Gendering fashion, fashioning fur: : on the (re)production of a gendered labor market within a craft industry in transition

• Autores: Norma M Rantisi
• Localización: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, ISSN-e 1472-3433, Vol. 32, Nº. 2, 2014, págs. 223-239
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • What are the implications of the new economy for gender equality in labor markets? Does an economy that privileges �immaterial� labor (the production of ideas) over �material� labor (the manual production of goods) signal the possibility for greater labor market inclusion? Building on critical accounts of the new economy, I examine the bases for continued gender hierarchies through an analysis of the contemporary restructuring of the fur industry in Canada. As a traditional craft industry, fur has sought to adapt to new-economy imperatives by incorporating �immaterial� labor in the form of fashion design. However, these efforts have been limited, as the (predominantly male) fur manufacturers have sought to retain authority in a changing economy by integrating design as a subordinate activity�a subordination made possible through a coding of design as feminine and through the deployment of the fashion designer as a flexible source of labor. Drawing on interviews with manufacturers, designers, and other industry actors, I analyze how new-economy imperatives intersect with local institutional practices and ideologies to reproduce a gendered labor market.