Construction labour, subcontracting and masculinity: “construction is a man’s job”

Abstract

This study examines how construction workers construct their male identity on the basis of their job requirements. A qualitative field research comprising in-depth interviews was conducted with 32 construction workers in Diyarbakır to examine subcontracting in Turkey’s construction sector. The findings show that by defining construction labour in terms of physical capacity, an outcome of the labour conditions shaped by the practice of subcontracting, construction work have become naturalised as a man’s job. The findings also illustrate how construction produces different masculinities that intersect with the understanding of working class shaped by the role of men being the head of the family rather than a single notion of manhood shaped by physical working conditions. Nevertheless, the male worker culture that feeds off different masculinities still retains the power to dominate and exclude women as workers from the construction site, e.g. through means of sexual harassment.

Keywords:

• Gender
• Turkish construction
• subcontracting
• masculinity

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 That is to say, achieving manhood is only possible by going through certain social stages, unlike the status of womanhood which is believed to be acquired through various biological transformations. For instance, in a research that inquires “how a man loses his manhood”, the responses emphasise loss of “status” in social relations as in “losing one’s job”, “failure to take care of one’s family” and “humiliation by others” (Vandello et al. 2008). Just as expressed in these responses, “masculinity is produced within and by social relations”. Thus, masculinity rests on a constant effort to prove oneself and convince others to that effect within these social relations.

2 "I’ve been married for five months now, and I think it is being a family man… Of course, it means responsibility… I feel more responsible now. My perspective has completely changed (G9, 33, married, security guard) (Türkoğlu 2013, p. 47).

3 Therefore, physical aggression, as a test to be successfully passed in the face of threats, is defined by men as a positive experience in the process of the (re)production of masculinity The cited study shows that, as distinct from men, women define their own moments of physical aggression as a temporary loss of control, and thus a negative experience.

Additional information

Funding

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research of this article: the author received a fund from TUBITAK (The Scienfic and Technological Reseach Council of Turkey) for the project numbered [114K629] and entitled “The Effects of Subcontracting on Construction Workers”.