Construction labour, subcontracting and masculinity: “construction is a man’s job”

Abstract

This study examines how construction workers construct their male identity on the basis of their job requirements. A qualitative field research comprising in-depth interviews was conducted with 32 construction workers in Diyarbakır to examine subcontracting in Turkey’s construction sector. The findings show that by defining construction labour in terms of physical capacity, an outcome of the labour conditions shaped by the practice of subcontracting, construction work have become naturalised as a man’s job. The findings also illustrate how construction produces different masculinities that intersect with the understanding of working class shaped by the role of men being the head of the family rather than a single notion of manhood shaped by physical working conditions. Nevertheless, the male worker culture that feeds off different masculinities still retains the power to dominate and exclude women as workers from the construction site, e.g. through means of sexual harassment.