Trading gender: University spaces as a facilitator for transgressive embodiment of women in male-dominated trades

Abstract

This chapter examines how the university can facilitate the embodiment of queer masculinities. Through comparing case studies of two women who worked in the carpentry trade, I explore the importance of feminism as a resource for women at work, particularly those working in male-dominated areas. Universities have been an important site for feminist education and activism. For the two cases discussed, the feminist knowledge gained at university facilitated a particularly intellectual moment in Connell’s body reflexive practice, a moment in which the gendered body engaging at work was simultaneously the feminist body intellectually engaging in reflection on itself. I argue that this reflexivity is necessary for queer embodiment and allows women in particular forms of work to embody a queer masculinity.