Trading in gender for women in trades: embodying hegemonic masculinity, femininity and being a gender hotrod created by Louisa Smith

he construction industry remains male dominated despite reforms in recruitment, training and some workplaces since the 1970s. That said some women do still enter the industry. The aim of this research was to explore the embodied experiences of women who work in a particular area of construction, that of manual skilled trades. Fifteen tradeswomen between the ages of 21 and 60 were interviewed using a life history framework. Unstructured and in-depth, the life history interviews covered a broad range of topics including family history, education, embodiment, sexuality and work. This method aimed to contextualize participants’ experiences of work within broader relations, allowing a space for participants to discuss their labour processes beyond a conception of them as challenging. The central finding of the research was that gender was not experienced as stable or simple. Instead gender was contradictory. Some women also found that being ‘outside’ the expectations of masculine cultures allowed them to use their gender as a resource to work more smartly and more safely. From the experiences of women in trades, pleasure is theorized as a useful point of connection between women and between women and men in male dominated work cultures.