Gender and Food Retail Trade: Challenging and
Reproducing Gender and Gendered Work in Times of
Organizational Change
Paper presented at the 29th International Labour Process Conference, Leeds, 5-7
April, 2011
Kristina Johansson
PhD Student, Human Work Science
Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
contact: kristina.johansson@ltu.se
Abstract
Drawing on interviews with nine upper managers, this paper explores how different
organizational models affect gendered constructions of division in Swedish food retail trade.
The increased emphasis upon efficiency and cost-reduction has made the nine inquired
stores develop towards functional flexibility and work-rotation. In six of the stores, the
employees now rotate between working in the check-out counter and replenishing the stocks,
thus challenging the traditional gendered constructions of work and workers in the trade.
However and as indicated by the results, the binary conceptualizing of gender and gendered
work are nevertheless reproduced and reinforced in other aspects; through women’s
continual predomination amongst part-time employees and men’s overrepresentation in
managerial positions, as well as the development of new gendered divisions. Hence, the
changes of contemporary Swedish food retail trade seem to simultaneously challenge and
reproduce organizational constructions of division along gendered lines.
Key-words: food retail trade, gendered division, organizational changes
Introduction
Swedish food retail has traditionally been marked by fairly rigid gender structures with parttime working women as cashiers and full-time employed men predominating amongst those
replenishing stocks and serving as managers (Carlén 2008). However, the rising demands
for efficiency and price-reduction have seen the introduction of new technology and
organizational forms such as work rotation. The horizontal loading of work tasks stipulated by
work rotation challenges the traditional (gendered) differentials of work and workers and
hence brings a subversive potential to renegotiate the constructions of gender and gendered
1
work (Hudson 2004:44; Grönlund 2004). Drawing on social constructionist gender and
organization theories (Acker 1999, 2006; Gerhardi 1994; Gunnarsson et al 2003), these
changes make Swedish food retail trade an interesting arena for understanding constructions
and reconstructions of gender and gendered work within organizational contexts. Despite
this, organizational models are rarely used as a search-light by researchers investigating the
gendered division work and workers. Hence, further research is needed, leaving this study
with the potential to make important contributions to the understanding of gender and
gendered work in food retail trade.
Empirically based upon semi-structured interviews with upper managers in nine food retail
stores, this paper aims at exploring organizational models as specific frames for the division
of gender and gendered work in contemporary Swedish food retail trade. The paper is
structured as follows: The first two sections draw on extant research and describes food
retail trade as on the one hand marked by rigid gendered division of work and workers, and
on the other through the restructuring of the contemporary trade and the introduction of new
organizational model. Then, the theoretical field of gender and organization are briefly
introduced, followed by an out-lining of the study’s methodology. In the fourth and fifth, the
findings of this study are presented through an investigating of how the different
organizational models affect the gendered division of work and worked in the nine inquired
stores. I conclude by highlighting and discussing the different aspects in which the
constructions of division seem to be challenged and reproduced.
On the One Hand - Gender and Gendered Work in Food Retail Trade…
As extant research illustrates, gender and gender division are noticeable throughout food
retail trade. The first division occurs on the trade level, wherein the majority of the employees
(and customers) are women. This correlates with the feminization of customer-service work
at large, often symbolically underpinned by the emotional aspects of the work (Petinger
2005:463). Second, the work tasks and positions in the organizations have traditionally been
divided and organized along gendered lines. Female employees have been strongly
associated with the check-out counter, rendering the cashier an almost exclusively female
position. When working in the check-out counter, the employees’ main task is to charge
customers for their purchases, making them bound to one particular place and their workload defined by the fluctuation of customer flow which peaks during the afternoon. The close
interaction with customers makes working at the cash register a highly emotional and
vulnerable position, leaving the employees with few opportunities to escape from
complaining customers or the demand of embodying a service minded persona (Tolich and
Briar 1999). It is also a position in which the employee work performance is closely
2
monitored either directly or technologically by both customer and management (Barranco
Font 2007; Kvist 2006). The physical work environment of the check-out counter is
characterized as highly monotonous and repetitive, leading to a high probability of a variety
of debilitating occupational health problems such as sour necks and shoulder (Hedenmo
2000; Zeytinouglu et al 2004:522). Although one single article rarely weigh more than a few
kilos, their combined weight is nevertheless profound and the Swedish Commercial
Employee’s Union have estimated that a cashier handles 333 kg worth of goods every hour
(Hedenmo 2000:15).
