Navigating sexualized visibility: a study of British women engineers
In this article we use the term 'sexualised visibility' to describe how in male dominated work settings such as engineering, women are inscribed with sexual attributes that overshadow and obscure other attributes and values. From a career point of view, sexualised visibility is deeply prob...
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52312/ |
| _version_ | 1848798696959901696 |
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| author | Fernando, D. Cohen, Laurie Duberley, Joanne |
| author_facet | Fernando, D. Cohen, Laurie Duberley, Joanne |
| author_sort | Fernando, D. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In this article we use the term 'sexualised visibility' to describe how in male dominated work settings such as engineering, women are inscribed with sexual attributes that overshadow and obscure other attributes and values. From a career point of view, sexualised visibility is deeply problematic. However, as yet we have only limited understanding of how women in such settings navigate sexualised visibility and what this means for their careers. Drawing on social identity based impression management (SIM) to examine the career experiences of 50 women in petroleum, mechanical and automotive engineering in the UK, we develop new insights into the relationship between perception, power and relations of visibility. Specifically we identify the interplay between career stage and power and show how the strategies that women adopt to navigate sexualised visibility in their work settings vary by career stage. Furthermore we argue that women’s collective efforts to ensure a favourable representation of their group leads to the reproduction of an implicit but powerful prescriptive gender stereotype which constrains their career progression. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:23:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-52312 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:23:53Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-523122020-05-04T19:39:26Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52312/ Navigating sexualized visibility: a study of British women engineers Fernando, D. Cohen, Laurie Duberley, Joanne In this article we use the term 'sexualised visibility' to describe how in male dominated work settings such as engineering, women are inscribed with sexual attributes that overshadow and obscure other attributes and values. From a career point of view, sexualised visibility is deeply problematic. However, as yet we have only limited understanding of how women in such settings navigate sexualised visibility and what this means for their careers. Drawing on social identity based impression management (SIM) to examine the career experiences of 50 women in petroleum, mechanical and automotive engineering in the UK, we develop new insights into the relationship between perception, power and relations of visibility. Specifically we identify the interplay between career stage and power and show how the strategies that women adopt to navigate sexualised visibility in their work settings vary by career stage. Furthermore we argue that women’s collective efforts to ensure a favourable representation of their group leads to the reproduction of an implicit but powerful prescriptive gender stereotype which constrains their career progression. Elsevier 2018-06-02 Article PeerReviewed Fernando, D., Cohen, Laurie and Duberley, Joanne (2018) Navigating sexualized visibility: a study of British women engineers. Journal of Vocational Behavior . ISSN 0001-8791 Sexualised visibility; Career; Social identity based impression management; Gender; Engineering https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879118300666 doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2018.06.001 doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2018.06.001 |
| spellingShingle | Sexualised visibility; Career; Social identity based impression management; Gender; Engineering Fernando, D. Cohen, Laurie Duberley, Joanne Navigating sexualized visibility: a study of British women engineers |
| title | Navigating sexualized visibility: a study of British women engineers |
| title_full | Navigating sexualized visibility: a study of British women engineers |
| title_fullStr | Navigating sexualized visibility: a study of British women engineers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Navigating sexualized visibility: a study of British women engineers |
| title_short | Navigating sexualized visibility: a study of British women engineers |
| title_sort | navigating sexualized visibility: a study of british women engineers |
| topic | Sexualised visibility; Career; Social identity based impression management; Gender; Engineering |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52312/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52312/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52312/ |