Gendered Emotional Labor

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During the late 1960s, air stewardess had the connotation that they are not just for providing food and beverage service. The advertisements of airline industries had made the flight attendants highly eroticized and an object of aesthetic and sex appeal. Needless to say, most of the passengers expected to be presented with feminine bravado (Tiemeyer, 2007). Almost all of the airlines had the female-only policy when hiring flight attendants. By 1960s, the population of males in the industry of flight attendants were just four percent. However, a major turning point occurred in 1972 by the virtue of Diaz v. Pan Am court case. The Supreme Court sided with Celio Diaz requiring all airline industries to hire men. However, due to the public connotation …show more content…

The term "emotional labor" refers to the processes involving management of feelings or emotions during the different interactions within the scope of the labor process. Aside from being motivated by gendered emotional labor, Taylor and Tyler (2000) argue that sexual differentiation is prominent within the employment sector of airline industries. The term "sexual differentiation" refers to the process of assigning and distinguishing the different types of labor according to the differences in the capabilities between the …show more content…

Given the employment statistics extremely dominated by women, it implies that flight attendants are more appropriate for females than males. According to Melissa Tyler and Steve Taylor (1998), the dominance of women in the employment of flight attendants can be thought of due to the work requiring the virtues possessed by women. Their respondents stated that flight attendants should be "caring", "patient", "thoughtful", and "helpful". These qualities are found to be more biologically natural to females than males. In other words, most of the services provided by the flight attendants are natural to women. However, Tyler and Taylor (1998) noted that although some virtues must be possessed by flight attendants, the job of flight attendants is beyond being "caring", "patient", "thoughtful", and "helpful". Being a flight attendant means not just ensuring the comfort of the passengers but also requires other skills, such as being assertive during emergency situations, knowledgeable about the various aspects of the airplane, and well-trained for the safety of the passengers. Moreover, the public may have overlooked the fact that being a flight attendant is more stressful than it

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