Gendered Relations in the Mines and the Division of Labour Underground

Abstract

This article focuses on how men\u27s sexualization of work relations and the workplace contributes to job-level gender segregation among coal miners. The findings suggest that sexualization represents men\u27s power to stigmatize women in order to sustain stereotypes about them as inferior workers. In particular, supervisors use stereotypes to justify women\u27s assignments to jobs in support of and in service to men. Once in these jobs, men\u27s positive evaluations of women workers become contingent upon their fulfillment of men \u27s gendered expectations. These processes foster the gender typing of jobs and lead to the gendered division of labor underground