Waitressing for my Life: An Auto-Ethnographic Study on Emotional Labor and Gender Identity within the Family Restaurant
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Authors
Amodeo, Sophia C.
Issue Date
2012
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
The following is an auto-ethnographic account of how emotional labor, sexual harassment
and gender affect interpersonal relations in a family run restaurant. To concentrate my
examination, I focus my evidence on the experiences that transpired through the summer
of 2012 while I was working as a full-time waitress. Through the management of these
issues in my own family's restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan I find myself forced to
find a balance between the dualistic roles of being both a waitress and owner's daughter,
working within a sexualized environment. Through the scholarship of Hochschild (2003)
and Akerlof (2005), I explore the intense presence of emotional labor within the
profession of waitressing and the revealing repercussions of emotional health, due to its
persistence. In an attempt to address how familial ties that are present in the
establishment play a role in these interpersonal relations, I use the contrasting
characteristics of my roles in the restaurant to explore how preconceived notions of the
sexualization of my occupation are handled under the presence of my father as my boss. I
couple my experiential research with a review of sociological scholarship in order to
illuminate that traditional conceptions of gender, identity and service are still present in
the modern day. The presence of these traditional roles in the restaurant space culminates
into a place of contention for my father, which perpetuates the divide between my roles
as a waitress and his daughter.
Description
iv, 70 p.
Citation
Publisher
Kalamazoo, Mich. : Kalamazoo College.
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.