Gendered Experiences of Appearance-related Perks and Penalties in Finnish Labor Markets
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.128715Keywords:
Employment, Wages, Unemployment & Rehabilitation, Gender, Ethnicity, Age and DiversityAbstract
Physical appearance is generally associated with considerable labor-market sanctions, and appearances are thought to be of particular importance in the feminine service sector. However, little is known about workers’ experiences of appearance-based perks and penalties in Nordic labor markets. Drawing on literature on aesthetic capital and labor, this study aims to fill this research gap. The study uses a nationally representative survey (N = 1600) fielded in Finland and multinomial regression to determine whether subjective experiences of appearance-related perks and penalties are gendered, dependent on the field of work or daily work on appearances. Our main finding is that while both men and women experience looks-based perks and penalties, men are more likely to have experienced appearance having a say in salary negotiations. Our results shed light on the gendered logics of aesthetic capital and labor, and question economic understandings of beauty work as a pathway to labor market success for women
References
Adamson, M., & Salmenniemi, S. (2017). ‘The bottom line is that the problem is you’: aesthetic labour, postfeminism and subjectivity in Russian self-help literature. In: Elias, A. S., Gill, R. & Scharff, C. (eds.) Aesthetic Labour, 301–316. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Anderson, T.L., Grunert, C., Katz, A. & Lovascio, S. (2010). Aesthetic capital: A research review on beauty perks and penalties, Sociology Compass 4(8): 564–575. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00312.x
Berggren, N., Jordahl, H. & Poutvaara, P. (2017). The right look: Conservative politicians look better and voters reward it, Journal of Public Economics 146: 79–86. doi: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.12.008
Berry, B. (2008). The Power of Looks: Social Stratification of Physical Appearance, Routledge.
Bolsø, A. & Mühleisen, W. (2017). Representations of women dressed for power. In: Bolsø, A., Svendsen, S. & Sørensen, S. (eds.) Bodies, Symbols and Organizational Practice, 12–33. Abigdon: Routledge.
Borchorst, A. & Siim, B. (2002). The women-friendly welfare states revisited, NORA: Nordic Journal of Women's Studies 10(2): 90–98. doi: 10.1080/080387402760262186
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Harvard University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In: Richardson, J. (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, 241–258, Greenwood.
Boyle, B. & De Keere, K. (2019). Aesthetic labour, class and taste: Mobility aspirations of middle-class women working in luxury-retail, The Sociological Review 67(3): 706–722. doi: 10.1177/0038026119827753
Dahl, D.B. (2013). Looking neat on the street. Aesthetic labor in public parking patrol, Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies 3(2): 59–78.
Crane, D. & Bovone, L. (2006). Approaches to material culture: The sociology of fashion and clothing, Poetics 34(6): 319–333. doi: 10.1016/j.poetic.2006.10.002
Das, J. & De Loach, S.B. (2011). Mirror, mirror on the wall: The effect of time spent grooming on earnings, The Journal of Socio-Economics 40(1): 26–34. doi: 10.1016/j.socec.2010.06.005
Edmonds, A. & Mears, A. (2017). Managing body capital in fields of labor, sex, and health. In: Anderson-Fye, E., Brewis Slade (eds.) Fat Planet. Santa Fe: SAR Press.
Ehn, B. & Löfgren, O. (2009). Routines-made and unmade. In: Shove, E., Trentmann, F & Wilk, R. (eds.) Time, Consumption and Everyday Life. Practice, Materiality and Culture, 99–112. Oxford: Berg.
Elias, A., Gill, R. & Scharff, C. (2017). Aesthetic labour: Beauty politics in neoliberalism. In: Elias, A. S., Gill, R. & Scharff, C. (eds.) Aesthetic Labour, 3–49. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Entwistle, J. & Wissinger, E. (2006). Keeping up appearances: aesthetic labour in the fashion modelling industries of London and New York, The Sociological Review 54(4): 774–794. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.2006.00671.x
Eurobarometer (2019). Discrimination in the European Union 2019, Special Eurobarometer 493, European Commission.
