Gender, embodiment and place: The gendering of skills shortages in the Australian mining and food and beverage processing industries

Abstract

This article examines skills shortages in the context of the Australian mining and food and beverage processing industries. Drawing on Acker’s concept of inequality regimes, we examine gendered and classed bodies in relation to place. We argue that organizations are situated in place, and here, Australian rural places. We also argue that while specific industries are important to the rural economies, these economies are influenced by the gendered politics of place that occur at the site where the enterprise is located. Guided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ quantitative analyses of workforce profiles, and predominantly drawing on qualitative interviews with Human Resource (HR) personnel, we analyse the gendering of work, place and organizations across three themes: a) women, work and reproducing bodies; b) male embodiment, organization and place; and c) absent bodies: women and apprenticeships. The purpose is to show that assumptions about gender, embodiment and place influence how organizations understand and respond to skills shortages in the given industries.