Sundin 2001

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Gender-determined Jobs and Job-rotation -

Problems and Possibilities
E. Sundin
Published online: 08 Sep 2010.
To cite this article: E. Sundin (2001) Gender-determined Jobs and Job-rotation - Problems and Possibilities,
The Service Industries Journal, 21:3, 87-112, DOI: 10.1080/714005032
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213sij06.qxd 06/07/2001 11:39 Page 87
Gender-determined Jobs and Job-rotation –

Problems and Possibilities
E L IS A B E T H SUNDI N
Downloaded by ["Queen's University Libraries, Kingston"] at 22:57 02 October 2013
The aim of the article is to discuss and analyse the strategy for
quality introduced by a Swedish daily-ware retailer and
especially what role organisational rationality, irrationality and
gender plays for some aspects of this strategy.
The strategy was motivated by the intense competition. One
of its key components was work rotation in the stores. Six out of
90 stores were studied. In five of these work rotation was
selective: the most female-labelled duty, cashier work, and the
most male-labelled, butchering, were excluded. In the sixth store
the work rotation was total. Before analysing the results, the
national, sector and company contexts are presented. The
analytical tools and concepts are drawn from different feminist
organisational researchers.
The main conclusions are that decisions made by top
managers are necessary but not sufficient to create changes in
organisations. The importance of middle management is
emphasised although it is obvious that power is present
everywhere. These findings indicate that there is not one all-
embracing decision behind the outcomes but rather many small
decisions made by both women and men on all hierarchical
levels. The outcome also suggests that economic rationalities are
weaker than gender rationalities, an outcome which ought to
influence organisational theories.
INTRODUCTION
The Swedish labour market is, just as most (all?) other labour markets,
strongly sex segregated, both horizontally and vertically. That is, women
and men are not engaged in the same occupations and work duties. Also,
while men are often superior to women the opposite is rare. After having for
Elisabeth Sundin is at the Arbetslivsinstitutet (National Institute of Working Life), Laxholmen,

60 221, Norrköping, Sweden.
The Service Industries Journal, Vol.21, No.3 (July 2001), pp.87–112

PUBLISHED BY FRANK CASS, LONDON
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88 T H E S E RV I C E I N D U S T R I E S J O U R N A L
a long time been seen as something entirely natural this is now being
questioned. This questioning can have different grounds. The demand for
equality is one. Deficient rationality and efficiency is another, sometimes
expressed as a moral case and/or a business case for equality.
That which is reported and described as the labour market’s segregation
is the aggregated result of practices in all companies and organisations that
make up the nation’s total workplaces. In most cases the individual
workplaces seem to correspond with the image revealed by the aggregated

statistics – but there are exceptions. Reasons for the latter can be found at
the organisational level, for example, policies for equal opportunities,
rationality and efficiency.
The company presented in this article has tried to introduce work
rotation among the employees across strongly sex-typed jobs.1 The declared
reasons were rationality and efficiency, not equal opportunities. The actual
company, a large business dealing in everyday commodities, mostly food,
has chosen a competitive strategy based on quality goods and service. This
strategy demands high quality in all aspects, for example locally produced
foodstuffs and a manual meat counter as well as relatively high staffing
levels and capable personnel throughout who can answer the customers’
questions and deliver what they want. In order to maintain such competence
the employees must actually work on the different departments with some
degree of regularity. A further reason for work rotation is that certain tasks,
those physically heavy or monotonous, can cause injuries which in turn lead
to sick leave and disruption of routines.
The case company decided to introduce work rotation in all stores. The
outcome was studied in six of the stores and was, with all considered,
negative. Work rotation was particular with regard to the most male- and
most female-labelled work tasks excluded in five of these six stores. The aim
of the article is to discuss and analyse this outcome and especially what role
organisational rationality and irrationality, and gender, play for these aspects.
The main conclusions are that business rationalities can provide motivation
for moves toward greater equality in job allocation but they are not enough
to achieve equality on their own. Something else, and something more, is
needed. An example of such ‘else and more’ is at hand in this case: a female
manager has chosen to start her store ‘from scratch’, throwing out worn
commitments. Can any aspect of this be applied to other organisations? This
is also discussed in the last section. Some of the conclusions are of
theoretical relevance and some of political relevance. All of them are of
relevance for organisational members and especially so for leaders.
While the questions and problems are general, the descriptions are
specific inasmuch as the processes taking place always are context-
dependent. The disposition is therefore the following:
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G E N D E R - D E T E R M I N E D J O B S A N D J O B - R O TAT I O N 89
Some data concerning the Swedish labour market are given to provide
the societal context. The following section concerning the commerce and
trade sector has the same objective. Researchers’ analyses of organisations’
manner of functioning in a sex-theoretical perspective are actualised. Some
central concepts are also defined. The case company, which has introduced
work rotation, is presented with focus on the following: concrete
information concerning the history, organisational structure and culture, and
the prevailing gender order.

Six stores that have been studied more closely provide examples of how
work rotation can function (and not function) in practice. The method used
for the case study is presented under this headline. The case is analysed and
discussed with the help of the observations and the concepts that have
earlier been introduced.
THE SWEDISH LABOUR MARKET FRO M A S E X / G EN D ER