Gill, R. (2017). The affective, cultural and psychic life of postfeminism: A postfeminist sensibility 10 years on, European Journal of Cultural Studies 20(6): 606–626. doi: 10.1177/1367549417733003
Green, A.I. (2014). The sexual fields framework. In: Green, A.I. (ed.) Sexual fields: Toward a sociology of collective sexual life, 25–56. University of Chicago Press.
Grönlund, A., Halldén, K. & Magnusson, C. (2017). A Scandinavian success story? Women’s labour market outcomes in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, Acta Sociologica 60(2): 97–119. doi: 10.1177/0001699316660595
Hamermesh, D.S., Meng, X. & Zhang, J. (2002). Dress for success—does primping pay?, Labour Economics 9(3): 361–373. doi: 10.1016/S0927-5371(02)00014-3
Hamermesh, D.S. (2011). Beauty Pays. Why Attractive People are more Successful, Princeton University Press.
Hernes, H.M. (1987). Welfare State and Woman Power: Essays in State Feminism, A Scandinavian University Press Publication.
Hochschild, A.R. & Machung, A. (2012). The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home, Penguin.
Holla, S. & Kuipers, G. (2015). Aesthetic capital. In: Hanquinet, L. & Savage, M. (eds) Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Art and Culture, 290–304, London: Routledge.
Hosoda, M., Stone‐Romero, E. F. & Coats, G. (2003). The effects of physical attractiveness on job‐related outcomes: A meta‐analysis of experimental studies, Personnel Psychology 56(2): 431–462. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00157.x
Hracs, B.J. & Leslie, D. (2014). Aesthetic labour in creative industries: the case of independent musicians in Toronto, Canada, Area 46(1): 66–73.
Huzell, H. & Larsson, P. (2012). Aesthetic and athletic employees: The negative outcome of employers assuming responsibility for sickness benefits, Economic and Industrial Democracy 33(1): 103–123. doi: 10.1177/0143831X11427590
Härkönen, J., Räsänen, P. & Näsi, M. (2011). Obesity, unemployment, and earnings, Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies 1(2): 23–38. doi: 10.19154/njwls.v1i2.2343
Kinnunen, T. & Parviainen, J. (2016). Rekrytointikonsulttien tuntuma “hyvästä tyypistä” [Recruitment consultants’ feel of a “good fellow”]. In: Parviainen, J., Kinnunen, T. & Kortelainen, I. (eds.) Ruumiillisuus ja työelämä: Työruumis jälkiteollisessa taloudessa [Embodiment and working life: The working body in the postindustrial economy], 59–75, Tampere: Vastapaino.
Koivula, A., Räsänen, P., & Sarpila, O. (2016). Internet- ja paperilomakkeiden täyttäjät: vastaustavan muutoksen ja merkityksen arviointia hyvinvointitutkimuksessa [Web and survey respondents: response mode effects in wellbeing research]. Yhteiskuntapolitiikka [Public policy] 81(2), 54–65.
Kuipers, G. (2015). Beauty and distinction? The evaluation of appearance and cultural capital in five European countries, Poetics 53: 38–51. doi: 10.1016/j.poetic.2015.10.001
Kukkonen, I., Åberg, E., Sarpila, O. & Pajunen, T. (2018). Exploitation of aesthetic capital–disapproved by whom? International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 38(3/4), 312–328.
Kukkonen, I. (2019) Aikaa, jonka voisi käyttää myös paremmin? Feministisiä näkökulmia kauneuskäytänteisiin. [Time that might also have better use? Feminist approaches to beauty practices.] In: Kukkonen, I., Pajunen, T., Sarpila, O. & Åberg, E. (eds.) Ulkonäköyhteiskunta: Ulkoinen olemus pääomana 2000-luvun Suomessa [Appearance society: Physical appearance as a form of capital in 21st century Finland], 123–136, Helsinki: Into Kustannus Oy.
Laustsen, L. (2014). Decomposing the relationship between candidates’ facial appearance and electoral success, Political Behavior 36(4): 777–791. doi: 10.1007/s11109-013-9253-1
Lister, R. (2009). A Nordic nirvana? Gender, citizenship, and social justice in the Nordic welfare states, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 16(2): 242–278. doi: 10.1093/sp/jxp007
Long, J.S. & Freese, J. (2014). Regression models for Categorical Variables using Stata (3rd ed), Texas: Stata Press.
