Int. J. Work Organisation and Emotion, Vol. 2, No.

3, 2008

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Impression management: a form of emotion work for women in a male-dominated profession Jacqueline H. Watts
Faculty of Health and Social Care, The Open University, 1-11 Hawley Crescent, Camden Town, London NW1 8NP, UK Fax: 020 7556 6189 E-mail: J.H.Watts@open.ac.uk E-mail: jackie.watts@blueyonder.co.uk
Abstract: This article discusses ethnographic qualitative research into womens experiences in professional construction roles. It highlights the discursive features of a highly male-dominated industry that is imbued with a presenteeism culture. Drawing on Goffmans concept of impression management, the article explores womens responses to cultural and social pressures to be a hard and long working member of the team. The requirement to observe a strict separation between home and work frames what is seen as appropriate workplace talk; womens collusion in this observance is emotionally demanding adding to their stress but essential in managing others impression of their performance in role. Keywords: atypical work; construction; emotion work; gender; impression management; professional occupations; workplace talk; women. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Watts, J.H. (2008) Impression management: a form of emotion work for women in a male-dominated profession, Int. J. Work Organisation and Emotion, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.221235. Biographical notes: Jacqueline H. Watts is a Lecturer and staff tutor in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the Open University, UK. This role follows a long first career as a training and technology consultant in the civil engineering industry. Her research interests include feminist theory, gendered labour markets and, most recently, the exploration of the personal within death and dying education. Her current research is centred on an ethnographic study of user motivation at a cancer drop-in facility run by a community hospice trust. Her work has been published in a number of journals including Qualitative Research, Gender Work and Organization, Work Employment and Society, Feminism and Psychology and Open Learning. In 2008, an invited contribution from the author on Integrity in qualitative research will appear in the updated Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods.

Introduction

Men and women are increasingly moving into gender atypical work (Hakim, 2000; Henson and Rogers, 2001; Simpson, 2004; Williams, 2004) and the continuing development of womens employment has resulted in their growing presence in what

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have formerly been seen as male jobs. A theme of much research in this area has centred on the need for women to establish their working identity as separate and distinct from other identities (for example, as mother, carer, wife, assistant and help-mate) in ways not expected of men (Folbre, 1994; Emslie et al., 1999; Settles, 2004). This striving to establish a work identity on a par with male peers creates another layer of work that is centred on gaining acceptance by the majority cohort and is experienced as emotionally demanding. This can add significantly to womens work-related stress (Lyon and Woodward, 2004) and negatively affect well-being. The literature suggests that for minority women this identity labour, as emotion work, can take many forms and most usually is in direct response to organisational culture and male exclusionary behaviour. Emotion work, defined by Fischbach et al. (2006, p.193) as demands to display organisationally desired emotions, is multi-faceted with representations as both surface and deep acting (Zapf, 2002, p.237). Fineman (2003) argues that all organisations are emotional arenas and the events that occur within them are shaped by feelings with organisational actors performing according to nominal organisational emotional rules. The extent to which emotion work, as performance specifically directed towards positive impression management, is necessary for women in professional construction roles, is the focus of the discussion that follows. This paper explores how women negotiate their place in the masculine world of the construction industry drawing on Goffmans (1959) conceptual model of impression management. This model theorises the features of performance necessary to establish an appropriate front consistent with expectations of role according to particular settings. The analysis presented in this paper focuses on the discursive and relational aspects of professional role development. It highlights the impact of the long hours ethos and of story telling on the formation of the good enough impression to enable women to fit in to the dominant male work culture of construction. The power of talk and what Goffman (1959) terms as playing to the script to both unsettle and reinforce normative gendered workplace role incorporation (Holmes, 2006) is an underpinning theme of the discussion. I begin with a consideration of the literature on womens entry into male jobs and professions with a particular focus on the built environment sector. This is followed by discussion of Goffmans model of impression management to draw out its significance in understanding the particular nature of the emotion work required of women members of the construction community in sustaining their professional presence. Details of the context and methodology of the research comprise the next sections of the paper that precede discussion of the data analysis. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the research findings highlighting how women engage in a range of impression management activities all connected to preventing their stigmatisation by colleagues (almost all men) as less than fully committed to their work and to the goals of the organisation.

