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Servants on the Move

Employers’ Race-Gender Ideology and Service Work on Trains, Planes, and Cruise Ships

Servants on the Move cover

Servants on the Move

Employers’ Race-Gender Ideology and Service Work on Trains, Planes, and Cruise Ships

Description

What explains racial and gender inequality in the workplace? Using firm-level data from railroad, airline, and cruise ship companies, the central questions addressed in this book are- why and how did race-gender hierarchies get created, maintained, legitimized, and challenged on trains, airplanes, and cruise ships? The author focuses on employers' role in producing inequality among workers by examining management’s actions and their own expressed race-gender ideology regarding service workers in Pullman Railroad Company (1860s to 1960s), the four major U.S. airlines (1930s to 1970s), and U.S.-owned cruise companies (1970s to 2000s). In addition to being driven by the profit motive, these men made hiring decisions that reflected their own stated beliefs about race, gender, and nationality. In all three instances, company executives consciously decided to create a work environment that was hierarchically segregated along race and gender lines. Once employers decided to typecast a new job as “best-suited” for one group of people, they inscribed workers’ social identities on the performance of these jobs. Notably, White men were the only group never deemed naturally suited for serving others.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: The World They Created
Chapter 2: The Origins of Service Workers in the Pullman Railroad Company, 1858-1880s
Chapter 3: Pullman Executives’ Public and Private Racial Discourse, 1890s-1950s
Chapter 4: White Femininity Takes Flight, 1910s to 1970s
Chapter 5: Going Global: Service Work, Race-Gender-Nationality on Cruise Ships
Chapter 6: Conclusion: Some Things Change, Others Stay the Same
References

Product details

Published Jul 08 2024
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Extent 160
ISBN 9781666954715
Imprint Lexington Books
Illustrations 14 BW Illustrations, 6 Tables
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

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