Crafting Spaces: Deleuzian Perspectives on Women's Identity Work in Male-Dominated Jobs

Abstract

This paper proposes Deleuzian concepts of becoming minor, lines of flight, and deterritorialization and reterritorialization as a way of understanding identity work based on the experiences of women in male-dominated jobs. We suggest that Deleuze's frame emphasizes fluidity and rejects category-limited choices, and it opens up the possibility of engaging with new agentic framing for women utilizing identity work to craft spaces for themselves in a male-dominated work environment. Through a thematic analysis of the experiences of 15 (semi-)skilled women in routine-task, manual, male-dominated jobs across three male-dominated industries in South Africa, we propose an alternative lens for examining women's identity work. This lens both challenges and expands traditional theories, highlighting the nuanced strategies and agentic behavior employed by workplace minorities to carve out niches for themselves in job spaces that often position them at the periphery.