The deserving professional: job insecurity and gender inequality in the oil and gas industry

ABSTRACT

Jobs have become increasingly insecure since the decline of the standard employment contract, a trend that is expected to continue in the future. Workers in all sectors of the economy, including scientists and engineers, face precarious working conditions today, as corporate downsizing and reorganisation result in routine layoffs. This paper investigates how job insecurity can contribute to gender inequality. Drawing on interviews with scientists and engineers conducted over a period of boom-and-bust at a multi-national oil company, I uncovered a discourse of ‘the deserving professional.’ This is a hegemonic discourse that identifies certain individuals—those who are under 50, native-born whites, and family breadwinners—as most deserving of keeping their jobs during periods of downsizing. I argue that the discourse of the deserving professional is used by workers to understand and in some cases justify what seem like arbitrary and biased decisions regarding layoffs. The discourse of the deserving professional also provides sociologists with insight into the future of white male domination of this industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender inequality
• women in STEM
• layoffs
• oil and gas industry

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Notice to Readers

Acknowledgement

I gratefully acknowledge Chandra Muller and Amanda Bosky for their contributions to this research, and Jennifer Glass for her supportive comments. I’m also thankful for the feedback I received from the participants in the Future of Work conference, especially Michelle Brady and Gillian Whitehouse.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Federal law prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of age, race/color, national origin, sex, and pregnancy. Family status is explicitly prohibited in a handful of states; however, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces these laws, advises employers not to inquire about marital status and children in pre-employment inquiries (EEOC 2018).

2. At Wave 3, the survey sample size was 196.

3. Some respondents also wrongly believed that U.S. corporations were required to repatriate foreign workers prior to engaging in mass layoffs. But there are virtually no restrictions on corporate layoffs in the U.S., aside from the WARN act, which requires that workers receive advance notification of layoffs under certain conditions.

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Notes on contributors

Christine L. Williams

Christine L. Williams is Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.