THE UNIVERSITY of HULL New Lad Or Just Like Dad?
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THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL New Lad or Just Like Dad? Young Working-Class Masculinities and Career Choices in Hull being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of PhD in the University of Hull by Lucy Jane Bradshaw BSc (Hons), PG Cert, Dip CG, MSc May 2017 Contents Contents 1 Acknowledgements 2 Chapter 1 Hairdryer or Hammer? Young Masculinities and 3 Career Choices Chapter 2 Out on the Shop Floor. Methods and Methodology 24 Chapter 3 Unmasking Young Masculinities. The Rites of 60 Passage to Manhood Chapter 4 The Forgotten City. Hull’s Maritime History, 97 Culture and Heritage Chapter 5 Meeting the Lads and Lasses. Narratives of the 114 Participants Chapter 6 Peacocks Displaying their Feathers. Working-Class 142 Masculinities in Hull Chapter 7 Get a trade son, then you will always have a job. 185 Men, Masculinity and Work Chapter 8 Lads’ Talk. The Role of Banter in Policing 226 Masculinities Chapter 9 Conclusions. Man-Made Masculinities: The Ill- 249 Fitting Uniform. References 268 1 Acknowledgements Before commencing on my PhD journey, I read several books which introduced and outlined the process. A commonality in all of these texts was the assertion that undertaking a thesis on a part-time basis was an extremely challenging if not meritorious endeavour. The consensus, too, seemed to be that this pathway was even more so when combined with full-time employment in an unrelated occupational area or field. In negotiating this pathway, I would, therefore, like to express my sincere gratitude to the following esteemed colleagues and my family for all the help and encouragement they have offered me over the last 6 years. Firstly, I am deeply indebted for all the support Dr Suzanne Clisby and Dr Rachel Alsop, my supervisors, have provided me with. I have always looked forward to our meetings with herbal tea in hand (thanks Suzanne for introducing me to the ‘vanilla, honey and camomile’ infusion) having a stimulating and constructive discussion about my research. My heartfelt appreciation must be extended to all participants for their honesty, generosity and openness in the telling and retelling of lived experiences. Finally, I must mention my family who have always believed in and encouraged me right from being the only one of us to attend university through to my undertaking a PhD as a mature student. Thanks to Mum and Sally for both being a willing ‘pair of ears’ when I was, for example, rehearsing for my first ever conference or sounding ideas for the thesis. Dad, I will also be putting on the kettle for the foreseeable future! This I hope will go some way to express my appreciation for all the cups of coffee you made me while I was writing up my latest chapter, either late in the evening, and/or at weekends. 2 Chapter 1 Hairdryer or Hammer? Young Masculinities and Career Choices “Through sex role socialisation, boys learn that men and women have different abilities, interests and aptitudes that dictate different jobs for men and women which leads men to proscribe certain jobs which are perceived as women’s work” (Hayes, 1986: 92). Research Questions In this doctoral thesis, I aim to address the following three research questions, to: i. Develop a more nuanced understanding of the gendering role that working-class masculinities have in shaping educational and career aspirations ii. Consider how vocational choices continue to define and validate these gender identities iii. Explore how contemporary laddism intersects with prevailing hierarchies of young, white and working-class masculinities. New Lad or Like Dad? Introducing the Research As Prime Minister Elect, Teresa May, stated in her inaugural speech, 11 July 2016, white, working-class boys are often left behind. These sentiments broadly capture the underlying rationale behind the research. My academic interest in young working-class masculinities is firmly embedded in two antecedents. Firstly, is my previous professional role as a careers guidance practitioner. Specifically, my first research question derives from my desire to develop a 3 more nuanced understanding of the gendering role that working-class masculinities have in shaping educational and career aspirations. Integral to this process, is my second research question of exploring how vocational choices continue to define and validate these gender identities. Regarding the second antecedent, undertaking my PhD has coincided with the purported resurgence of misogyny and the interconnected rise in laddish culture (Day, 2013; Phipps & Young, 2013; 2015; Williams, 2014). With the latter appropriated by middle class men, both national press coverage and academic research highlights the pervasiveness of this exaggerated form of masculinity in