Women doing male work

A wide literature now exists on womens experience of working in male jobs with much of the discussion centred on adaptive techniques used by women to establish workplace role credibility. Davey and Davidson (2000) writing about the experiences of female airline pilots argue that early in the career path developing role credibility entails rites of passage; if these can be successfully negotiated isolation is reduced though full

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acceptance is rare. Successful negotiation, however, appears to involve women adapting to the masculine values and practices that dominate commercial aviation. Lawson (2004) develops this adaptive mode in her study of female car salesmen and argues that the socialisation of people into a specific job incorporates informal (as well as formal) on-the-job training. For some this requires that they behave in uncharacteristic ways, specifically in order that they can adapt and conform to the common needs and collective identity of the work group. Where this conformist behaviour is contrary to their inherent value system low self-concept can result. Research into international women managers (Takahashi, 2000) suggests that where there is conflict between individual values and those of the collective group it will be the group values that take precedent if a sense of belonging is to be created. This has been demonstrated in the legal profession where an adversarial form of intellectual combat comprises the basis for engagement of parties. Although male and female undergraduate students are on a par, male barristers dominate UK chambers (Spencer and Podmore, 1987). A career at the bar is seen as essentially competitive and aggressive and less appropriate for women. The concept of appropriate work is taken up by Greed (1994, 1999, 2000) in her critique of womens professional identity as construction workers. Her research has focused on the subcultures of planning and surveying that she argues make women unwelcome and foist upon them only certain areas of work deemed appropriate. Women surveyors, for example, frequently find themselves concerned with property management but not management in the executive sense but rather in caring for property almost as a mirror image of the traditional housewife role (Greed, 1991). Corroto (2005), writing about the gendered social relations of architectural practice, argues that women whilst qualifying in equal numbers to men, do not remain in the profession in equal numbers because of the routine objectification of women by male colleagues, placing them outside the core of architectural knowledge. Planning, surveying and architecture are professions that serve the international built environment sector; at their core are the disciplines of maths and science that underpin wider technology. Science and technology in all their representations are still seen as male with few women entering to unsettle this male-dominated territory (Fox, 2001). For those that do their appropriateness in role is assessed by male colleagues in relation to the extent to which they are loyal to the notionally apolitical, meritocratic base of scientific endeavour (Keller, 2001). Hubbard (2001) argues that for some women scientists (particularly those who hold feminist beliefs) this surface loyalty entails the requirement to lead a double-life with parallel identities. One identity operates at work to establish professional credibility and the other operates outside workspace and is less comfortable with the claims of value-free science. Dryburgh (1999), in an important study of female Canadian engineers, draws these threads together to present a Goffmanesque interpretation of the ways in which women professionalise their engineering identity. Her critique centres on adaptive behaviour of female engineers in relation to rites of passage that specifically engage women in managing others impressions of them to inspire confidence and respect. This entails developing technological self-confidence and portraying themselves as competent to their employer organisations, clients and male colleagues. Dryburgh identifies three features of the professionalising process, all of which hold relevance for this discussion: adapting to the professional workplace culture, internalising professional identity and demonstrating solidarity with others in the profession (mainly men).

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Impression management

Goffmans (1959) model of impression management is rooted in his exploration of the formation of individual identity, group relations and the interactive and dynamic meaning of information that coalesce to generate understanding of social interaction as performance. Through this lens performance is shaped by environment and audience to produce a set of impressions that are consistent with the desired goals of the actors. The development of a set of impressions, or front, acts as a vehicle of normative standardisation of role fulfilment with characteristics and duties of the role produced and reproduced through actors consistently adhering to role norms. This adherence, Goffman argues, signifies believability. Those who perform a role but transgress outside of its primary constitutive norms are unlikely to be sanctioned by the group with their believability challenged and their position marginalised. The group or team, which has its collective performance as a dominant interest, may feel threatened by individual actors who do not fully cooperate in their role adherence because, the framework of which the role is a part, may as a consequence, have its legitimacy undermined. To further illustrate the model Goffman invokes the construct of a theatrical play in which everyone has taken on a part within the scene. Playing ones part means setting aside all aspects of oneself that are not relevant to the role. The scene works only because everyone plays their part properly and avoids acting in ways which undermine or contradict other peoples performances. Those who stray outside their role cause embarrassment and threaten to dismantle the scene. This would expose the fact that everyone is acting and make it impossible to continue the play and maintain the front. A key feature of the front is the phenomenon of talk, as social intercourse, that takes place within the formal and informal scenes of the performance. Holmes (2006) argues that talk is not essentially gendered but that there are gendered ways of talking predicated on stereotypical assumptions of what constitutes male and female behaviour. This builds on the ideas of Coates (2003, p.195) who argues that talk, in a range of contexts (work, leisure, in mixed and single-sex company), maintains careful gender demarcations. She brings into focus the ways in which in mixed gender settings it is men who are given space to tell their stories with minimum self-disclosure and a noted absence of talk about feelings or emotion, to avoid vulnerability thus maintaining a masculine front. Within the workplace ways of talking are associated with particular roles that are shaped by function, hierarchy, organisational culture and communities of practice. For example, we might not expect a doctor and a train driver to be adopting the same language and interactional style in the enactment of their work role. In gendered workplaces either a dominant feminine or masculine interactional style will reflect the language behaviour of the majority with contributions from members of the minority cohort becoming disenfranchised by virtue of their difference, either in style or content. A type of conversational hegemony is produced and, in light of Goffmans work, those whose performance does not conform to expected interactional norms can find themselves relegated to a state of anomie within the organisational groupings to which they ostensibly belong. These ideas are presented in Goffmans text that provides a complex, but less than comprehensive, account of interactive processes. His theorisation does not, for example, engage with the fate of individuals marginalised by the group except to suggest that they do not achieve full assimilation. Neither does it fully explore the importance

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of ritual within performance, particularly in relation to the discursive properties of role formation. Despite these theoretical gaps, Goffmans model provides a useful overarching framework with which to interrogate the ways in which professional women construction workers have to carefully navigate their way through the hostile waters of an industry that requires them to prove themselves and 'work harder' to gain recognition in an insecure social environment (Paap, 2006), in ways not expected of male colleagues. The expected added value beyond measurable output, or actual performance, is central to the concept of impression management discussed herein and includes adherence to the industrys presenteeism ethic, participation in the social rituals of construction and acceptance of a masculine workplace culture that dictates the rules of performance.