In addition to working in the check-out counter, the other predominating task in food retail
trade is working on the store-floor replenishing stocks; unpacking the delivered products and
placing them on their corresponding shelf in the store. Time wise this work-task is structured
by the deliveries and as stipulated by the on-demand logic, the goods should be instantly
taken care off, thus leaving the storage-space as well as the stock to a minimum. For the
employees, these tasks allow them to move around more freely throughout the store, whose
vast area also creates temporary escape zones from the monitoring of management as well
as the interaction with difficult customers (Tolich and Briar 1999). The physical aspect of the
work depends on the type of goods that are being handled; some departments such as the
freezer means working in coldness, whilst for example the fruit and vegetable department
require heavy lifting (Zeytinouglu et al 2004:522). Extant research illustrates that although the
replenishing of stocks is not as gendered as working in the check-out counter, gender still
seems to be part of the distribution of these work-tasks. Findings made by Tolich and Briars
(1999) underpin how, despite their identical job-description, managers still predominantly
scheduled female employees to work in the check-out counter and men to replenish the
stocks. This informal division of work-tasks did not only leave the women stuck to a more
monotonous job, it also limited their organizational knowledge and thus their prospects of
promotion. In the food retail stores that Elisabeth Sundin studied, both men and women
replenished stocks, but not the same stock. While the cutting of meat and the freeze
department had the strongest connotation to men and masculinity, the fruit and vegetable
department was associated with femininity and women.
Sundin’s findings illustrate how the gender divisions in food retail trade are not a result of the
gendered constructions of work-tasks alone, but also of specific gendered conceptualizing of
its products, marketplaces and customers that is; the contexts in which retail trade
organizations are operating (see also Pettinger 2005:465). This form of division might be
most apparent in the larger superstores whose stocks also range over noon-food articles
such as kitchen-wear, electronic equipment and constructions material. These products are
3
themselves constructed through specific conceptualizing of gender. Although the actual act
of replenishing is the same whether it is pans or screws that need to be re-filled, these
gendered processes nevertheless mean that the first are culturally “feminized” and therefore
mainly performed by female workers, whilst the second are “masculinised”, hence more likely
to be performed by male employees. Furthermore, the fact that male workers predominate in
the constructions department not only reinforces the connotation between masculinity and
handiness but also communicates to customers what “men” should be interested in and
capable of. Thus, the marketplaces of food retail trade also construct and reproduce specific
cultural narratives of doing gender, stretching beyond the organizations themselves.
Furthermore, gender becomes noticeable in food retail trade when looking at men and
women’s different employment contracts. Part time work represents the dominating form of
employment contract in Swedish food retail, a development that began after the deregulation
of open hours in 1972 after witch the proportion of full-time contracts decreased from 75 to
32 percentages of total employments in retail trade (Sundin 2001:91). Furthermore, part time
employment is highly gendered: the average weekly working time amongst men aged 18-34
was 28 hours, compared to only 23 hours amongst women in the same age group. Similar
gender differences were found amongst those aged 35 or older, whilst men worked an
average of 36, 5 hours, women worked 6, 5 hours less (Carlén 2007:20). The high proportion
of part time employments within retail is often described as a necessity given the trade’s
fluctuating demands and customer flow. However, as Håkansson and Isidorsson (1999:55)
state, the economical activities alone can not explain the usage of part time employment.
Equally relevant are union strength and the high proportion of female employees. The latter
is underpinned when looking at the variation of part time employments between different
sections in retail trade, which shows that there is a positive correlation between the
percentage of male workers and the usage of full time contracts. This means for example
that full time employment is far more common in stores selling electronic equipment than in
clothing stores, despite the similarities in open hours (Carlén 2005:18ff).
Gender is not only evident horizontally in food retail trade, but also on the vertical level,
through which the positions and work tasks assigned to men are often valued higher than
those assigned to women. The check-out counters where in women predominate, are not
only the most monitored and repetitive work-tasks in the trade, but also a dead-end job
leaving the employees with limited prospects of promotion. Women are also working parttime to a far greater extent than men, something that not only means a proportionally
reduced earning but also lower hourly wage, poorer working conditions and hours. The
4
vertical dimension of the gendered division in food retail trade is further underpinned by the
fact that the positions as managers and shop-owners have traditionally almost exclusively
been held by men (Broadbridge 2007; Traves et al 1997; Javefors Grauers 1999).
