Hi all! Please see below for the first discussion thread for Module/Week 4. This is based on the reading: Rose, M. (2005). “Chapter 1: Working Life of a Waitress” The Mind at Work. New York: Penguin. Please note that the first paragraph in both discussion threads are the same, but the content and questions that follow differ. The focus of this thread is to elaborate on the gendered dimensions in “thinking” during the learning process.
In the first chapter of Rose (2005), the author challenges the common misconception that the work involved in waitressing is “low-skilled”. He illustrates, through a biography of his mother’s vast experiences in the restaurant business, the complex intersections of cognition and emotion that are consistently demanded in the role of a waitress, and are developed through informal learning and practice. “One of the things that strikes me about my mother’s report is the number of techniques it contains, the mix of strategies and processes: imagistic, spatial, verbal, and the role of emotion.” (p. 12). “My mother mixed observation and practice, got some pointers … monitored her performance, and developed competence.” (pp. 9-10). I find it interesting how Rose (2005) has synthesized various working experiences of a waitress into developing and practicing important and lifelong skills (e.g., time management, prioritization, strategic thinking, memory, attention, and relationship building). I also find it useful in emphasizing the significant outcomes of the informal and non-formal dimensions of education.
While only briefly mentioned, the author touches on his mother’s identity development through her work as a working-class Italian immigrant. Rose (2005) references the social transformation and liberation that occurred through her restaurant work which enabled her to “think of herself in a different way … and to engage a wider social field than would have been possible” (p. 29). I think an important aspect that is missing is the practices and enrichment of learning through a community, and the camaraderie of restaurant staff (e.g., the community of women who would waitress together at a restaurant, the self-advocacy skills that emerge, etc.).
A stark contrast is made between the skills required to waitress effectively and efficiently and the economic reality of this low-wage, highly feminized work. “Though this field of customer-waitress emotion is shaped by the historical residue of servitude and by stereotyped gender roles, the waitress attempts to control it to her economic and emotional advantage” (p. 22).
We read about the emotional labour involved in waitressing and the social dynamics of service encounters.
Discuss the question below
What are the gendered dimensions of the learning process? What influence or role does emotion have in how we think, remember, and pay attention? And what is different about this process in feminized work? What does this tell us about how (societal, cultural) value is assigned to feminized work?
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