Context

Despite long term initiatives such as, for example, WISE (Women into Science and Engineering) in the UK and the federal targets set in the USA to encourage more women to enter construction trades and professions, women continue to be under represented in all areas of construction that is now seen as a globalised industry. This under representation applies equally to tradeswomen working as carpenters, joiners, painters and bricklayers as it does to professional structural and civil engineers (Eisenberg, 1998). Despite increasing numbers of women joining the profession, civil engineering is still an unpopular career choice, especially when compared with other once male-dominated professions like medicine, law or accountancy. Currently women make up only 5% of the UK Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) membership (ICE website, August 2007). The profession is socially constructed as technical, male and often dirty work and, despite attempts by the industry to mediate these stereotypes, this imagery continues. Civil engineering, in the university context, considers itself to be at the elite end of the construction specialisms. Along with architects, who are seen as the aesthetic connoisseurs of the sector (Cohen et al., 2005), civil engineers are the aristocrats of the construction industry (Greed, 1999) and are trained in a range of complex technical skills. The profession demands high standards because projects are ultimately concerned with ensuring the safety of human life and Greed (1999) argues that emphasis in design practice is on minimising what can go wrong. This gives rise to learned defensive practice that is protected by rigorous systems of registration and accreditation and also imbues the industry with a blame culture that generates adversarial work styles and a command and control model of management (Greed, 2001), particularly in the setting of the archetypal construction site (Watts, 2007b). Greed (1999, p.14) has characterised this as the John Wayne approach to site management. Women are under represented at senior levels within the industry and discussion about how equal is engineering (NCE, 2003) continues to be debated within the profession with recent evidence showing that fears about unequal pay and career opportunities are still deterring women from pursuing careers in construction (NCE, 2007). Widespread recognition that the industry is dogged by a strongly defined macho environment moulded by conflict and crisis management (Langford et al., 1995) has not helped make the industry attractive either to male or female entrants with a resulting skills shortage a continuing cause for concern.

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Methodology

The research on which this paper draws adopted an ethnographic qualitative approach to data collection with semi-structured interviews of 31 women civil engineers as the principal method. Participants ranged in age from 2356 years and worked in both the consulting and contracting side of the profession. A majority was in some form of management position and three were in self-employed practice. Six women worked part-time and two more were interested in doing so. From some earlier work undertaken I was aware that the personal circumstances of women are significant and considered it important to have a broad representation of these within the study. Of the 31 participants, 16 were married, five were living with a partner, eight were single, one was separated and one divorced. Thirteen women had school age children and one had adult children who were living independently. The data was collected over a 12-month period from 1999 to 2001. The semi-structured interviews took place in a variety of settings that included a portakabin in the middle of a waterlogged construction site, a temporary hut on a bridge replacement scheme and a busy concourse at a London mainline railway station. In each case the interviews lasted from one to two hours and were audio taped and transcribed. The transcripts were coded according to the grounded theory method laid out by Strauss and Corbin (1990), which yielded the categories for thematic analysis. The broad aim of the research led to exploratory research questions (Mason and Whitehead, 2003, p.354) on topics such as career choice and advancement, workplace culture in the settings of the office and the construction site, business expectations and support structures. These issues were explored from a feminist standpoint with a commitment to explore existing practices and organisational arrangements and their implications for women. This feminist theoretical approach had the broader aim of uncovering womens views of their professional life and giving voice and according value to their ideas and experiences. Having worked in the sector for a number of years as an independent training and technology consultant, I had an insider researcher role that shaped my researcher legitimacy with respondents, fostering a comfortable dynamic that yielded rich data (Watts, 2006). From my knowledge of the industry I was aware that participants were unlikely to hold feminist views and this informed a highly situated methodology of sensitive questioning, positioning womens experience at the centre of the enquiry without explication of the studys feminist framework. A fully transparent approach might have jeopardised the study and, as reflection on the conduct of this research, it is clear that researcher integrity is contingent upon context and situation rather than abstract principles (Watts, 2008).

Creating the good enough impression

Participants in the study were at different life stages in terms of both their personal and professional development but all the accounts were characterised by expressions of how much they enjoyed their work. In particular, the pleasure derived from building structures was a clear theme of their stories. However, many respondents felt that their contribution at work was not as highly valued as that of male peers and a majority were of the view that women were under a form of surveillance from their male colleagues. This was

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experienced by most as emotionally draining. The comment below from one participant who had recently left a senior corporate role to set up her own independent practice was one of several that referred to womens difference value:
Despite all the protestations of men, women are seen differently in this business. We are compared up to men and we are never ever good enough. I havent got kids but its even worse for the women who have; they are seen to be on a different pathway altogether. (Wanda Jessop, aged 46, in self-employed practice)