a number of contexts (Phipps & Young, 2013, 2015). Ostensibly, this new variant of laddism is not too dissimilar to that enacted by the working class ‘lads’ in Paul Willis’s (1977) seminal ethnography, Learning to Labour, published nearly 40 years ago. My third research question, then, is in line with the latter comparison. Namely, I explore how contemporary laddism intersects with prevailing hierarchies of young, white and working-class masculinities. Comparatively speaking, a sizeable number of the participants were drawn from engineering, motor mechanics and construction-related full-time courses or apprenticeships (which I will collectively refer to as ‘the trades’ from this point onwards). Therefore, a more in-depth analysis of working-class laddish culture, specific to these industries is facilitated. Application of Beasley’s (2008a) revisionist taxonomy of hegemonic masculinity is deployed in interpreting, analysing and presenting my research findings. Framed within a feminist and sociological gender analysis, the above research questions are explored by focusing on men undertaking vocational training during the initial stages of their career pathways. Demarcating the sample of 114 participants, 72 men and 23 women, aged between 15 and 25, along with 19 key professionals took part in the research. All participants were recruited from the following sectors: catering, construction, engineering, motor mechanics, administrative-based roles, IT and preparatory courses for the armed forces. Face-to-face life history interviews, with 51 young men, comprised the main tool of data generation. In view of its identification as a working-class city (Featherstone, 2012), I selected Kingston upon Hull (usually abbreviated to Hull 4 in colloquial usage and referred to as such from this juncture forward) as the contextual setting for my research. Having introduced the research above, I now turn to exploring some of these introductory themes in more depth. I begin by considering how my work with the careers service influenced the development of my first research question. Further discussion on the interconnections between working-class masculinities in shaping vocational choices then follows. Included here is my rationale for utilising both a feminist and sociological gender analysis and Beasley’s (2008a) revisionist taxonomy of hegemonic masculinity in framing my research findings. Here, too, I consider why my research should focus on wider working-class masculinities rather than the narrower scope of just career decision-making. Specifically, I wish to explore intersections with laddism and the potential impact this has on how they ‘do’ masculinity i.e. their leisure pursuits, lifestyle choices and aspirations. Although not exclusively, this analysis is conducted predominantly through the narratives of participants working or training in one of the trades. Developing a Professional Role into Academic Interest As referred to briefly above, carrying out research into how young working class masculinities may shape career aspirations is necessarily influenced by my autographical background (Roseneil, 1993). In other words, it evolved from my former professional roles based in the Connexions Service1, firstly as a careers officer and more recently as a team manager2. For the whole duration of the 7 years I was employed in these posts, the potential adverse impact of gendered expectations on career choices became only too apparent to me. Especially pertinent for me, however, was when a young man’s aspiration was to undertake a childcare apprenticeship. During his interview, he relayed how he could not fulfil this goal because of the enormous backlash he received from his father, 1 Connexions was a New Labour Government initiative introduced in 2001 to replace the former Careers Service in England. 47 partnerships were originally set up at its conception as the major providers of information, advice and guidance to 13-19 year olds (up to 25 for those with special education needs). Wales and Scotland have retained their own careers services, Careers Wales and Careers Scotland respectively. 2 I managed a team of 10 Connexions Careers Officers. 5 brothers and friends. He was further accused of being a “poofter” and/or paedophile and it was understandably causing him a great deal of anguish. The aspirations of the majority of the teenagers I regularly interviewed were in line with one of the key indicators of the prevailing inequality between men and women, namely, the horizontally and vertically segregated workforce (Clisby & Holdsworth, 2014). Collectively, a significant body of vocational, governmental and international research3 has been dedicated to exploring the deep-rooted and ingrained stereotypical attitudes that underlie and contribute to the persistence of these patterns (Dales, 2006). Despite