Gender on a Jagged Edge

Abstract

The security industry has seen an influx of women in recent decades. Although some have been resegregated into relatively poorly rewarded jobs seen as suitable for women, some have found better jobs or jobs usually seen as “men's work.” We trace these variable outcomes to the flexibility of ideas about jobs and gender, the greater power of ideas about gender relationships, the tension between gender homophily and gender status expectations, relationships to clients and targets (people dealt with for the client), and client and target gender. Gender ideas, inequality, and segregation are both reproduced and revised in the security industry.