Two aspects of performance that impact on impression management within construction are now discussed; these are the long hours culture and the ritual of the regular pub gathering that symbolises group solidarity. The issue of having to over perform to demonstrate total commitment to career and to be seen as good enough alongside male colleagues within this fast paced industry, was a theme running through a majority of the participants accounts. This appeared to be connected to high visibility bringing increased performance pressures, particularly being compared with male colleagues whose dedication to a culture of working heroically long hours has shaped what is now seen as normal and accepted working practice. Those who challenge or deviate from this norm by, for example, leaving too often before the boss, can be seen as less of a team player, less committed and not quite up to the job within a culture of competitive presenteeism (Simpson, 1998, p.37). The power of this presenteeism culture pervades the different settings of construction and is the norm on the building site as it is in the design office and the boardroom. All participants were open about the long hours culture within the sector and the expectation of senior managers that they would stay as long as it took to finish the job. Some spoke of working 6070 hours a week on a regular basis. Problems on jobs, delays in schedules, very tight profit margins in an increasingly competitive market, weather difficulties, a greater number of overseas clients and better developed consultation processes, all combine to require flexibility of the modern civil engineer. In light of these womens accounts, flexibility is, in reality, a euphemism for unlimited availability that assumes an entirely work-centred lifestyle. Helen Coates, a single woman working as a chartered engineer summed this up as being there and being seen to be there is everything. Those who want to work what another participant described as sensible hours are seen as role deviants and stigmatised for operating outside of normative values. The comments from a number of participants about the emotional stress caused by a cycle of working long hours demonstrate the personal toll of feeling that there is little choice but to conform to this cultural practice.
I didnt sleep properly for years. I was the only woman on the job and everyone else in the team just never seemed to go home and I felt I would be seen as not a full member of the team if I were the first to leave. It nearly broke me; emotionally I was at rock bottom. (Wanda Jessop, aged 46, speaking of her time when employed in a senior corporate role) Everyone works late, its just part of the job. Its the part I hate, as I get so exhausted and I hardly see my son at all in the week. Sometimes I am so stressed with it all I wonder if its worth it. (Karen Shaw, aged 40, working as a senior project manager)

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I worked inhumane hours for years and it cost me my marriage. I love the work and the wonder of seeing structures go up but I have paid a high price. When I started out there were no other women so I had to fit in with the men if I was going to succeed. (Susan Hamilton, aged 49, working part-time in her own consultancy) Since going part-time since I had my children I know I am seen differently. I am not treated as a full member of the team and it has been made as good as plain to me that I am not going to get promoted. I do what I can in the three days and even take work home to make sure I keep up but its hard and so emotionally draining. (Fiona Kent, aged 34, environmental engineer)

Feelings of overload, stress and conflict were described by a majority of participants as features of their working lives resulting in deep levels of emotional anxiety for many. The sense that the industry has an uncompromising approach to its professional workforce, demanding heroic and relentless commitment to work, was powerfully demonstrated in the womens stories. Whilst men also experience these pressures they do so as those who set the rules and as arbiters of their ascription. The second theme of this section concerns the social rituals of construction that are centred on the male pub gathering. Reference to this was made in all but three of the 31 interviews and for some participants the expectation that they should join colleagues either at lunchtime or later in the evening presented them with difficult choices as some of the extracts that follow illustrate.
My experience has been that there are two types of female engineer really. One is the stereotype engineer who dresses like the lads, drinks like the lads and smokes like the lads. Then there is the type that is po faced, never goes to the pub and is always outside of the things. Its so difficult to be anything in between. (Pauline Jenkinson, aged 45, senior manager with a utility company) In the early days I used to go down to the pub but so often things got out of hand. Some of them would get so drunk and try and maul me. Having to face them on Monday in the office I couldnt take it so I just stopped going. It made me feel out of it a bit. (Mary Jones, aged 28, graduate engineer)