PERSPECTIVE
The Swedish labour market is usually described as one of the world’s most
sex segregated – but it can also be described as remarkably symmetrical.
The latter can be claimed on the basis of the fact that almost as many
women as men can be found in gainful employment. The public sector can
be described as the women’s, more than 60 per cent of the women work
there, and the private as the men’s, almost 70 per cent of them are to be
found there [Statistiska Meddelanden AM 12 SM 9701]. Work duties and
occupational areas also illustrate the segregation. Among the largest
occupations on the Swedish labour market only a few are symmetrical.
(The official dividing line for equality is that both sexes are within the
interval 40-60 per cent.) The six largest occupations, and eight of the ten at
the top, are strongly dominated by women. One of them, the second largest,
is salesmen/women in the retail trade, where women constitute 74 per cent
of the work force [Folk- och Bostadsräkningen, 1990: Section 5, Table 9,
p.1].
Segregation on the labour market seems to be declining, albeit very
slowly [Jonung, 1997]. Through historically focused studies we know that
occupations can and do change sex. The most usual is a change from male-
dominated to female-dominated but the opposite occurs also [Sommestad,
1992].
Sex segregation on the Swedish labour market is also vertical. This can
be illustrated in different ways. One is that the women’s share of the work
force within one sector, one branch, or one occupation does not correspond
with their share among those holding leading positions [Kvinnor och män
på toppen, 1997].
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Women’s wages are lower than men’s wages. The wage differences are
in part easy to understand and explain. Different work times, with regard to
both length and time of day, influence the size of the wage. The tasks’
demands for education and competence likewise vary. Education and earlier
work-life experience influence the wage. Over time sex characteristics in
the last-named respects have come to be more and more similar. This has
influenced the wage gap in an equalising direction [Edin and Richardson,
1997]. Besides that, when all rational reasons for wage differences have
been removed, one difference, that which can only be explained as sex
discrimination, nevertheless remains [Löfström, 1989; SOU, 1993:7; SOU,
1997:136]. Women’s and men’s knowledge and skills are valued differently.
‘A special phenomenon is that the occupations and sectors with large shares
of women tend to have low wages.’ [SOU, 1997:136: 13. See also Le Grand
in the same anthology.]
Wages are not something that simply exist. They are determined through
decisions often made by way of some sort of negotiations. How these are
carried out varies between sectors and levels, as do the different wage-
influencing components. In order to come close to these we need, to borrow
Persson’s and Wadensjö’s conclusion [SOU 1997:137], to ‘know more
about how wages are decided on the workplace level’. The same is true for
how the distribution of the different work tasks within the work force is
handled. This we shall see in the case study.
RETAILIN G
The case company is in retail-trading. The Swedish retail trade must

therefore be presented. The Swedish retail trade displays both similarities to
and differences from the retail trade in many other countries [compare
Broadbridge’s 1995 and 1997 discussion on the UK]. To the similarities
belong, naturally, that retail trade has a geographical spread corresponding
to that of the population. Further, the retail trade has a considerable
turnover. It is thereby one of the most important sectors in terms of national
economy. A notable part, 20 per cent, of the Swedish business stock consists
of retailing companies [Statistisk Årsbok, 1995: Table 296].
Retailing has in recent decades gone through an extensive restructuring
that is in many respects bound up with other societal changes. A measure of
the speed of these changes is that in 1960 20,000 full-assortment food stores
have been reduced to a tenth [Supermarket 6, 1997; Tufvesson, 1996]. The
technical development in the stores is today extensive, albeit not always
visible to the consumers.
The Swedish retail trade is relatively concentrated from an international
perspective. The daily-ware commerce is dominated by three large blocks,
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of which the co-operative KF is one, and the other two are private. The case
workplaces form an integral part of the companies that constitute one of the
private blocks.
The Employees and Wages

Retailing is a large and important employer in Sweden. Today’s problems
for those engaged within retailing are unemployment, the ‘never-ending’
question of time disposition, and violence. The first-named, unemployment,

is not worse than within other blocks on the Swedish labour market. The
time question, the business hours and their affect on the work hours and the
disposition of these work hours, has been discussed for decades, foremost
between employers and employees but also with contributions from local
and national politicians. In spite of the opposition from the Commercial
Employees’ Union (Handelsanställdas Förbund, HF) the business-hour law
was cancelled on 1 January 1972. Thereby it was ‘okay’ to compete with
these hours. This led to a sharply increased demand for part-time
employees. The share of full-time employees was down to 32 per cent in
1977 as compared with the 75 per cent who worked full-time ten years
earlier (data from the Commercial Employees’ Union). Also in these
respects there are similarities with other countries although the Swedish
employees are to a greater extent unionised even when they are not working
full-time [compare Penn and Wirth, 1993]. Violence, the third problem
mentioned above, is considered to be relatively new in the branch. It affects
mainly those who work alone evenings and nights.
The women dominate, 70 per cent, among the retail trade’s employees
and the men among the wholesale trade’s. Within retailing the variations are
however considerable. The extremes in this regard are the pharmacy and
radio/TV commerce. Within the former the women make up 93.5 per cent
and within the latter only 18.4 per cent [Statistisk Årsbok, 1995: Table 208].
The Commercial Employees’ Union was in 1993 the Swedish Trade Union
Confederation’s (LO) fourth largest union and the second largest with
regard to female membership. Only the Swedish Municipal Workers’ Union
has more women among their members [Statistisk Årsbok, 1995: Table
220]. As is the case for Swedish working life in general the women’s share
of higher positions within commerce is lower than their total share of
employment. That pattern seems to be the same in other countries [Traves
et al., 1997]. The women’s distribution over different positions and
collective agreements at the beginning of the 1990s was as shown in the
following table. The persons whom we are going to meet in the cases are
included in the left-hand column. Table 1 does not include the so-called
white-collar workers. There the women’s share on the highest levels is
about 10 per cent and on the lowest about 80 per cent.
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Commerce is, as in many other countries [Broadbridge, 1995; 1997;

Penn and Wirth, 1993], depicted throughout as a low-wage area. The male
workers’ wages within commerce appear to be especially low. They earn on
average less than industry’s women. But they, commerce’s men, receive
more than their female fellow workers.
TABLE 1
SHARE OF WOMEN IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS WITHIN TWO COLLECTIVE
AGREEMENT AREAS, PER CENT 1992.
Position Commercial employers Cooperative employers

store agreement store agreement
First assistant 58 53
Store assistant 74 84
Butcher 11 23
Store cashier 95 99
Decorator 77 81
Source: Handelsanställdas förbund (Commercial Employees’ Union).
What can explain the differences in wages? Age and number of years in the
occupation play a role. There is also a certain provision within the local
collective negotiations that, according to the collective agreements, ought to be
distributed on the basis of the criteria: responsibility in position, work results,
experience, multiple skills, flexibility, and education. Besides these increments
the agreement also names ‘individual compensations’ that are motivated by
‘special work duties and situations of responsibility’. This also seems to be an
international phenomenon [Broadbridge, 1995; 1997; Penn and Wirth, 1993].
Besides direct wages there are within commerce, as well as elsewhere,
so-called fringe benefits. In an investigation carried out recently [Granqvist,
1997] it was stated that relatively more men than women have such benefits.
Fringe benefits are however not only related to sex but also to hierarchic
level. ‘To he who has shall be given’ could stand as caption for the policy
which is practised. And this applies more to men than to women.
This is then the retailing sector in which the investigated company and
case workplaces are to be found. We shall become more closely acquainted
with them in the coming section.
S E X A N D G E N D E R I N O R G A N I S AT I O N S A N D O R G A N I S AT I O N
THEORIES
The article relates and analyses what is taking place in six different work
places (retail stores) following a decision to introduce work rotation for
everyone working in these stores. As will be described, this decision was,
with few exceptions, not implemented. The rotation excluded the most
213sij06.qxd 06/07/2001 11:39 Page 93
gender-labelled tasks. The exception was one store managed by a woman.
What has sex/gender to do with it?2 This question has engaged other
researchers and theorists before me. I relate some of their observations of
importance and relevance for both the description and the analyses.
Henceforth these characteristics of the gender system are used as a
background on a societal level to the observations and concept qualifiers
that organisation researchers have made during their studies of whole, or
segments of, organisations. The gender-system concept in Scandinavia has