… On the Other Hand, Restructuring and the Introduction of Work-Rotation
The previous section illustrated how work-tasks and positions traditionally have been
differentiated along gender lines in Swedish food retail trade. However and as will be
illustrated in the following, an increased emphasis upon cost-reduction and efficiency in
contemporary trade has led to the introduction of new organizational models. One of the
most predominating is work-rotation, which has the potential to challenge the gendered
division of work and workers in the trade. In this section and by focusing on food retail
employment, I will first outline some of the more important historical changes that have
contributed to this development and second, describe the introduction of work-rotation and its
implications for the gender structure in food retail trade.
One of the first steps towards rationalisation and reduced personnel requirement was the
revolutionary introduction and wide spread of self-service that took place in Sweden during
the 1950’s, thus reshaping not only the interior of the store but also the work tasks performed
by the employees (Sandgren 2010). 1972 marks another vital transformation of the trade,
namely the deregulations of opened-hours, resulting in a rapid extension of open-hours
which gradually made the traditional five-day employment contract redundant (Sundin
2001:91; Freathy 1993:70). A few years later, in the end of 1979, the trade was further
rationalised by the introduction of EAN (European Article Number) which computerized
previously manual work-tasks such as pricing and cash-registering (Hjelm 2010). The
regulatory change of the late 1980’s which allowed more distantly located shopping centres
was the starting point for the geographical restructuring of Swedish food retail trade and the
growing number of external shopping centres, thus reinforcing the development towards
vaster but fewer and more efficient sale units (Swedish Planning-and Buliding Act 1987:10;
SCB 2006). The ongoing rationalisations and redundancy of personnel was further fuelled by
the economical crisis of the 1990’s, a period during which the number of employees in
Swedish retail trade in large shrank from approximately 260 000 to 175 000. Although the
employment levels have partly increased since then, the number of employees has remained
relatively intact (Grape and Gustafsson 2007:8). During the initial years of the 21st century
these rationalizations in combination with a beneficiary economic situation have helped the
trades turn over to reacg record rates (SCB 2007). Nevertheless, the competition between
chains and stores has increased, leaving the larger and more efficient stores to out-compete
5
the smaller ones. Thus, whilst the number of stores has been reduced by 40 percentages,
the average turnover per store has increased with 150 percentages. Simultaneously, new
stores have been established in a rate not seen before, with an average of 60-70 stores
being built each year (KF 2009:10).
The restructuring of Swedish food retail trade and the increased emphasis upon cost
reduction and efficiency in combination with the fluctuation in demand and customer flow has
led to an increasing requirement for a flexible work-force (Kvist 2006:78ff). One way to create
flexibility is functional, stipulating that the employees are organized more efficiently through
horizontal and/or vertical loading of work tasks and requiring staff to be multi-skilled and
capable of switching between different tasks (Håkansson and Isidorsson 1999:30ff; Hudson
2004:44f). Even though functional flexibility and work-rotation aims at promoting efficiency
and time saving, it nevertheless has the potential to challenge the gendered construction of
division of work and workers since it contradicts organizational sectioning and thus make
male and female employees partake in each others work-tasks (Grönlund 2004; Sundin
1999:96).
Despite the increased use of work-rotations in Swedish food retail stores and its potential to
challenge the gendered division of work and workers in food retail trade, it is something that
rarely has been investigated by scholars. Two exceptions do however exist. Elisabeth
Sundin, who focused on the implementation work-rotation, found that although the
management of the food retail company which she investigated clearly stated that the work
rotation for economical reasons was to be implemented in all stores, this was not enough to
change the gendered structures of the stores. Consequently, the most gendered positions
and work tasks; cutting of meat and working in the check-out, were in most stores excluded
from the work rotation which thereby failed (Sundin 2001). The second contribution to the
field is drawn from the sociologist Elin Kvist. Although her field study in a Swedish superstore
did not focus on work-rotation alone, one of her findings was that male employees had
greater possibilities of negotiating and passing on their hours in the check-out counter to their
women colleagues. Thus, despite the implementation of work-rotation, tasks seemed
nevertheless informally unevenly distributed between men and women (Kvist 2006).Although
both Sundin and Kvist make interesting contribution to the understanding of how workrotation has affected the gendered division of work and workers in food retail trade, their
research alone is not enough to label the question as anything but a knowledge gap. Thus,
further research is needed.
6
Theoretical Points of Departure
This study draws on gender and organization theories. The research field of gender and
organization has developed during the last decades, following the pioneer work of
researchers such as Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1977), Cynthia Cockburn (1983) and Kathy
Ferguson (1984). Today, the field includes a wide spectrum of scholars and theoretical
perspectives, joined by the conceptualizing of organizations as gendered, rather than
gender-neutral. As described by Joan Acker, the implication of this understanding is
something more than merely adding gender to organizational processes and theories.
Rather, this means that gender is conceptualized as an integral part of these processes
which therefore can not be properly understood without gender analysis (Acker 1990:146).
Thus, this also implicates an understanding of gender not as essentially or biologically stabile
but as verbs, as something people “do” and construct in social interactions (Butler 1999,
2004; Gherardi, 1994; Gunnarsson et al, 2003). In her scrutiny of the doing gender
perspective, Päivi Korvajärvi (1998:22, 2003:54) differentiates between four approaches
used by scholars, thereby clarifying the variety of theoretical positions from which
researchers such as my self can comprehend the gendered organization: Etnomedological
(interactional process and accomplishments) (West and Fenstemarker 2002); cultural
(symbols, meanings and subject positions) (Gherardi 1994); processual (process and
practises, distinction between men and women) (Acker 1999, 2006) and performative
(discursive gender identities) (Butler 1999, 2004).
Following the mapping aim and methodological design of this study, Joan Ackers processual
approach to gendered organization stands out as being the most suitable for this paper.
According to Acker, the gendered organizations consist of four intertwined processes, two of
which have been placed in the focal-point for this study. The first process is:
…the construction of divisions along lines of gender – divisions of labor, of allowed
behaviours, of locations in physical space, of power, including the institutionalized
means of maintaining the divisions in the structures of labor markets, the family, the
state (Acker 1990:146).
The second process of the gendered organization is the construction of symbols and images
that articulate, reproduce or sometimes challenge the divisions (Acker 1990:146). Hence, this
process enables an analysis of the specific binary conceptualizing of femininity and
masculinity that reproduces and is reproduced by the gendered constructions of divisions.
The third and fourth principle found by Acker, although not further discussed in this paper,
describes the interactions between men and women, women and women, men and men in
the organization as well as the production of gendered identity and self-perception (Acker
1990: 146f).
7
Methodology
This paper is empirically based on semi-structured interviews with nine Swedish upper
managers conducted during the autumn of 2010 in order to map organizational models,
technological developments and gender structures within the stores.
All investigated stores are situated in Norrbotten and Västerbotten, two counties in northern
Sweden and thus share similar demographical and structural conditions.
Together, the two counties constitute approximately one quarter of Sweden’s total area, but
merely 5 percentage of the country’s population, making them both vast but sparsely
populated. In terms of food retail trade structure, the region stands out as being the only one
left in Sweden where no transnational actors are established. Although German Lidl have
made several prospects throughout the region, only the three traditional, large Swedish food
retailers Coop, ICA and Axfood are represented. These three retailers, which together
accounted for 86 percentages of the trade’s market share in 2009 (Dagligvarukartan 2009),
comprise a variety of store concepts, ranging from small convenience stores to larger
superstores and discount stores. The stores included in the study belong to the largest
concept in each chain. These demarcations narrowed the sample down to eighteen stores
and the final nine were chosen in order to mirror each chain’s level of establishment within
the region. Nevertheless, this is not a study of the three retailers per se and although a
comparison between the chains indicates some organizational differences which might
derive from specifically managerial standpoints, questions of that sort have not been
addressed during the interviews. Rather than asking why the stores organizational structures
differ, this paper aims at scrutinizing how they differ and what the effects are for
constructions of gender and gendered work. Thus, and in order to iesure the ethical aspects
of the study, all stores as well as the informants have been giving pseudonyms.