Construction culture prides itself on hard work and social networking (Langford et al., 1995) with the pub as the most common setting for off site team building activity. Some participants saw deliberately separating oneself from this network as potential career sabotage that had to be counterbalanced by being extra good at the job. I dont go down (to the pub) anymore but spend the time instead tying up loose ends in the office (Naomi Gill, aged 26, graduate engineer). In addition, the concept of compromise, in the form of sporadic token attendance, seemed to form the path of least resistance for some women who felt that occasional pub outings would positively impact on their social standing with colleagues as the comment from Karen Shaw illustrates:
Since I have had my son I dont go to the pub very often but I do feel that now and then I should to keep in with them. The only trouble is I get home so late and I have to deal with my husband then so you cant seem to win.

Those women who joined their colleagues at the pub appeared to do so in a climate of discomfort with one describing this as the boozey side of the job, but at the same time recognising that being a good bloke and resisting an expectation of wanting to be outside networks requires some measure of collusion. Baigent (2005), writing about women as minority fire fighters, points out that demonstrating that you are a good bloke

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is as important as establishing your professional/occupational proficiency. Nevertheless, most participants did not want to socialise with colleagues in this way (and certainly not on a regular basis), seeing this not as leisure but as work-related activity (Mooney, 2004). As a consequence, by default, the outing to the pub is preserved as a protective, predominantly male ritual with information exchanged within the network privileging only those present. Goffman (1959) argues that through effective presentation of self one can exert some control over social interactions in a given situation. This control, however, is boundaried by expectations that individual actions will be consistent with what has gone before to protect group coherence. Within construction, being seen as good enough to become accepted as a full member of the building team demands adherence to the ethos of working long hours and socialising at the pub. Women working alongside their male counterparts collude in acting out the role of the dedicated worker feeling that they have no option other than to demonstrate visible commitment by being present beyond the time needed for effective performance of the job (Simpson, 1998). The possibility of flexibility or compromise in acting out the good enough role appeared to rest only in relation to the extent to which they felt that they could opt in or opt out of the frequent pub gathering. For those women who had decided to opt out of this activity, replacement impression management effort was directed towards keeping up to date and tying up lose ends to ensure that they are seen to be on top of what one participant described as crushing workloads.

Telling stories: but not just any stories

Elsewhere I have written about the humour effects of day-to-day interaction in the different settings of construction (Watts, 2007a) and particularly the gendered and sexually harassing nature of these on building sites (Watts, 2007b). Because of the both deeply hierarchical and potentially anarchic nature of construction sites, humour is the vehicle through which personal congruence can be maintained when conflict over process occurs. It is in fact what keeps the construction show on the road. Humour is thus an integral component of the social discourses of construction and participants accounts of their experiences in the profession were littered with humorous stories, amusing anecdotes and tales about funny episodes. The telling of their own stories at work, however, to an almost entirely male audience appeared to be constrained and marshalled by dominant male interests that do not encourage personal exchanges outside of joke, work or sports themes. The dimension of playing to the script that features as a key element within Goffmans (1959) impression management model, provides an appropriate theoretical lens that can explain why one can only succeed with a projection of self which others are prepared to accept. The term script within this model refers to the kind of language to be used and the general themes expected within conversational exchanges. As excerpts from respondents interviews reveal, these normative conversational expectations acted as constraints and were emotionally difficult for some women with others required to develop what I term a camouflage strategy as an impression management tool. Adaptive discursive strategies engaged in by participants to manage others impression of them in the workplace were in response to a range of concerns including being seen as too focused on their home life and too involved with other roles outside work,

