A feminist analysis of gender representation in airline organisations
Creators: name: Smith, Whitney Estanita
Publisher: name: University of Surrey
Year: 2023

description: While progress has been made toward gender equality in aviation, complete gender equality at all levels has not yet been achieved. The industry is one heavily influenced by its hyper-masculine culture, which, as a result, has placed greater emphasis and value on ‘assertiveness’ and ‘authority’, traits typically associated with men and masculinity, creating a gender-bias within the workplace. Whilst women have been part of aviation history as early as the 1930s, their role in the historically male-dominated sector has mostly been limited to the flight attendant occupation, a service profession that reflects the role of the mother, nurse, hostess, and idealised wife. Airline organisations play a crucial role in shaping, maintaining and disciplining gender-based occupational stereotypes. The workplace environment and organisational culture are deeply infused with gendered dimensions. Understanding the process through which gender in airlines is constructed and maintained is necessary for understanding gender representation and performance. Organisational norms through policy, social media and employee embodiment influences performances in gender-typed roles, constructing and setting the standardised dualistic model of what it means to be a ‘man’ or ‘woman’ in aviation.<br>
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description: The aim of the thesis is to explore and understand how gender is constructed, performed, and embedded in aviation discourse and discursive practices and performance. Using a feminist poststructuralist approach, this thesis seeks to deconstruct gender dimensions and increase our understanding of socially constructed gender ideologies that exist within airline employment. The thesis carries out three individual studies across four airlines – Emirates, KLM, Qantas, and Virgin Atlantic. The overall aim of the thesis has been broken down into three research objectives:<br>
description: <br>
description: 1. Examine how gendered discourses are constituted within airline organisational narratives through text, gestures, and symbolic signs;<br>
description: 2. Investigate how airline organisational images portray employees in gendered ways through social media;<br>
description: 3. Examine how airline organisations maintain, regulate and surveil gendered conformity in flight attendant appearances and embodied performances.<br>
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description: The three individual studies, which follow as chapters two, three and four, taken together can be read
description: as a standalone piece of academic research. A central conceptual theme of the individual studies is
description: the complexity of constructing gender roles, stereotypes, practices, and performances and the
description: structures that shape and control organisational expectations and norms. The first study examined
description: how gendered discourses are constructed and disciplined by airlines focusing on how airline
description: organisational narratives constitute social reality through text, gestures, and symbolic signs. A
description: thematic document analysis of ten websites and 18 organisational documents revealed that while
description: airlines work to increase gender equality in employment practices, their efforts predominantly focus
description: on the cockpit, partially neglecting roles beyond the flight deck. The persistence of gender binaries
description: emphasises the value placed on pilots rather than flight attendants, thereby continuing to perpetuate
description: occupational segregation in airlines.<br>
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description: The second study investigated the construction of gendered imagery in aviation employment across
description: four of the most followed airline Instagram accounts. The analysis of 1,385 Instagram images obtained
description: through a nethnographic approach revealed that airlines consistently construct and distribute publicly
description: available playful imagery that objectifies female staff and hyper-feminises the cabin space. In this
description: study, the majority of images shared by the airline Instagram accounts closely resembled hegemonic
description: gender norms that further contribute to reproducing gendered divisions.<br>
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description: The third study completes the thesis by manuscript. In this study, semi-structured interviews with
description: male and female flight attendants across three airlines were conducted to examine the way in which
description: the airline industry maintains and regulates gendered conformity in appearance and embodied
description: performances, and how these standards may be resisted. The study's findings suggest that airline
description: organisations routinely exercise power by employing relational surveillance mechanisms and
description: processes(i.e. peer-surveillance and self-surveillance) dispersed through circulatory forces at all levels
description: that engender conformity, the effectiveness of which are recognised by employee conformance and
description: the adaptation of organisation rules.<br>
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description: Collectively, the findings respond to the overarching thesis objectives and research aim. Each objective
description: independently offers valuable contributions to a growing body of tourism and aviation literature
description: engaging with critical gender frameworks. As a whole, this thesis contributes to research on the
description: representation of gender in airline organisations from both theoretical and managerial perspectives.
description: This thesis's most significant theoretical contribution is its deconstruction of certain naturalised
description: assumptions of gender that exist within the aviation sector, providing new insights into the
description: construction of symbols, discourses, and discursive practices in aviation cultures, all of which work
description: together to create, shape, and regulate the gendering of cabin crew work. The research findings also
description: have key managerial implications for the airline industry. Despite a few improvements and
description: advancements, the airline industry continues to perpetuate gendered meanings in organisational
description: policies and discourse that reinforce the narrowly defined expectations around feminine
description: performance. The findings of this thesis should encourage airlines to strengthen organisational
description: policies and management practices in order to challenge gender-based expectations and
description: representations in the industry. Further, to broaden societal perceptions of the ideal worker, airlines
description: may consider adopting and implementing concrete strategies to improve the representation of men
description: and women, so as to achieve greater gender equality and diversity at industry-wide levels.<br>