To obtain a comprehensive understanding of the organizations, the upper managers of each
store were chosen as informants. Nine out of the twelve approached accepted the invitation
to participate, all of them were white males and most of them middle aged. The interviews
were conducted on store location during September to November in 2010 and lasted
between 35 to 70 minutes depending on the informant’s talkativeness. An interview guide
with three themes (employees, organization, new technology) was used leaving the
interviews semi-structured. Although well informed about their organization in large, the
upper manager’s insights in the daily activities varied depending on organizational size.
Thus, this serves as a reminder of the importance to reflect upon how any statement given
by informants are unconditionally particularistic and situated in time/space: The knowledge
8
derived from this study is best interpreted as articulations of the stores, formulated from the
particular horizons’ of the upper managers, communicated in interaction with the researcher
and defined by the specific setting of the interview. Furthermore and drawing solely on
interviews with managers, this inquiry is limited to the formal gender division: the
constructions of divisions of work and workers along gendered lines as it appears through
the employees’ contracts and their designated work-tasks/positions. Although corresponding
to the mapping aim of this study, this approach fails to scrutinize the informal gender division
and the actual distribution of work task in the every day life of the organizations.
All interviews were recorded and fully transcribed. During the analytical process, three overall
questions were used in order to explore the gendered constructions of division in the nine
stores: What work-tasks do men and women employees conduct? How are the gendered
work-tasks and positions organized? What type of employment contracts do men and women
have?
Introducing the Nine Stores
Before exploring the different organizational model used by the nine stores, this section aims
at briefly introducing the investigated stores. If all nine stores are taken into account, the
average number of employees was 52, of which men constituted 30 percent. As illustrated by
the table bellow, part-time employment contracts were slightly more common than full-time
contract. Corresponding to the trade at large, men were more likely to be working full-time
than women. Furthermore, men were also overrepresented at the middle-managerial level.
TABLE 1 IN HERE
Five of the nine inquired stores were so called “superstores” with a vast selection of stocks
ranging from food and clothes to home wear and electronics. In terms of organizational size,
three of the five stores were larger, with 75-88 permanent employees, and two were
midsized with around 35 permanent employees. All of these stores had installed portable
scanning-devices which enable the customers to continuously record their own purchases
whilst shopping. When using this device, the customer need not to unload their goods on the
check-out counter when exiting the store, but simple hand over the scanning-device to the
cashier who downloads their purchases and charge them accordingly. Thus, this
technological development has decreased the workload in the traditional check-out counter
and improved the work environment of the cashiers (Hjelm 2010:120). Within these units,
approximately 30 percentages of the customer were using them whilst doing their shopping.
9
Furthermore, all of these five stores had a small kiosk adjacent to the shop entrance. This
type of kiosk which is likely to be found in contemporary superstores, has two purposes: first,
it offers tobacco, a limited supply of snacks and Game Service, and second it houses the
stores Customer Service to which customer should turn if they have any complaints or wants
to repurchase or replace any products. This department also handles the check-out counter
for the portable scanning-devices. As will be further discussed in the next section, these five
stores used different organizational model; the two midsized used organizational model C
whilst all but one of the larger stores had model B, hence making the final fifth using
organizational model A.
The remaining three investigated stores were marketed as a discount alternative, offering low
priced food and food-related products and had 20-30 permanent employees. These stores
had not installed portable scanning devices, nor did they have a kiosk adjacent to their store
entrance. All of these stores used the same organizational model, namely model A.
(Re) Organizing Gendered Work
Although none of the nine investigated stores used identical organizational models, three
different ideal models were nevertheless found in the empirics. The most significant
characteristic separating the three was the extent in which work-rotation had been
implemented. While the stores using organizational model A had none or very little workrotation, model B stipulated that the employees should rotate between working in the checkout counter and replenishing stock on one department. Organizational model C had the most
extended work-rotation, through which not only the check-out counter but all segments of the
goods were included in the work-rotation. As will be illustrated in this section, the different
models thus constitute specific frames for the gendered division of work and workers in the
nine investigated stores.