Luna, J.K. (2019). The ease of hard work: embodied neoliberalism among Rocky Mountain fun runners, Qualitative Sociology 42(2): 251–271. doi: 10.1007/s11133-019-9412-8
Maestripieri, D., Henry, A. & Nickels, N. (2017). Explaining financial and prosocial biases in favor of attractive people: Interdisciplinary perspectives from economics, social psychology, and evolutionary psychology, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 40. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X16000340
Martin, J.L. & George, M. (2006). Theories of sexual stratification: Toward an analytics of the sexual field and a theory of sexual capital, Sociological Theory 24(2): 107–132. doi: 10.1111/j.0735-2751.2006.00284.x
McCabe, M., de Waal Malefyt, T. & Fabri, A. (2017). Women, makeup, and authenticity: Negotiating embodiment and discourses of beauty, Journal of Consumer Culture. doi: 10.1177/1469540517736558
McDowell, L. (2009). Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities, John Wiley & Sons.
McRobbie, A. (2009). The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change, London: Sage.
Mears, A. (2014). Aesthetic labor for the sociologies of work, gender, and beauty, Sociology Compass 8(12): 1330–1343. doi: 10.1111/soc4.12211
Mears, A. (2015a). Working for free in the VIP: Relational work and the production of consent, American Sociological Review 80(6): 1099–1122. doi: 10.1177/0003122415609730
Mears, A. (2015b). Girls as elite distinction: The appropriation of bodily capital, Poetics 53: 22–37. doi: 10.1016/j.poetic.2015.08.004
Meriläinen, S., Tienari, J. & Valtonen, A. (2015). Headhunters and the ‘ideal’ executive body, Organization 22(1), 3–22. doi: 10.1177/1350508413496578
Neumann, C.B. (2017). A dangerous subject: the fashion model and the beauty/narcissism double bind, Hypatia 32(2), 380–396. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12319
Oesch, D. (2006). Coming to grips with a changing class structure: An analysis of employment stratification in Britain, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, International Sociology 21(2): 263–288. doi: 10.1177/0268580906061379
Oesch, D. (2020). Scripts for Social Class. Available at: https://people.unil.ch/danieloesch/scripts/ [Accessed 14 January, 2020]
Pajunen, T., Kukkonen, I. & Sarpila, O. (2019). Normit ihon alla: Kokemuksia ulkonäköpaineista [Norms beneath the skin: Experiences of appearance-related pressures]. In: Kukkonen, I., Pajunen, T., Sarpila, O. & Åberg, E. (eds.) Ulkonäköyhteiskunta: Ulkoinen olemus pääomana 2000-luvun Suomessa [Appearance society: Physical appearance as a form of capital in 21st century Finland], 157–171, Helsinki: Into Kustannus Oy.
Pettinger, L. (2004). Brand culture and branded workers: Service work and aesthetic labour in fashion retail, Consumption Markets & Culture 7(2): 165–184. doi: 10.1080/1025386042000246214
Pettinger, L. (2008). Developing aesthetic labour: The importance of consumption, International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion 2(4): 327–343. doi: 10.1504/IJWOE.2008.022495
Robins, P.K., Homer, J.F. & French, M.T. (2011). Beauty and the labor market: Accounting for the additional effects of personality and grooming, Labour 25(2): 228–251. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9914.2010.00511.x
Rooth, D.O. (2009). Obesity, attractiveness, and differential treatment in hiring a field experiment, Journal of Human Resources, 44(3): 710–735. doi: 10.3368/jhr.44.3.710
Sarpila, O. & Åberg, E. (2019). Ulkonäkökulutuksella kohti parempaa minää ja elämää? [Towards a better me and a better life by means of appearance-related consumption?]. In: Kukkonen, I., Pajunen, T., Sarpila, O. & Åberg, E. (eds.) Ulkonäköyhteiskunta: Ulkoinen olemus pääomana 2000-luvun Suomessa [Appearance society: Physical appearance as a form of capital in 21st century Finland], 103–118, Helsinki: Into Kustannus Oy.