been introduced foremost by Yvonne Hirdman, who in a chapter in SOU
1990:44, the ‘Investigation of Power in Sweden’, argued that the gender
system was one of the society-bearing power systems characterised by two
principles: the sexes’ separation and the men as norm primate, or, with other
somewhat modified terms, by a segregation and hierarchisation.
The existence of a gender system does not mean that men and women
have to be seen as clear-cut categories. In this connection the Swedish
researcher Britt-Marie Thurén’s [1996; Thurén and Sundman, 1997]
discussion about the gender concept, and its verb form genderisation, is of
relevance. Thurén means, like Young [1995] and myself, that a concept is
needed that can embrace power and power relations between women and
men as groups without necessarily being deterministic. Genderisation in a
given case, for example in a society or an organisation, can be/have
differential strength, spread and hierarchy. With strength is meant, according
to Thurén, ‘gender-specific importance’ [p. 77]. Spread refers to life’s areas
within which the gender categories are relevant. Hierarchy to the relative
position of female versus male. The concept’s strength, spread and hierarchy
shall be used in the concluding analysis inasmuch as they are very applicable
also on the organisational level. The concept emphasises that there are
operations and positions with relatively weak, vague or even non-existent
sex/gender labels. One must sometimes come very close to be able to see the
differences in potentials, recruitment procedures, in demands for and
judgements of qualifications and competence, etc. That especially the last-
named have strong gender dimensions has been shown over and over again
during the last 20 years [see e.g. Sinclair, 1991; Phillips and Taylor, 1980].
This is also clearly evident in new studies, among others, Pettersson’s
[1996], and will be revealed at the case workplaces. Nonexplicit non-job-
related factors seem to be of organisational importance [Collinson, Knight
and Collinson, 1990] which is a sad reality for the management that
endeavours to recruit the best through a conscious and rational procedure.
Gender in Organisations’ Culture

Gender has a well-established place in organisational studies and analyses,
at least if they deal with organisational culture [see e.g. Hofstede, 1980 and
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1998; Smirchich, 1985.] Research along this line has developed and come
to the conclusions that organisations are never sex-neutral [see as an
example Janne Tienari, 1998], or to use others’ expressions, there is reason
to argue that male dominance can be seen as an organisational logic [e.g.
Ferguson, 1984; Hearn and Parkin, 1987; Holter, 1992; Mills and Tancred,
1992; Savage and Witz, 1992]. Although male dominance seems to be the
rule there do exist significant differences in these regards between
organisations in different sectors as well as between organisations within

the same sector [see e.g. Alvesson and Köping, 1993; Billing and Alvesson,
1989; Sundin, 1993. Compare with Thurén referred to above].
Other well-established concepts for the definition and understanding of
the gender system’s structure and function on a societal level as well as on
the organisational level are gender order, gender contracts, gender subtexts,
gender typing and gender labelling. These concepts have been introduced
by researchers from different disciplines in accounts based on experiences
won in different cultural and organisational contexts. They will be
commented on where they are of relevance for the case presented.
The concept ‘gender order’ will be used for the organisational level
although its introducer did not do so [Connell, 1987]. Gender order seem to
be very illustrative. The same is true for gender contracts when used on both
the societal and organisational levels to designate the structure of the gender
relations [Forsberg, 1997; Pateman, 1988; Wikander, 1992; Åström and
Hirdman, 1992]. Pettersson’s [1996: 45] discussion around the concept is
most relevant. She describes the gender contract as ‘the regularising notions
and social practices which define the relation between man-woman, men-
women. Gender contract further expresses concrete notions and actions’. The
contract concept can lead thoughts to something formalised and clear with
two equal partners, which, however, is neither suggested by the referred
authors nor is at hand in the case studies. Officially, equality, sex neutrality
and competence are emphasised in organisations. Unofficially asymmetrical
gender relations are predominant. A gender subtext arises which can be
likened with a hidden agenda [Benschop and Dooreward, 1995]. It is a
question of a predominant ideology which both constructs sex/gender and
makes it invisible [Holter, 1992]. Typing, sex typing, and labelling, sex
labelling, are other concepts which are used to depict the dynamics and
changeability in the prevailing gender order. [Sex typing is used by e.g. John
Lovering, 1994, and sex labelling by e.g. Judy Wajcman, 1991.]
Changes and Processes

Even with the insight that neither the gender system on a societal level nor
the gender order on the organisational level are static and once-and-for-all
given, it is difficult to show ‘the moment of truth’, that is, where segregation
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and/or hierarchisation begins. How can it be that this continues to go on when
it seems to lack social relevance and organisational efficiency? What has the
earlier research shown concerning this issue? The writings of Joan Acker
[1990; 1992], an often-cited author, seem to be very relevant in this case also.
She emphasises that genderisation of and within organisations occurs by way
of several interacting processes and that they are also connected with other
organisational structuring processes. The first process concerns the concrete
division into male and female with regard to work, behaviour, space, etc. The
second concerns the construction of symbols and notions which are related to
the concrete division but are not always in harmony with this. The third
concerns how the interaction between women and men takes place, and under
what conditions. The fourth creates the individual identity and the final, that
which is organisation specific. The processes’ content and form are
determined by the prevalent notions concerning what is female and what is
male. These notions also influence quite concretely how the work tasks are
constructed, distributed and valued and what potential exists within them for
the individual [Kvande and Rasmussen, 1990; 1993].
Low Levels of the Hierarchy