Organizational model A
Four of the stores used organizational model A, which constituted a rather traditional division
of gender and gendered work in food retail trade. Three of these stores were small, with 2030 employees, whilst the fourth had 85 employees. Men constituted 32 percent of the
employees, a number that varied from 53 to 20 percent amongst the stores. Within this
organizational model, the check-out counter and the replenishing of stocks on the store floor
constituted two separated job-descriptions which meant that the employees were hired to
work with either one or the other. The majority of the employees worked as cashiers, ranging
10
from half to two third of the stores employees and the majority of them were women. Whilst
women constituted all or almost all of the cashiers in two of the stores, 65 percent of the
cashiers were women in the remaining two. Thus, the male employees, on the other hand
worked predominantly on the floor replenishing stocks. The majority of the managerial
positions were held by men. When combined, the four stores using organizational model A
had twelve middle managers, who had the overall responsibilities for the stocks as well as
the supervision and scheduling of personnel working in their department. Eight of the middle
managers were men and four women. Thus, whilst men constituted no more that one third of
the total number of the employees, men held two thirds of the managerial positions.
TABLE 1 IN HERE
The binary division of gender and gendered work was however partly challenged by a newly
introduced principle proclaiming that the employees were to help each other and consider
themselves as part of a larger team. This meant that all the employees, regardless of jobdescription, were to learn the cash-register upon hiring. The extent to which this principle
was formalized did however vary. In two of the stores, the cashiers were scheduled to work
on the store floor to a minimum of one day every two weeks. Meanwhile, the employees
replenishing stocks where concurrently told to replace the cashiers during their breaks and
weekly work-place meetings. In the remaining two stores on the other hand, the principle
merely meant that the floor-workers were to work in the check-out counter “when needed”
and given that their current work load allowed it. Simultaneously, the cashiers were to help
with the handling of goods when the customer flow was low. The lack of formalization meant
that the extents to which the employees exceeded and challenged the gendered division of
work were determined by their willingness to do so. Thus, the implementation of the principle
in practice can be questioned and thereby also the extent to which it poses a challenge to the
stores binary gender constructions.
Part-time employment predominated amongst the stores in organizational A; only 35
percentages of the permanent employees worked full-time. These full-time positions were
held by men and women to an almost equal extent, but given that men only constituted 33
percentages of the employees this meant that 52 percent of the men worked full-time
whereas only 27 percent of the women were doing so. This gendered distribution of
employment-contracts was often explained and neutralized by the informants through
different position of men and women in the organizations: full-time employment
predominated amongst managers and floor-workers, work-tasks that were mainly performed
by men. Simultaneously, part-time employment contracts predominated in the check-out
11
counter, wherein mainly women worked. The need for part-time employed cashiers was
further explained by references to the fluctuant customer flow throughout the day and week.
Organizational model B
Three of the inquired stores used organizational model B. These were all larger stores with
75 to 88 employees, of which 32 percentages were male. The stores were divided into five
departments which each had their own personnel, schedules and financial plan and were
headed by a middle manager. If all three stores are taken into account, men constituted
eleven of the middle managers whereas women only four. Furthermore, a number of section
managers in each department handled the ordering of stocks as well as supervised the
employees working with replenishing stocks on their section. These positions were more
evenly distributed amongst men and women, but the proportion of men were nevertheless
higher than amongst the personnel in large.
TABLE 2 IN HERE
The check-out counter did not constitute a department of its own; instead, each department
was responsible for and staffed a number of counters, thus leaving the employees scheduled
to rotate between replenishing stocks and serving as cashiers. However, the hours spent
working in the check-out counter varied depending on hierarchical positions, leaving the
section managers with fewer hours than those without additional responsibilities. Since more
men than women shoulder that type of responsibility it seemed that the check-out counter
nevertheless, in some aspect, might remain associated with women and femininity. The
binary constructions of gender could also prevail through the organizational differences of
work and workers in different departments by references to the gendered goods. Thus, whilst
men were in majority of those working in the home constructions department, women were
more likely to handle clothes and kitchen wares. Worth noticing is that the small kiosk
adjacent to the store entrances, in which exclusively women employees work, was precluded
from the work rotation.
In these stores, 79 percent of the female employees but only 46 of the male employees were
working part-time. Since the check-out counter was included in the work-rotation, women’s
predomination amongst the part-time workers could not be explained by references to the
variation in customer-flow as in the stores using organizational model A. Instead as some of
the interviewed managers explained, should the two gendered employment contracts be
understood through the fact that men and women partly worked in different departments and
that each department had their traditions. For example, full-time employment had traditionally
12
(unlike in the rest of the store) predominated in the constructions department, and since
almost only men worked there, that explains the low percentages of female full-timers.
Organizational model C
Two of the nine inquired stores used organizational model C which had the most extended
work-rotation of the three models. Both stores were midsized with 35 employees each of
which no more than 21 percentages was male, ranging from 17 to 25 percentages between
the two stores. Through this model, both the check-out counter and all section of the stocks
were rotated between the employees, thus potentially renegotiating the connotations
between cashier and female/women, as well as the gendering of goods. However, as in
organizational model B, the small shops adjacent to the stores’ entrances were excluded
from the work rotation. Since only female employees worked in the kiosk, it seems that a
gendered division of work and workers nevertheless could prevail to some extent, despite the
extended work-rotation. Although combined by their extended work-rotation, the two stores
differ in terms of management structures: whilst one store had no less than seven upper
managers, the other had only five, as illustrated by the figures below.
TABLE 3 IN HERE
Unlike the stores in organizational model B, the position as middle manager meant being in
charge of one department of the stock including ordering, but not for either finance or
personnel other than sparse supervision and they also worked a few hours in the check-out
counter every week. Instead, both scheduling and staff responsibilities were shouldered by
the upper manager leaving the organizations rather centralized, perhaps due to their smaller
size. Furthermore, and in contrast to the other investigated stores as well as the trade in
large, women held the majority of the middle manager positions: Only one middle manager in
each store was a man. Thus, this meant that the proportion of men in middle management
positions was the same or lower compared to all employees.
The two stores also differ in terms of the proportion of part-time contracts; whilst one of them
represents the store with the second highest proportion of full-time employees (50%), the
other has the lowest proportion (17%) of all the stores. However, in both stores, as in the
study at large, men were far more likely than women to be employed full-time; 33 and 67 of
all men were employed full-time in comparison to 11 and 46 percentages of the women.
Hence, although the extended work-rotation meant that men and women shared the same
work-tasks and job-descriptions, a gendered construction of division still occurred through
the distribution of different employment contracts.
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Discussion
In this section, and following the exploration of the gendered organizations of work and
workers in the nine stores, I want to highlight and further discuss five interesting findings of
the results.
First, the increased emphasis upon functional flexibility and work-rotation seems to have the
potential to challenge and partly eliminate the gendered division of work and workers in the
nine inquired stores. This is mostly apparent in organizational model B and C, in which the
implemented work-rotation has meant that the traditional gendered division between the
check-out counter and replenishing of stocks is eliminated. Given that that distinction has
been central for the differentiation of men and women employees, this thus brings a
subversive potential to the constructions of gender and gendered work in retail trade as well
as improves the working-environment, circumstances and prospects for the former cashiers.
Secondly, organizational model C in which both the check-out counter and the different
sections of stocks where included in the work-rotation did not only challenge the feminization
of the cashier but also the gendered constructions of stocks, marketplaces and customers.
Being that this model poses the greatest challenge to the gendering of food retail trade calls
for further scrutinizing: At first glance, it seems that the two stores using organizational model
C differ from the other nine in two aspects, they have a lower proportion of male employees
and they are the only stores in which women predominate amongst the middle managers.
The fact that the majority of the employees and managers were women and therefore
relatively homogeneous in terms of gender, raises the question of the extent to which work
and workers could be divided and distributed according to gendered lines even before the
introduction of work rotation. Hence, the organisational gender structure in which workrotation was to be implemented within these two stores differs from the other inquired stores.
Although the exact consequences lie outside reach for this study, it is nevertheless
interesting to conjecture how this has affected the possibilities and outcomes of the
organizational change.
Third, the results simultaneously indicate that the introduction of new organizational forms
has developed other and new forms of distinguishing along gendered lines. Perhaps mostly
apparent in this inquiry is the kiosk, a work-task precluded from the work-rotation in both
organizational model B and C and performed almost exclusively by female employees.
Working in the kiosk has many resemblances with the check-out counter; its narrow spatial
and organizational dimensions means that the employees face constant monitoring by
14
customers and managers as well as limits their prospect of promotion. Furthermore, since
the kiosk is where the customer should turn if they have any complaints or wants to
repurchase or exchange their goods; it is a highly emotional work-task which requires
constant interaction with customers. Hence, the connotations between women and emotional
labour previously reproduced by the division between the check-out counter and the
replenishing of stocks might still prevail through the separation between the kiosk and the
rest of the work-tasks in the organizations.
