often find themselves in a double bind where they are held accountable to contradictory expectations for a feminine presentation of self and a masculine performance of work. While previous research demonstrates the strength of gender double binds in constraining women’s actions and reproducing the dominant gender system, I argue that these conditions also create possibilities for resistance and change. Based on data from in-depth interviews with women who work in the building trades, this study examines the relationship between structural constraints and women’s agency in their response to normative constructions of gender. Rather than being forced into choosing between a stereotypically ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ role, tradeswomen manipulate gender rules by engaging in reflexive gender displays that emphasize the most advantageous identity for each situation.