Managing Identity Using Emotional Labor in Sex-Typed Public Service Occupations

Abstract

As articulated by Dr Barbara J. Love (2013/2000), an important dimension of developing a liberatory consciousness is the transcendence of one's own socialization in order to live with intentionality and purpose. Socialization is at the heart of sex-typed occupations: professional norms shape behavior such that “women's jobs” and “men's jobs” are produced and reproduced. We gather data from public servants in occupations with strong gender norms and find that where sex-typed occupations exist, some out-group members engage in emotional labor to fit in. Specifically, women in men's jobs engage in emotional labor, but men in women's jobs do not. This may be because the context is highly masculinized, and women in nontraditional occupations are failing to conform to heteronormative standards. Men in female-dominated positions are not similarly stigmatized because professional norms undervalue women's work but not men’s. Future research might capture the emotional labor involved in transcending one's professional socialization.