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both suggesting a lesser commitment to work than male colleagues with the potential for them to be cast as slackers. The following excerpts from the transcript data illustrate some of the issues and dilemmas.
My daughter went through a patch of being unwell and I wanted to take her to the doctor, rather than asking the childminder but it meant me coming in late or leaving early a few times. I told one or two of them at work but I could see after the first couple of occasions that they thought it wasnt on so I changed tack and said I was at the dentist or taking the car in for a service. I just couldnt face their looks when I said it was my daughter. (Susan Leyton, aged 47, chartered principal engineer) Before the birth of my son what really worried me was whether clients would see me differently once I had become a mother so I decided to have my phone work line diverted to home so that when clients called for me they wouldnt know I wasnt in the office. I never said anything much about being pregnant and started working from home a week after the birth having left a recorded message on the answer phone that I would be away for a few days during the time I would be in hospital. I returned to the office taking only three weeks maternity leave so it worked out OK. (Karen Shaw, aged 40, working as a senior project manager) I have found that I have had to remove talk about my children almost completely at work. You see their eyes glaze over, theyre not interested, even the ones with their own children. It makes me feel like two different people sometimes and very wretched at times. (Gillian Hayes, aged 32, project engineer with three young children) Although I work part-time I have learned that you have to keep your work and home life separate. Too much chat about family things doesnt go down well here and the men dont want to hear about it. They are more interested in the football. I suppose you have got to expect it really. (Tania Forrest, aged 39, senior project manager) For a long time I had to try and balance looking after my elderly father with the demands of this place. In the beginning when he started to go down hill I just wanted to get it off my chest when I came in. At first most people were sympathetic but it didnt last long and I knew I had to tone it down and just get on with the job. Once one of the men tried to make a joke of it talking about all of us going ga ga as we get old. That upset me and the whole thing has been very emotionally demanding on my personality. (Wendy Johnson, aged 56, chief engineer)

The above comments are intended to give the reader a flavour of the types of discursive constraint experienced by women although there were many other references to different aspects of appropriate or acceptable workplace talk. Cohen et al. (2005), commenting on the socially constitutive features of architectural expertise, highlight the importance of language as a discursive determinant of how architecture and architects are seen and understood. This research demonstrates that this is a sector wide phenomenon with women under particular pressure to conform to male understandings of valid narratives that are systemically reproduced through taken-for-granted everyday conversational interactions (Holmes, 2006). Back-stage small talk that is entirely unrelated to work appears to be difficult to sustain even where women may have substantial shared interest with male peers. Clearly both power and gender relations inform this dynamic that, within the construction sector, engage to an only very limited extent with relational practice defined by Holmes (2006, p.74) as the emotional context in

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which work gets done. Relational practice is people-oriented behaviour that is not gender-neutral. It is inscribed by highly gendered assumptions about the nature of nurturing and support roles that oil the wheels of workplace communication to achieve corporate goals involving recognition that workers do not naturally observe (or want to observe) a strict separation between work and personal lives. However, it is this separation of spheres and, specifically the supposition within construction that the personal takes place outside of the process of labour exchange, that is a key determinant of both workplace discourse and the intense long hours culture positioning work as an all-consuming life interest (Watts, 2007c). These theoretical threads can be drawn together within Goffmans (1959) overarching impression management model that argues that there is room for manoeuvre in negotiating the definition of a scene but that this will vary according to context. Some situations are fairly evenly balanced and fluid. Others are tightly defined with well-established scripts and power firmly invested in a particular group. Scripts provide a form of structuring within social situations and, as with any structure, they simultaneously enable things to happen and constrain what can happen. The talk experiences of participants in this research demonstrate that the colonisation by the dominant male group of an hegemonic masculine script within construction requires women to adapt to a depersonalised discourse to make their narrative valid and render them as serious professionals. This, for some, has significant emotional consequences leading to feelings of guilt, resentment, frustration and inadequacy. Embarking on a pathway of challenging these behavioural norms requires considerable emotional effort with little reward and the potential risk of being positioned further from the nexus of influence.

