"Female servers…feed off the attention and harassment": The Role of Gender in the Service Industry


Anna Mason, University of British Columbia, Okanagan

To investigate how structurally embedded gender ideologies shape experiences for servers in restaurants and bars, this paper discusses an analysis of the interactions between women and men who work in the service industry and their customers, managers, staff, and fellow servers. Originating in curiosities about Goffmanian identity management, we—myself and two other researchers—performed open-ended, semi-structured interviews using prepared questions and interview guides. Through our discussions with our participants, we were able to identify many intersecting topics within the realm of gender and service work. Within their various roles, each participant had common themes throughout their answers that we as researchers were able to analyze against our research. The two major themes were, 1) reproduction of gender ideologies; and 2) impression management. Sub-themes we identified included (but were not limited to): dress codes, managerial control of wages and gender expression, harassment and flirting, and policy requirements. This research was completed as a final assignment for a qualitative methods course provided through the university of British Columbia, Okanagan campus. We began by compiling an analysis of the existing literature regarding gendered expectations and interactions in the workplace. Judith butler’s writings on gender influenced much of our research and provided a strong definitional baseline of gender as a social construction and gender norms as being perpetuated through institutions and the interactions between individuals. Both of these proved to be extremely relevant in our research, and our participants expressed at length how their gender was decided for them and the ways they performed within those expectations. In our preliminary literature review, we came across substantial theory to support the start of our research, but there was much lacking in terms of recent findings on how gender expectations influence behaviour in the restaurant industry. The next stage involved recruiting individuals we personally knew who worked in the restaurant industry and implemented the ‘snowball’ sampling method thereafter to find the rest of our participants, totaling six individuals. Three women and three men were selected for this project to provide the research with a well-rounded scope. The participants ranged between the ages of 19-22 years old and most were university students. Our interview guides were structured to ensure our participants felt comfortable with having an active role in the interviewing process and leading the discussion in directions we as researchers may not have previously considered relevant. Each interviewer led two meetings with participants they had never met in order to reduce bias and allow for more in-depth questions to be asked. Lead interviewers were able to guide the conversation and ask prepared questions while creating connections and rapport with participants to make the interviews more comfortable. The assistant researcher was responsible for noting participant behaviour and body language while occasionally asking clarifying questions. This role was assigned to the secondary interviewer to allow us as researchers to understand the participant’s feelings on the topic to a greater extent and aid in our findings. The lack of recent data on this topic left us searching for the answers to the gaps in literature. We feel as though our research can bring new light to the current age of impression management for young adults working in this business. In our initial research, we also saw a distinct absence of open-ended interviews on this subject. Most of the literature reflects on theory and applies it to the world in hypothetical ways. We felt that we had the opportunity to fill this gap in research because of our access to individuals who were willing and able to share their stories of identity management. Additionally, while the scope of our research was unable to address this, we desire to draw attention to the unwavering presence of the gender binary in conceptions of gender expectations and performance in the service industry, and to the lack of research for all other gender identities.

Non-presenting authors: Peyton Twardochleb, University of British Columbia; Ciara Goddard, University of British Columbia

This paper will be presented at the following session: