Serving as Men? Working-Class Masculinities in French Low-Cost Hardware Stores

Abstract

Working-class masculinities have traditionally been studied as rooted in industrial labor, physical strength, and skilled manual work, sources of social value for subordinate men. But what becomes of these gender performances in the context of declining manual labor and the tertiarization of the economy? Based on an ethnographic study of French low-cost hardware stores, this article examines how salesmen - members of the working class - reappropriate historical forms of masculinity while adapting them to the constraints of service-sector employment. The analysis begins by highlighting the central role of the low-cost business model, whose highly gendered organization shapes both management strategies and workers’ behaviors. Performance and endurance are framed as masculine traits, contributing to the overmasculinization of the workforce. A first style of masculinity, preferred by management, centers on “hard graft” i.e., demonstrating physical endurance by taking on handling tasks and avoiding customer interaction. A second style, more resistant to the organization’s logic, values expertise and technical knowledge, expressed through interactions with customers and evoking the figure of the craftsman. Occupying a low-skilled position, salesmen try to recreate informal skills to enoble their activity. In sum, I argue that work continues to be a powerful site for the production of gender and masculinities, despite its profound recent transformations. Masculinities must therefore be understood at the intersection of organizations, work, and individuals, and as embedded in broader social relations.