The work rotation was introduced on the lowest hierarchical level in the
retail stores. That the level is of importance is shown by other researchers.
To set proper expectations some of them will be referred to before
descriptions and analyses. Studies on the lowest hierarchical levels have to
be categorised as the findings are widely different. Studies on women-
dominated workplaces, which is the main pattern in the stores, will be
presented first followed by references to women-dominated workplaces
where men are coming in, and to men-dominated workplaces where women
are coming in. All this is relevant.
To draw clear-cut conclusions from previous studies about the manner in
which the work is pursued in women-dominated workplaces is difficult. The
results seem to be full of contradictions. Shirley Dex [1985] writes, as a
comment, that often the claims concerning the hierarchically lowest-placed
women stand on very weak empirical ground. Now and then these women
are alleged to be uninterested in their work and see life’s meaning as
existing solely outside of the workplace. Sometimes those who succeed in
creating meaning in the seemingly meaningless work foremost through
being together with their workmates are presented as being particularly
creative. Both of these attitudes could be interpreted as signs of ‘routinised
opposition’ but women’s workplace behaviour is seldom given such labels
[Prasad and Prasad, 1997]. Envy is frequently given as a typical reaction in
workplaces characterised as female. This behaviour may often be talked of
during ‘coffee-table conversations’ but has limited support in the research
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[Baude, 1992; Dex, 1985; Kaul and Lie, 1982]. On the other hand others
mean that expectations easily become self-fulfilling prophecies [Collinson,
Knights and Collinson, 1990].
In studies from female-dominated industrial sectors comparisons with
men are seldom made. That they are not present in the studies is often the
result of a segregation process within the organisation rather than of the
researchers’ neglect. The men were not there other than as foremen and in
typical male enclaves. This is demonstrated by, for example, Annika Baude
[1992] in her study of a number of companies within the food industry. The
men produced and the women packaged. The women’s work is judged by
the researchers to be carried out under inferior conditions, and for wages
lower than those for the men. In spite of this the segregation and the
conditions were not questioned by the women themselves, by the
management, or by the labour union. The situation, and the different work
conditions for women and men, developed in an interplay between supply
and demand. Baude observes that ‘Seemingly sex-neutral processes in the
question of recruitment, placement, education, advancement, and evaluation
of women and men are believed to be legitimate although the consequences
are illegitimate in relation to the constitutional ideology concerning equal
opportunities for the sexes as well as to the labour-union’s fundamental
values, democracy and solidarity.’ To this could be added that the
consequences are illegitimate also in relation to the companies’ and the
organisations’ rationality norms.
There are also some studies made of workplaces within the retail sector.
One made by Janice McLaughlin [1998] focus on the work of the (all
female) supervisors. Their knowledge and definitions of efficiency differ
from the definitions made by some other important groups. The supervisors
are looked upon as ‘feminine’ (McLaughlin’s quoting) and lack, therefore,
legitimacy in times of diverse interpretations. In Cynthia Cockburn’s book
on work for equality in different organisations [1991] one of the main
studies was done on a retail distribution chain. Many of her findings are
very similar to what we will see in the case stores presented below.
The work rotation which the management in the case company
attempted to introduce meant in reality that women and men should partake
in each other’s work areas. This is often called breaching strategy and the
involved individuals are called breakers. Breaking attempts are seldom
without problems and have been the subject of a number of studies and
assessments. Inasmuch as the problems and dynamics differ depending
upon who is the breaker, the issue will be taken up in two parts: first men as
breakers are discussed and after that the women.
Men as breakers, that is men who come into typical female jobs, are
today a group receiving great attention. Both the phenomenon and the
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studies apply foremost to men in some of the women-dominated professions
or semi-professions, in other words, on higher or middle levels in
organisations, but this does also occur farther down in the organisations.
Breaching attempts of the latter type are presented by Hagberg et al. [1995]
in their assessment of a programme made to achieve equality in Swedish
work life. The men who therein were to carry out duties characterised as
female were strongly against it. Different forms of opposition were
manifested. Some men left their employment after open confrontation rather
than, as in this case, do the cleaning. Others were deliberately negligent,
cleaned slovenly, and broke both written and unwritten rules [cf. Prasad and
Prasad, 1997, review of classification of opposition strategies]. The
researchers mean that the strong reactions can partly be explained by the
fact that the duty that was to be carried out perhaps was the most female
labelled and had the lowest status on the Swedish labour market. Men seem,
not seldom, when they come in as new-comers in female-labelled sectors to
acquire the best jobs [Pettersson, 1996]. This assumption leads however to
the question – what makes the best jobs the best? Can it be that they are
associated with men and power [McNeil, 1983]?
An innovative and sex-strengthening behaviour, or rather a behaviour
suitable to mark a distance to femininity, is often reported in studies of men
in typical female operations such as medical care and child care [Williams,
1993]. These studies draw attention to the importance of manliness and the
construction of manliness in organisational contexts, a great step forward on
the way toward an understanding of sex/gender and the construction
thereof.
Women as breachers, that is, women who come into male-dominated
workplaces on low hierarchic levels are portrayed in relatively many
studies. Some of these studies have a character of assessment inasmuch as
so-called break attempts at times have been a part of the official equal-
opportunity policy and foremost meant that it was the women who should
make the leap [Dahlerup, 1989]. For the main part one can say that studies
of women as breakers offer a distressing picture of marginalisation and
expulsion [Cockburn, 1983 and 1985; Dahlerup, 1989; Furst, 1988;
Pettersson, 1996; Pingel and Westlander, 1995]. While Furst and others
show that the women’s entry must take place on the men’s conditions, this
is not the case when the men are the breakers. It should be pointed out that
women have seldom been enthusiastic breakers although a change for them
means higher salaries and better working conditions. Most often they have
had to be persuaded by the management and/or the employment office and
training organiser [Sundin, 1993]. We will come back to how this can be
explained and understood in the analyses since signs of this is also found in
the studied stores.
213sij06.qxd 06/07/2001 11:39 Page 98
CASE PRESENTATION – WORK ROTAT I O N N O T W I T H O U T

OBSTACL ES
The Case Company – Quality Food

The investigated company belongs to one of the three groups which
dominate Swedish commerce in everyday commodities.3 In its internal
history, the beginning is usually placed in the Swedish provinces and the
1960s. The first decades were characterised by expansion and shifting
owner interests. At the end of the 1980s it was bought by the present owner,
a large Swedish company with diversified operations.
The investigated company is presented as a chain with slightly under
100 (at the time of the investigation 90) stores localised in 50 places
throughout the country. The total number of employees is over 3,000. The
stores are all whole-owned joint-stock limited companies with the store
superintendent as managing director (MD). A regional level intermediates
between the stores and the head office.
The fundamental thought with each single store being a joint-stock
company is to create freedom and incentive for the store management
(MD). The owner and top management encourage the MDs to work through
a management group selected among the store’s employees. Thereby, a local
profile can be created which is considered to be of utmost importance by the
top-management. Regional/local variations should further be acknowledged
and exploited, for example through purchase from local suppliers of
vegetables, fruits, eggs, meat, etc. The stores must adopt the established
business concept that embraces a quality profile with manual service for
certain product groups and adequate staffing. This policy necessitates, in
order to be successful, that the employees are well-informed and motivated.
This applies to all within the company, in the head office, as well as out in
the individual stores. Work rotation is an important part of this quality
ambition. The establishment of a profit-sharing system can also be seen as
an element in this effort, as can regular price fixing. In the stores only two
levels are left: the store managers and the rest of the employees.
The company is characterised by a strong leadership, a strong culture
built on its provincial origin, and intrapreneurship, which is stimulated by
the stores’ independence and the profit-sharing system which includes all
the employees [Johansson et al., 1996].
Method
Data from the case company was gathered in 1997 and 1998. The main
object was to compare wages and salaries paid to women and men.
Inasmuch as this demanded information for every single individual from the
employer’s accounts and registers, a selection of stores, and thereby also
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employees, had to be made. Six stores out of the 90 were chosen from
criteria concerning size and location. The six stores represented big units,
small units and medium sized units. The smallest of the case stores has 15
employees and the largest 80. The latter is one of the country’s absolutely
largest stores. When it comes to location the closeness to the capital
Stockholm and its, in many ways, special labour market were considered to
be of importance. Two units in the Stockholm area were chosen and the
other four in small and medium sized towns (Swedish standards). For all of
the 300 employees working in these six stores information was gathered
concerning their personal particulars, their background, working ‘history’ in
the store, as well as economic compensations classified as ground salary or
given for special working hours, responsibility, etc. The information was
taken from internal material in each store and through interviews. Proper
interviews were made with the owner of the mother company, the personnel
manager of the mother company, the personnel manager at the head office,
two regional managers, ten store managers (MDs), one representative for
the union in each of the six stores, and 18 other persons working in the
stores including the few with administrative responsibility. The interviews
concerned different aspects of work, organisation and compensation. The
outcome was discussed with a number of the interviewed persons. The
interviews and observations were done by the author and by Marie Aurell,
a Ph.D. student.
The Employees – Sex, Age, and Length of Employment

The company is dominated by women, as is the trade with everyday
commodities in its entirety. The men make up not quite 30 per cent of the
employees, proportionately more in the higher-level positions. The six
stores which were the primary focus of the investigation have among their
employees the same, or a somewhat lower, share of men as in the national
average. Of the country’s 90 stores a handful have (at the time of writing
seven) a female store manager. That two of these are included in the
investigation means a clear overrepresentation. This was not planned but is
a consequence of the other criteria for selection. The data below refer to
circumstances in these investigated stores.
The employees in the provinces are on average older than 40 years. The
youngest are to be found within the metropolitan areas. It is also there that
the length of employment is shortest. In an investigated store situated in a
Stockholm suburb the men have on average been employed for 6.6 years
while their colleagues in a smaller city in southern Sweden have been at
their posts for almost 20 years. These are the extremes in the material in
these respects. With close to one exception the women have longer lengths
of employment than the men.
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Part-time work, common in retailing, is widespread among the employees

whom we have studied. The variations are however significant. The
employees, both women and men, in the Stockholm area have the longest
workday and there the discrepancy in working time between the sexes is also
smallest. The men in the most typical provincial store have long working
hours and there the difference in time commitment is also greatest between
the sexes. In one of the stores, one of those with a woman as manager, the
women have on average longer working hours than the few men.
On average the women’s wages are 91.5 per cent of the men’s, which
means 6 SEK (Swedish crowns) per hour.4 In the last-mentioned store the
women also have a higher wage per hour than the men, more exactly 103.4
per cent of the men’s wage. In the other stores the men have higher wages
per hour. The lowest women’s wage per hour is 85.6 per cent of the men’s.
The obtained actual wage per hour has a statistically secure correlation with
sex: men are paid better than women. It should be mentioned that the
prevailing notion within the company, on all levels, is that all earn the same.
That there does not, and cannot, exist wage differences because of sex is a
common belief in the company both among employees and managers.
Division of Labour Along Gender Lines

The declared quality profile demands relatively many employees ‘on the floor’
and manual counters. Paired with the need to minimise costs and risks for
occupational injuries this means that work rotation is constantly emphasised.
There exists however a certain contradiction between rotation and these
ambitions of specialist competence. The quality level demands a high special
competence with regard to products and their handling. This is accomplished
mainly by assigning the responsibility for certain product groups, work
moments and functions to the employees. This responsibility is wide.
Well, to begin with one should have responsibility for the section.
Economywise one should be able to operate the section in a proper
manner. One should ensure that one has the staffing needed in the
section and attend to the purchasing ... on the whole one must be able
to handle the section without support from anyone else. ... Then it is
of course knowledge which is the most important ... about the product.
(Store manager – Man)
With regard to the areas of responsibility and the work duties, there
exists a distinct division of work which can often also be manifested in
sex/gender terms. Certain tasks are typical female and others typical male.
The most distinct example of the former is cashier work and of the latter
butcher. The sex-based division for certain work tasks/areas of
responsibility are as presented in Table 2 below.
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TABLE 2
TASK/AR EA OF RESPONSI BI LI TY I N S TO R E S O WN E D B Y Q U A L I T Y
F O O D : P E R C E N TA G E O F W O M E N A N D M E N I N 1 9 9 7
Task/area of responsibility Share of women Share of men
Butcher 13 87
Cashier (approx.) 95 5
Dairy and deepfreeze 25 75
Fruit and vegetables 73 27
Office 93 7
(Information given by the head office)
Work Tasks, Competence, and Gender

