The sexual division of labor : the impact of organizational change upon group cohesion and the creation of occupational identity [thesis]

Robert M. Bossarte
Bossarte, Robert M., "The sexual division of labor : the impact of organizational change upon group cohesion and the creation of occupational identity" (1999). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1773. All rights reserved. iii DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my wife Tara. Without her patience and understanding, I could never follow my dreams. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank the members of my committee for their guidance, patience, and participation. Additionally, I would like to thank
more » ... the firefighters, paramedics, and administrative personnel that volunteered their time and attention to this study. Without their insight, this research would not have been possible. Lastly, I would like to thank Lt. Mike McJury, FF Jim Schmidt, FM Steve Driscoll, Lt. John Sherry, and the all of the firefighters and Chiefs of Battalion Two who made the completion of this project a reality. This truly was a group project. The purpose of this research is to identify the impact of recent organizational change upon the culture of firefighting. The experiences of female firefighters were utilized as a measure of cultural change. A purposive sample of twenty-seven male and female firefighters were interviewed in a semi-structured format about their experiences in the fire service. This research found that the culture of firefighting has adjusted to the presence of previously excluded groups by forging a division among the identities and roles of male and female firefighters. The white, male firefighters, who have traditionally constituted a majority of the workforce, have continued to identify with traditional firefighter roles and reported high levels of cohesion. In contrast, the female firefighters showed a greater variance in their identification with traditional roles and decreased levels of cohesion with the main body of the group. vi
doi:10.25148/etd.fi14051803 fatcat:x3n7dfoosfh33fqij7cenct6ha