Sarpila, O., Sandell, R., Koivula, A. & Kukkonen, I. (2016). Arkielämä ja ulkonäkö -kyselyn tutkimusseloste [Research report on the Physical appearance and everyday life -survey]. Working papers in Economic Sociology, University of Turku. Available online at: https://www.utu.fi/sites/default/files/public%3A//media/file/Arkiel%C3%A4m%C3%A4_ja_ulkon%C3%A4k%C3%B6_kyselyn_tutkimusseloste.pdf [Accessed 12 October 2020].
Sarpila, O., Pajunen, T., Kekäläinen, S. & Åberg, E. (2017). Onko ulkonäön arvostus nousussa Suomessa? [Is the valuation of physical appearance increasing in Finland?], Yhteiskuntapolitiikka [Public policy] 82(1): 86–93.
Sarpila, O., Koivula, A., Kukkonen, I., Åberg, E. & Pajunen, T. (2020). Double standards in the accumulation and utilisation of ‘aesthetic capital’. Poetics. doi: 10.1016/j.poetic.2020.101447
Siim, B. & Skjeie, H. (2008). Tracks, intersections and dead ends: Multicultural challenges to state feminism in Denmark and Norway, Ethnicities 8(3): 322–344. doi: 10.1177/1468796808092446
Skeggs, B. (2004). Class, Self, Culture, London: Routledge.
Swedberg, R. (2003). Principles of Economic Sociology, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
van den Berg, M. & Arts, J. (2019). The aesthetics of work-readiness: Aesthetic judgements and pedagogies for conditional welfare and post-Fordist labour markets, Work, Employment and Society 33(2): 298–313. doi: 10.1177/0950017018758196.
van den Berg, M. & Vonk, L. (2019). The new discomforts of precarious workers: Wardrobe matter, insecurity and the temporality of calibration in dress work, The Sociological Review. doi: 10.1177/0038026119892402.
Villar, J.G. & Quintana-Domeque, C. (2009). Income and body mass index in Europe, Economics & Human Biology 7(1): 73–83. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2009.01.006
Wacquant, L.J. (1995). Pugs at work: Bodily capital and bodily labour among professional boxers, Body & society 1(1): 65–93. doi: 10.1177/1357034X95001001005
Warde, A. (2005). Consumption and theories of practice, Journal of Consumer Culture 5(2): 131–153. doi: 10.1177/1469540505053090
Warhurst, C. & Nickson, D. (2001). Looking Good, Sounding Right. Style Counselling in the New Economy, London: The Industrial Society. doi: 10.1108/09604520510585370
Williams, C.L. & Connell, C. (2010). “Looking good and sounding right”: Aesthetic labor and social inequality in the retail industry, Work and Occupations 37(3): 349–377. doi: 10.1177/0730888410373744
Witz, A., Warhurst, C. & Nickson, D. (2003). The labour of aesthetics and the aesthetics of organization, Organization 10(1): 33–54. doi: 10.1177/1350508403010001375
Wong, J.S. & Penner, A.M. (2016). Gender and the returns to attractiveness, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 44: 113–123. doi: 10.1016/j.rssm.2016.04.002
Wolf, N. (2002). The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, Harper Collins.
World Economic Forum (2020). Global Gender Gap Report 2020. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/reports/gender-gap-2020-report-100-years-pay-equality [Accessed 19 February 2020]
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Author and Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Copyright Holder of this Journal is the authors and the Journal. Normally the journal use the CC-BY NC-ND 4.0 licence.
Exceptions to the license terms may be granted
If you want to use content in the Journal in another way then described by this license, you must contact the licensor and ask for permission. Contact Bo Carstens at bo.carstens@gmail.com. Exceptions are always given for specific purposes and specific content only.
Sherpa/Romeo
The Journal is listed as a blue journal in Sherpa/Romeo, meaning that the author can archive post-print ((ie final draft post-refereeing) and author can archive publisher's version/PDF.
Copyright of others
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere.
Archives policy
All published material is archived at Roskilde University Library, Denmark, and transmitted to the Danish Royal Library in conformity with the Danish rules of legal deposit.
Plagiarism screening
We do not screen articles for plagiarism. It is the responsibility of the authors to make sure they do not plagiate.