The areas of responsibility and work duties place different demands on the
employees. The demands that are most often specified, and that can
determine to whom the different tasks are to be given (and eventually the
thereto accompanying increment) are
• physical strength
• special competence and/or education /training
• ‘feeling and seeing’
• endurance of difficult environments, for example cold storage
Handling the meat is the task most often said to require physical strength.
The conclusion drawn is then that a chap is needed. ‘If there are two equally
good candidates (a man and a woman) I would all the same choose the man,
since it is a heavier, a very heavy job’ (Store manager – Man). The demand
for physical strength can however also be applied elsewhere in the store.
Many types of products demand heavy lifts: fruits and vegetables,
newspapers, nonperishables – just about everything. This is noted by
several of the interviewees. One female employee says about the ‘weight
argument’: ‘Dairy is not heavier, actually, than it is on nonperishables, or to
lift detergent cartons and such, or pet foods and the like. I mean that they
are all just as heavy, actually. The only difference then is that it is colder, but
then we have our jackets. The chaps have to put on theirs too. So it is quite
strange.’
The demand for special competence is discussed foremost with regard to
the meat counter and the quartering of the carcasses. To be a butcher
requires training and there are women, in the investigated stores as well,
who are trained butchers. Of the chart above it is apparent that there are
women who are responsible for handling the meat. To what extent they in
reality work as butchers and are called a butcher is however, according to
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the oral information from the head office, unfortunately not clear. The
chart’s figures are possibly an overestimation of the female share among
those in daily practise responsible for the handling of the meat.
Fruit and vegetables are one of the sections which demand ‘feeling and
seeing’. Feeling and seeing is assumed to be foremost a female gift: ‘They
see better if something is turning bad’ (Employee – Woman). The fourth
demand above, to cope with difficult work conditions, refers most often to
refrigeration and freezing. This is assumed to be less harmful to men than

to women. ‘I do not like to send a gal into the refrigerated room to get
something’ (Store manager – Man).
The task which is absolutely female is the cashier work. One does it,
according to the predominant conceptions, not because one is especially
proficient at it but because one is not so good at anything else. This can
hardly be seen as especially meritorious and as such is not highly evaluated.
All of these dimensions are seen by the management as a problem. The
cashier is central for the stores’ success. A sulky and slow cashier can
discourage many customers. The cashiers have to handle much money. The
work leads quite often to occupational injuries. All the same it is classed as
being at the bottom of the informal hierarchy. Inasmuch as this classing is
also given some support in the formal evaluation, the company’s and the
store managers’ attitude can be characterised as being ambivalent.
Work Rotation
Work rotation was, as has been mentioned repeatedly earlier, given high
priority by the management for a number of different reasons. It succeeded
only partially. In practice two duties in particular often ended up outside of
the rotation even if they were included in the schedule: butchering and
cashier work, that is, the most strongly sex-coded duties out in the stores.
The reasons given for this failure in rotation were however contradictory.
The butchering is classified as being so qualified that only a few can do
it. This is a simple and seemingly convincing explanation – at a closer look
it turns out to be less clear-cut. Several of the trained female butchers want
to practice their skills more than they are allowed to. But they also admit
that it is a heavy, sometimes altogether too heavy, job. The next question
must be: Why? There is equipment to facilitate the job but one of the
interviewees meant that the male butchers do not want any of it. ‘We
pointed this out when we rebuilt, that we should install rails in the ceiling
so that anyone would be able to move them (animal carcasses) over to the
cutting bench. But they (the male butchers) thought this was unnecessary.
So now they carry them themselves’ (Employee – Woman).5 At such
workplaces many women with butcher training may be allowed to practice
their skills only ‘in a pinch’. Such exclusive behaviour and consequences
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have no support in the management. Besides these arguments there are
others that directly build on sex-stereotyping notions: ‘One can perhaps feel
that this is a little more for the chaps. It is, well, because it is more bloody
... that one feels that it is somewhat repulsive, in some way to handle meat
and cut ...’ said this female interviewee, who could hardly have been
referring to her many sisters within medical care in mind.
With regard to the cashier work the explanations are both more and less
clear-cut. Rotation with regard to the cashier work occurs only in

emergency situations in five of the six investigated stores. It is often said
that those who sit as cashier do not want to rotate; it is therefore their own
fault that they are not integrated in the competence-heightening scheme at
the workplaces. ‘I believe that one thrives well as cashier and one does not
want to run about and handle and pick wares ... one seems to thrive as
cashier’ (Store manager – Man). Among the cashiers interviewed there
were none who said that she wanted to be cashier only – on the contrary
those who gave information wanted to learn other things and have some
variety in their work. ‘I have fastened as cashier, and I don’t feel that it is
that enjoyable ... Today I am scheduled to sort the wares half of my time.
But when the other cashier calls me I have to go there and then I’ll be left
sitting there’ (Employee – Woman). Is there then any real opposition or is it
an assumed opposition? This is impossible to determine since any expressed
desire to solely work as cashier is contrary to the official company culture.
In an analogous manner it is difficult to get anyone to say that they cannot
even think about sitting as cashier. Such testimony comes solely from the
store managers. ‘The (work rotation) does not function, because they do not
want to learn the cashier routines. And as long as all are not willing to take
part it cannot function. And one cannot force anyone either’ (Store manager
– Man). These types of testimonies give interesting information about
opinions of the work, of different kinds of work, and of what is female and
what is male. They do not however give any direct information about
whether or not the employees really want to rotate.
... the Exception

In one of the six stores (with a woman as MD) work rotation is nevertheless
functioning. ‘All sit as cashier, all can handle the delicatessen. Each one is
more or less good in the different areas, but they can manage it. This means
that all sit as cashier, in two- and three-hour stretches. And it is there we do
have real rotation.’ This interviewee makes it sound so uncomplicated; the
main impression from the store studies is however a strong ambivalence in
the remaining stores. Out of concern for stress, the management is keen that
especially the cashier work is included in the rotation. In addition the
company’s ideology presupposes and desires that employees have an all-
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round competence as well as specialist knowledge, and all of this, it should

not be forgotten, in a comparatively low-paid sector.
In summary it can be said that the rotation’s stopping at butcher work is
explained by this being altogether too difficult to manage for the main part
of the staff. This is surely so in the present situation. At the same time an
increased competence within the area should be central if the management’s
strategy for the stores is to be realised, a strategy which explicitly builds on
a qualitative assortment for which the meat counter is an important element.