Discussion

This research contributes to the continuing debate about womens involvement in male-dominated professional work in a number of ways. It highlights the continual requirement for women to take control, as far as is possible, of ways in which they are seen by male co-workers because it is men who are in positions of corporate authority with the power to substantially affect womens career opportunities. Edwards and Wajcman (2005, p.81) are explicit on this point arguing that the ability of workers to engage in successful impression management is likely to be affected not only by their gender but also by the fact that their managers are usually men. In analysing the ways in which women within construction are required to confirm their professional status, the concept of impression management offers an appropriate and flexible theoretical tool with which to draw out significant elements of the practical strategies adopted to achieve role incorporation. The emotion work involved in women trying to maintain and develop their professional presence within construction takes different forms but is experienced as stressful and operates on a continuum of surviving ongoing material and conversational rites of passage. Having to suppress or deny aspects of their personhood, particularly in light of the polarised positioning of work and home within construction culture, was found by some to be almost unbearable giving rise to feelings of guilt and disappointment. Having to display organisationally desired emotions (Fischbach et al., 2006) rather than intuitively felt responses to situations, was

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experienced as a form of deception (Clarke et al., 2007) and, in some cases, as self-deception with women questioning why they were continuing in the profession. The analysis presented demonstrates that the labour of impression management, in which women are engaged, is multi-faceted incorporating both qualitative and quantitative aspects with the effects of this experienced as very wearing on both an emotional and psychological level. Successful impression management, essential for building a good reputation, requires women to collude with male work patterns that mean long hours and adoption of a mind-set that promotes the strict separation of work from the personal. The collusion involves women assuming the position of honorary male adopting male success criteria (Britton, 1999) thus ensuring the preservation of the cohesive group front. Given that women are not seen to have the same characteristics for leadership as men (Wilson, 2002, p.16), those participants who were interested in pursuing a career in senior management (a significant proportion) were under the most stress, actively conducting a vigilant and sustained personal impression management campaign with attendant high levels of emotion work integrated into their daily schedules. For women with caring responsibilities these have to be seamlessly managed so as not to disrupt either their work image or performance. This demands strict adherence to the dominant script (Goffman, 1959) to maintain surface agreement, the veneer of consensus, with all involved expected to conceal their own wants behind statements that pay lip service to prescribed group values. Thus, for example, pleasures connected to the joy of parenting have to be shared discretely and taking anything but the shortest period of statutory maternity leave is frowned upon. Benn (1998) explains that at the root of this premature returnism amongst professional women is the imperative to demonstrate that motherhood has not changed them and, most crucially, has not diminished their appetite for work. The camouflage strategy used by one participant to give the impression that she was still working whilst she was in fact giving birth, demonstrates the belief of some women that successful impression management is an underpinning criterion for career success and organisational survival. The findings presented aid understanding of the concept of emotion work in relation to how personal impression management within organisational contexts operates on a continuum of constant reinforcement so that only appropriate, or culturally condoned emotions, can be acknowledged as legitimate. For women in construction this demands careful self-management that includes some measure of emotional dissonance (Fischbach et al., 2006) that can have significant psychological consequences. Both the extent and type of impression management work that women undertake in the sector have left me in no doubt that they have not been fully admitted to the male construction club that operates as an exceedingly tight, self-referencing community of practice that, seen through Goffmans (1959) model, operates without contradiction to established behavioural norms. Generally, their professional position appears to be one of relative dislocation that I interpret as tenancy rather than ownership. Their accounts portray a fragmented and isolated female workforce under heavy surveillance by male colleagues and, although women are taking up professional construction roles in slowly increasing numbers, they currently do so only as guests of the subculture (Eisenberg, 2004). The research on which this paper draws is a small-scale exploratory study with scope for further development, particularly in light of an expanding globalised market for construction services. The possibility of extending this research to, for example,

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incorporate a cross European perspective to consider ways in which women in both professional and non-professional roles can be encouraged to take up construction work, would be of value to employers and trade and professional bodies.
All participants names have been changed to protect anonymity.

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