Fourth, men have been found to predominate amongst manager positions and in the two
stores where the majority of the upper manager on the contrary were women; they neither
shouldered the financial nor personnel responsibilities which followed the corresponding
position in the other stores. As in food retail trade at large, all interviewed upper managers
were male. This may be further underpinned by the study’s focus on large stores given the
positive correlation between organizational size and male managerial domination. On the
middle-management level, the proportion of men and women was more equal, with 44
percentages being female. However, this relatively high proportion of women can be traced
back to the two stores using organizational model C wherein women predominated amongst
upper managers, if they are excluded from the calculation, women’s proportion amongst the
middle managers drops down to only 28 percentages. Furthermore and as shown by the
result, the job-description and responsibilities attached to the middle manager positions vary
between the nine inquired stores, thus calling for a more contextual scrutiny. If compared, the
(women) middle managers of organizational model C seem to lack both the strategic,
financial and personnel responsibility shouldered by the corresponding positions in the other
two models. Instead, the C stores appeared highly centralized, with empowered upper
managers handling all the strategic decisions. Thus, this might indicate that although the high
proportion of female middle managers in organizational model C challenges the connotation
between the position as managers and masculinity, this subversive potential does not include
the gendering of the actual financial and personnel responsibility. Furthermore, the central
characteristics of the stores might perhaps also bee an important component of the context
in which the extended work-rotation was implemented in, as this might limit the possibilities
for resistance.
Fifth and finally, alongside the increased emphasis upon functional flexibility and the
elimination of organizational segmentation, the continual usage of predominantly women
part-time employees has nevertheless reproduced and reinforced the gendered
constructions of division in the nine inquired stores. Regardless of the degree of functional
flexibility or organizational model, women were still predominantly working under part-time
15
contracts. Thus, even if men and female employees formally were assigned to the same
work-tasks, a binary conceptualizing of gender could still prevail based on their employment
contract. This gendered division of working hours reproduces the association between
masculinity - bread winner - full-time employment and femininity – domestic oriented – part
time employment, meanwhile conceptualizing men and women as two binary components of
a heterosexual synthesis. Besides reduction in earnings, part-time employments also limit
the individual’s possibilities to advance to more skilled position such as management and
responsibilities for the goods. This is further underpinned by the fact that those women
working full-time in the inquired stores almost always were middle or section managers.
Thus, women’s part-time employment also reinforces the connotations between masculinity
and management within food retail trade.
Conclusion
This paper has explored how gendered constructions of division are challenged and
reproduced in contemporary Swedish food retail trade organizations. The results illustrate
that the increased emphasis upon functional flexibility and work-rotation to some extent
challenges and partly eliminates the gendered division of work-tasks and position in all the
inquired stores. This is mostly apparent if looking at the check-out counter, a position
robustly feminized that now is shared amongst both men and women employees in six of the
stores due to work-rotation. However, the binary conceptualizing of gender and gendered
work is nevertheless reproduced and reinforced in other aspects; through women’s continual
predomination amongst part-time employees and men’s overrepresentation in managerial
positions, as well as the development of new gendered divisions. Hence, the changes of
contemporary Swedish food retail trade seem to simultaneously challenge and reproduce
organizational constructions of division along gendered lines.
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TABLE 1
number percentages
143
0,3
326
0,7
469
1
permanent employees
male
female
total
full-time employed
male
female
total
95
120
215
0,44
0,56
1
part-time employed
male
female
total
48
206
254
0,19
0,81
1
middle manager
male
female
total
19
12
31
0,61
0,39
1
TABLE 2
Upper Manager
Administration
Middle Manager
Fresh
Middle Manager
Noon-food
Middle Manager
Check-out counter
Section Managers
Section Managers
Section Managers
Clerks
Clerks
Cashiers
18
TABLE 3
Upper Manager
Middle
Manager
Construction
Section manager
Kiosk
Middle
Manager
Noon-food
Section managers
Clerks
Administration
Middle
Manager
Food
Middle
Manager
Restaurant
Section managers
Clerks
Clerks
Clerks
Clerks
Check-out counters
TABLE 4
Upper Manager
Middle Manager
Check-out counters
Middle
Manager
Sale Support
Middle
Manager
Non Food
Middle Manager
Food
Section Managers
Kiosk
Stocks
Check-Out Counters
Clerks
Clerks
19