All who are trained to carry out that function are however not always
allowed to practice their skills. It seems as though the male butchers exclude
others from these tasks. This is a strategy which we recognise from
professionals’ manner of guarding their own turf.6 With regard to the cashier
work the mechanisms are completely different. Here it seems instead to be
that the cashiers are closed in their enclave by their fellow workers.
Exclusion and enclosure are correlated with the sex/gender of those
responsible. This is the theme of the next and concluding section.
CONCLUSIONS
Above we saw how work rotation for the majority of the studied stores
functioned imperfectly: the butchers and the cashiers were often not
included in the exchange schedule. The former is classified as being
typically male/masculine, the latter as typically female/feminine. How
should this be understood and explained when so many business-economic
and rational reasons favour a consequent rotation and when top
management is firmly stating the importance of work rotation, and this is
something that is supported by store managers? There is, of course, not one
single answer to the question. The reasons are many and intertwined but can
well be identified with the help of the concepts, gender order, gender
label/labelling, gender contract, and gender subtexts presented on pages 93
and 94. Joan Acker’s processes seem to be very adequate for the
understanding. The discussion is pursued under different headings, with the
divergent case, the store where the work rotation was practised, separated
from the others.
The Strength of Existing Structures Including Gender Order, Labels,

Contracts and Subtexts
Let us first recall that rotation was to be introduced in an already existing
structure, with a functioning work division in the stores. This division
embraces a clear gender order, which can be observed by the ‘naked eye’
when entering the store. The men are few and those who are there are
mainly butchers at the meat counter. If there are other men they are seldom
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cashiers. They are in the refrigeration or possibly in the fruit and vegetable
section. And the store manager is of course practically always a man.
Higher up in the organisational hierarchy on the other hand there are
relatively many men. In the company, manliness is seen as something
provincial, reliable and signalling diligence. Womanliness is considerably
more diffuse inasmuch as the women are described and perceived as being
less professional and less ambitious. The official policy for equality does
not affect these images. The young men who are in the organisation are seen
as future bosses both by their female workmates and by the managers.
That which can easily be observed is then a clear illustration of Acker’s
first process, which was presented on page 95. The observable sex-based
division of work is seen as something natural by the employees themselves,
by the management, by the MDs, and by the customers. That which seems
natural also creates expectations among all involved actors. On both supply
and demand sides categories are imbedded in the institutional situation that
creates, and is created by, the predominant organisational gender order. The
expectations are not seldom tacit; inasmuch as they are so dominating they
need not be expressed. However they can not be classified as hidden, but are
rather a sort of subtext that is comprehended by all and can be verbalised.
The conceptions are translated into work tasks, time schedules and work
places. The gender construction is in full bloom all the time.
That which we observe can also be expressed as though some work tasks
in the stores have a strong male gender coding/labelling and one, the
cashier, has a strong female gender code/label. The breaks which occur
across the boundaries are classified as being temporary and exceptions
which cannot and should not question the label. This manner of redefining
gender breaks as non-existing is, so to speak, an element of the predominant
gender contract. The strength of the gender order is next to total on this level
and is facilitated by the men being so few. The men are separated
hierarchywise, as store managers, or taskwise and spacewise, for example
by being butchers.
Resisting Men and Hesitating Women

From former studies we know that neither men nor women as a rule are
enthusiastic breakers. This can, with Acker’s terminology, be explained by
the fact that the individual’s identity is closely connected to occupation and
work duties. Resistance and hesitation was at hand also in the case-stores.
The reasons differ between women and men but also within the two groups.
The opposition toward work rotation is often presented in an indirect,
passive form. Confrontation occurs seldom and if it does it is not expressed
in sex/gender terms, which is a very typical Swedish way of handling these
questions [Eduards, 1992].
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Men have, in general, little or nothing to gain from coming into work
tasks dominated by women. Such work tasks are often objectively
downright inferior, as in this case a combination of sitting still, one-sided
physical exercise, small possibilities for influencing the work tempo and the
shaping of the work, as well as a relatively low wage.
All this also means, in this case, that the women who have other main
tasks in the store would not gladly sit as cashier. Their hesitancy can be
strengthened by the general acceptance of the female label on cashier work.

In order to avoid that placement these women must stress their disinterest.
The expectations directed toward the few men in the stores are not the same.
It is therefore more risk-free for them to actually sit as cashier. In the
existing gender order and predominant gender contract they are not
expected to stay there. They are only seen as pleasant guests on such posts.
For the women butchers it is quite different; they are effectively closed
out by the men. The weight argument, which is always assumed to be
objective and sex/gender neutral, is frequently used. Those women who
educate themselves as butchers seldom expect to actually be allowed to
work in the same manner as their male counterparts. If they insist the risk is
that the men apply for work elsewhere, in other stores or other sectors. No
one wants that. The gender order presupposes the presence of men
inasmuch as the sex mixture throughout is spoken of as being so positive.
The expectations from both the concerned and the surroundings therefore
always become sex/gender dependent. Consensus means that the interaction
between the workplaces’ women and men becomes defused.
The course of events in the different stores indicates that, with Thurén’s
terminology, genderisation in the stores is not all-embracing. Its spread is
relatively extensive while its strength mainly refers to the male-labelled work
duties and cashier work. The work tasks that are carried out by men, or rather
that are assumed should be carried out by men, have a stronger male character
than the female character which is associated with the majority of those tasks
that are normally carried out by women. This can be a consequence of the fact
that the sector is not so strongly female labelled as is for example health and
medical care. That retailing is seen as being typically female is based on the
large number of women rather than on the operations’ gender labelling on a
societal level. This is apparent also in that its strength varies between different
sections/work duties and also between different stores.
Work Rotation in Action

In one of the stores work rotation was practised in reality. How could that
be? Were there no gender division of labour, gender orders, gender contract,
or gender labels at hand? Yes, there were, but the manager chose to exploit
the possibilities given in connection with the owner shift to treat the store as
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though it was new. In that way she ‘threw out’ the old work evaluation and
increment systems and decided, together with the union, to create a new
system, a new contract, as good and fair as possible. All employees agreed
upon starting from scratch. The manager of that store does not see her
actions as associated to or motivated by equality but with rationality. She
does not use sex/gender terms when talking about her actions and neither
does the representative for the union. There are no explicit assessment
strategies that are especially positive for women; this has become one of the
unintended, but welcomed (by the manager), consequences. Through this
radical method the existing gender order is outmanoeuvred. Rationality
takes over gender, so to speak. If this is a permanent outcome or not is still
too early to say. Eventually the result can be that no men stay on in the store.
How come it was possible here and how come it did not happen in the
other stores? Was it a coincidence that it was a female MD who acted in this
way? While the manager herself does not attach any weight to sex or
gender, we cannot be sure whether or not the manager’s gender does play a
role. Earlier studies show that the managers’ sex has significance for wage-
setting in that men are favoured by male bosses while no one is favoured by
female, that is, female bosses are in relative terms better for women [Hultin
and Szulkin, 1997]. The women who have become MD for a store have, by
getting and keeping that post, broken with many expectations and also with
the predominant gender order. Perhaps they are therefore more open to
question that which is taken for granted, even if they do not have equal
opportunities on either the organisational or the private arena.
It Takes Many to Reconstruct Inequality and Nonrational Behaviour

