| dc.description.abstract | This thesis investigates women's formal and informal
marginalization at work, focusing on employment and job
assignments in the aquatics department of a leisure facility
in Thunder Bay. I outline the theoretical perspectives on
part-time work, methods of segregating women in employment,
the social construction of space use, and sport ideology.
The economic, political, and cultural fabric of the city is
detailed, as well as its ties to the employment trends of
the Corporation of the City of Thunder Bay and the specific
site under study. The work performed in the aquatics
department of the facility is described, focusing on the two
basic divisions of labour, lifeguarding and instructing, and
the mechanisms of control used by management.
The impact on employees' work experiences of
traditional concepts of women's natural abilities coupled
with the physical and social environment of their work have
not been studied extensively. This thesis illustrates how
gender ideologies present in contemporary Western culture,
especially their specific manifestation in the regional
culture as reflected in the discourse and practices of users
and workers at the facility, generates gender segregation at
the worksite. At the specific work-site investigated, these
factors have a substantial influence on the distribution of
jobs and tasks among male and female staff. Despite possessing the same qualifications and being hired under the
same job titles as men, gender ideologies and the practices
that are inextricably bound up with them function to isolate
women in stereotypical jobs. | |
