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Femininity at Work - Gender, Labour, and Changing Relations of Power in a Swedish Hospital

Selberg, Rebecca LU (2012)
Abstract
Gender scholarship has identified how paid care work reproduces male dominance and reinforces women's subordination, but also how labour and workplaces provide a critical space for women through the development of new forms of identity and struggle. In this ethnographic study of Swedish nurses' work, the concept of normative femininity is used in order to explore gender, labour, and changing relations of power in the context of the neoliberal transformation of the Swedish welfare state.



The study shows how nursing has undergone dramatic changes in terms of work intensification and new forms of subordination and class boundaries. At the same time, the nursing profession has embraced nurses' new role as adjunct managers... (More)
Gender scholarship has identified how paid care work reproduces male dominance and reinforces women's subordination, but also how labour and workplaces provide a critical space for women through the development of new forms of identity and struggle. In this ethnographic study of Swedish nurses' work, the concept of normative femininity is used in order to explore gender, labour, and changing relations of power in the context of the neoliberal transformation of the Swedish welfare state.



The study shows how nursing has undergone dramatic changes in terms of work intensification and new forms of subordination and class boundaries. At the same time, the nursing profession has embraced nurses' new role as adjunct managers in running clinics and taking on new responsibilities offered by New Public Management.



Gendered subjectivities are at the level of the work place produced and reproduced through notions of femininities that shape and are shaped by the labour process. The study is located within the emerging field of ethnographies of neoliberalism and offers an empirical analysis of change and continuity in the relationship between femininity and care work among nurses employed in a Swedish hospital. (Less)
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author
supervisor
opponent
  • Hearn, Jeffrey, Linköping University
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Care work, Gender, Femininity, Nursing, Nurses, Labour process, Ethnography, Neoliberalism
pages
362 pages
publisher
Arkiv
defense location
Linnaeus University
defense date
2012-12-20 13:15:00
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
c395b9bc-3124-4d30-9f09-3344a4d9508b (old id 4001934)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:26:14
date last changed
2020-03-19 10:31:54
@phdthesis{c395b9bc-3124-4d30-9f09-3344a4d9508b,
  abstract     = {{Gender scholarship has identified how paid care work reproduces male dominance and reinforces women's subordination, but also how labour and workplaces provide a critical space for women through the development of new forms of identity and struggle. In this ethnographic study of Swedish nurses' work, the concept of normative femininity is used in order to explore gender, labour, and changing relations of power in the context of the neoliberal transformation of the Swedish welfare state. <br/><br>
<br/><br>
The study shows how nursing has undergone dramatic changes in terms of work intensification and new forms of subordination and class boundaries. At the same time, the nursing profession has embraced nurses' new role as adjunct managers in running clinics and taking on new responsibilities offered by New Public Management. <br/><br>
<br/><br>
Gendered subjectivities are at the level of the work place produced and reproduced through notions of femininities that shape and are shaped by the labour process. The study is located within the emerging field of ethnographies of neoliberalism and offers an empirical analysis of change and continuity in the relationship between femininity and care work among nurses employed in a Swedish hospital.}},
  author       = {{Selberg, Rebecca}},
  keywords     = {{Care work; Gender; Femininity; Nursing; Nurses; Labour process; Ethnography; Neoliberalism}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Arkiv}},
  title        = {{Femininity at Work - Gender, Labour, and Changing Relations of Power in a Swedish Hospital}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}