It seems to be possible to draw some conclusions from this study. First;
decisions by top management are necessary but not sufficient to create
changes in organisations. Second; the importance of the middle managers
for implementation. Third; the presence of power everywhere in
organisations is sometimes practised as resistance. Fourth; it was not one
major decision behind the failure (or success) in introducing work rotation
but the many decisions made by both women and men on all hierarchical
levels. Fifth; business rationality’s seem to be weaker than gender
rationality’s in people’s minds. Therefore, organisational theories have to
integrate gender in order to make proper analyses and give adequate support
for managers’ decisions and actions. And at last – change is possible. Some
short comments will end the article.
In this case, the top-management’s absolute conviction is that work
rotation is good for the company, for the individual stores, and for the
employees. Despite that conviction it has only been introduced in a minority
of the stores. Possibly this is a lapse on the part of the management, that is,
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not to realise that the question’s degree of difficulty is dependent on the fact
that the gender-based division of work and therewith the predominant
gender order is put in question through the rotation proposal. On the other
hand it was not the top management’s intention to change anything which
questions the organisation culture. The management is relatively satisfied
with the established culture since it for the most part seems to have created
a good internal working climate and a positive outward image. That the
management’s aims and intentions are not one but many [compare
Cockburn 1991] can explain why the top management did not insist upon
obedience. The rotation proposal appeared from above to be very rational;
it is easy to be altogether too rational at the top.
Both that which the female MD did and what the others did and did not
actualise the great importance which the middle levels have in all
organisations. Decisions made high up in the organisation must be
implemented in order to have any effect. That much can happen on the way
down the hierarchical ladder is shown in the studies from many different
areas carried out by researchers from various disciplines. Those who are to
implement the proposal must however run the stores every day, every hour.
If work rotation is met with opposition and obstruction in the organisation,
the work rotation is dropped. This also gives clear evidence that power is
present everywhere – not only at the top. In companies of this type even
those farthest down on the status scale in the organisation have power. If
they do not do their job in a service-minded way this harms the whole
organisation. Consequences of so-called ‘smile strikes’ are well
substantiated [Prasad and Prasad, 1997]. Nevertheless, it is apparent that the
women cashiers have very little power in relation to the others. They are
farthest down in the organisational hierarchy; they have few alternatives
within the organisation (which opposition to rotation indicates) and not
especially many alternatives outside the organisation.
To sum up, the question brought up in the introduction was why work
rotation was not realised in the majority of the stores while becoming a fact
in one. The answer is not short and simple but consists of a number of
counteracting factors such as: predominant gender order and gender
contract, expectations of all concerned, evaluations and rationality,
opposition, power, and individual strategies, which, taken together, create
the segregating and hierarchising processes that, ongoing constantly, result
in different opportunity structures for the organisation’s women and men.7
The processes taking place in existing structures are everywhere. The
concrete outcome of them is dependent upon the organisation within which
they take place.
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NOTES
1. The empirical work has been done with support from and in co-operation with the LÖV-
programme administrated by the Swedish National Institute for Working Life (NIWL).
2. In daily speech ‘women and men’, ‘female-male’, and ‘femininity-masculinity’ are
sometimes used synonymously, sometimes to accentuate the difference as in the phrase ‘a
feminine man’ or ‘a masculine woman’. I will not go into a discussion on these but refer to
Alvesson [1997] and Johansson [1997] and try to use the concepts so as to avoid
misunderstanding.
3. The case is presented in Swedish, SOU 1998: 4.
4. The base for these calculations is made up of the employees at six of the investigated stores.
The deviating store, one of them with a woman as MD and with somewhat better wages for
the female employees, is included in the material and in the figures, which means that the
discrepancy to the men’s favour in the remaining five is greater than the average data shows.
5. This quotation is taken from an interview made by Eva Christensson. See Christensson
[1997].
6. There is a large amount of both Swedish and international literature about professions and
the professions’ strategies. An often-referred-to researcher is Abbott [1988]. The professions
and profession theories have been scrutinised from a gender perspective by e.g. Christensen
[1990], Hugman [1991] and Öberg [1996].
7. The concept opportunity structure was coined by Rosabeth Moss Kanter in her well-known
and often-referred-to study ‘Men and Women of the Corporation’ from 1977.
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This article was downloaded by: ["Queen's University Libraries, Kingston"]

On: 02 October 2013, At: 22:57

The Service Industries Journal

Gender-determined Jobs and Job-rotation -

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/714005032

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Gender-determined Jobs and Job-rotation –

Elisabeth Sundin is at the Arbetslivsinstitutet (National Institute of Working Life), Laxholmen,

The Service Industries Journal, Vol.21, No.3 (July 2001), pp.87–112

workplaces seem to correspond with the image revealed by the aggregated

the prevailing gender order.

THE SWEDISH LABOUR MARKET FRO M A S E X / G EN D ER

The case company is in retail-trading. The Swedish retail trade must

The Employees and Wages

question of time disposition, and violence. The first-named, unemployment,

Commerce is, as in many other countries [Broadbridge, 1995; 1997;

Position Commercial employers Cooperative employers

Source: Handelsanställdas förbund (Commercial Employees’ Union).

segments of, organisations. The gender-system concept in Scandinavia has

Gender in Organisations’ Culture

organisations in different sectors as well as between organisations within

Changes and Processes

Low Levels of the Hierarchy

CASE PRESENTATION – WORK ROTAT I O N N O T W I T H O U T

The Case Company – Quality Food

The Employees – Sex, Age, and Length of Employment

Part-time work, common in retailing, is widespread among the employees

Division of Labour Along Gender Lines

Task/area of responsibility Share of women Share of men

Work Tasks, Competence, and Gender

refrigeration and freezing. This is assumed to be less harmful to men than

clear-cut. Rotation with regard to the cashier work occurs only in

... the Exception

round competence as well as specialist knowledge, and all of this, it should

a qualitative assortment for which the meat counter is an important element.

The Strength of Existing Structures Including Gender Order, Labels,

Resisting Men and Hesitating Women

strengthened by the general acceptance of the female label on cashier work.

Work Rotation in Action

It Takes Many to Reconstruct Inequality and Nonrational Behaviour

Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift. Nos.3–4, pp.69–85.

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