Gender and the displaced worker in contemporary France: women, mobility and economic restructuring beyond the industrial heartlands

Clarke, J. and Gallot, F. (2024) Gender and the displaced worker in contemporary France: women, mobility and economic restructuring beyond the industrial heartlands. International Labor and Working-Class History, (doi: 10.1017/S0147547923000327) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

A considerable proportion of the research conducted within the developing field of deindustrialisation studies has focused on the loss of work in industrial closures, and on the attachments that long-serving workers feel to their former workplace. This article focuses instead on the phenomenon of constrained mobility which often occurs as companies restructure and workers are offered a choice between redundancy or relocation to another site. Steven High (2003) has examined the ‘transplanted identities’ of male workers who had moved repeatedly as plants downsized and closed across the American rust belt, highlighting a group who styled themselves as the ‘I-75 gypsies’ (after the interstate highway that runs through Michigan and Ohio). Forging a new identity articulated in terms of mobility rather than place, these men constructed a new version of heroic working-class masculinity as they moved from site to site. This article draws on a case study of the Moulinex domestic appliance company in north western France to examine how such mobility has been experienced by women workers in a region beyond the industrial heartlands. In doing so, it considers the particular relationship to place that was constructed as companies like Moulinex established factories in rural regions of France after the Second World War and the implications of this for work-based identities. The article highlights the intersecting effects of age and gender, the significance of the gendered division of labour for women's experiences of mobility, and the extent to which identities were reshaped as women moved to stay in work.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Clarke, Dr Jackie
• Authors: Clarke, J., and Gallot, F.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > French
• Journal Name: International Labor and Working-Class History
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISSN: 0147-5479
• ISSN (Online): 1471-6445
• Published Online: 19 February 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in International Labor and Working-Class History 2024
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy