Blog #14

Britton uses the theory of gendered organization to frame her research. She explains that punishment and disciplinary regimes targeted the “asexual” male body. This is because men cannot become pregnant or menstruate. Women were given unprofitable work assignments such as sewing, cooking, etc.
During the Reform Movement as explained in the course book “At Work in An Iron Cage” Finally saw causes of crime as multifactor. Each criminal was unique and required individualized punishment. Historically this is also when there was a movement to move away from corporal punishment.
An example of how structure, agency and culture are all interlinked in ongoing processes of organization gendering has to do with the idea that men may be able to extend their power in men and women’s prisons, while women may only be looked at as extending executive and effective power over women’s prisons. For several reasons such as the differences that existed between “ideal” male and female prison guards, where men could handle potentially violent situations where women could not. Men were to be officers in the paramilitary mold while women were to be mentors and surrogate mothers offering direction from waywardness and because men are less often than women the victims of sexual assault, men guarding women is more disconcerting than women guarding men.
Even the terms used for the occupations reinforced the gendering of the organizations. Men were always seen as “officers”, suggesting a protective ability. “Matrons” was the term used for female guards, and implied mothering.
Britton explains that organizations are gendered at the level of structure “in a very basic sense, organization build on and reproduce a division of labor between the public and private spheres, between production and reproduction.” This especially comes into effect when women, and not men, experience activates such as birth and childcare, where men may not. These organizations did not have a productive way of dealing with these issues.
Public and private spheres became gendered concepts because these occupations were not looked at as being successful. They were often made for the poor who had no other option. Because there were situations where the men would actually have to live at the prison (practically being in prison themselves) this became a very identifiably masculine job because they could “deal” with it.