The (im)mobility of masculinities: discourses on hiring men in long-term care services in Catalonia

Abstract

The presence of male job seekers in the long-term care sector poses new challenges for organizations operating in this environment. We take a qualitative approach, drawing on in-depth interviews with managers and care service providers, to analyze discourses and practices related to hiring men, the way they organize their work, and their evaluations of it. The growing number of professionally trained male carers who are willing to work in direct care settings does not seem to be a factor that alters or challenges organizational hiring requirements in terms of gender. Our main contribution is to illustrate, by developing the concept of the mobilization of masculinities, how hiring men is not a priority for care service organizations, even though their recruitment practices do mobilize idealized and alternative conceptions of masculinity. These practices reflect resistence to change in hegemonic masculinity and help to reproduce gender inequalities in the long-term care sector.