Keeping the “Men” in Longshoremen: The Origins of Lasting Discrimination Against Women in the Longshore Occupation

Abstract

We study how one form of wrongdoing behavior – gender-based discrimination – evolved and steadily grew amongst longshoremen over seven decades (from 1947 to 2017), despite changes in the nature of work and technological innovations that made the occupation increasingly accessible to women. Using data collected from 72 interviews with retired and active longshoremen and their employers, supplemented with archival and observational data, we find that although women were permitted into the occupation at the beginning of the period (1947 to the 1960s), they were progressively, completely excluded by male longshore workers. We find that after experiencing imprinting (the idea that early experience exerts a crucial influence on later behavioral phenomena) (Immelmann, 1975) during early decades, longshoremen instrumentalized their fear of occupational decline and voluntarily engaged in organizational wrongdoing by discriminating against women. Men rationalized their exclusion of women through two means: first, by adapting the “Madonna vs temptress” paradigm of framing women, and second by strategically emphasizing self-serving justifications. This study contributes to the literature on gendered work and the difficulty of eliminating imprinted, entrenched behaviors in gendered occupations.

Citation

Andiappan, M. and Dufour, L. (2023), "Keeping the “Men” in Longshoremen: The Origins of Lasting Discrimination Against Women in the Longshore Occupation", Gabbioneta, C., Clemente, M. and Greenwood, R. (Ed.) Organizational Wrongdoing as the “Foundational” Grand Challenge: Definitions and Antecedents (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 84), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 211-226. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20230000084011