Virtual servants: Stereotyping female front-office employees on the Internet

Gender, Work and Organization

Volumn 12, Issue 5, 2005, Pages 400-419

  Gustavsson, Eva ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG   (Sweden)

Author keywords

Gender; Internet services; Stereotypes; Virtual customer services

Indexed keywords

EMPLOYMENT; GENDER; INTERNET; OFFICE LOCATION; STEREO IMAGE; WORKING CONDITIONS;

EID: 28244470966     PISSN: 09686673     EISSN: 14680432     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2005.00281.x     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Absolutearts.com. (2003) Perfectly real: women in bits and bytes. Indepth Arts News. Available online at http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2003/10/20/ 31468.html, last consulted 19 March 2004.
2. Acker, J. (1990) Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: a theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4,2, 139-58.
3. Anonymous (2000) Ananova makes her debut. BBC News. http://news.bbc.co. Uk/1/ hi/entertainment/718327.stm, last consulted 19 March 2004.
4. Artificial Solutions (n.d.) Available online at www.n-solutions.com/ Frames/English/All.htm, last consulted 5 May 2004.
5. Bos, R.T. and Rhodes, C. (2003) The game of exemplarity: subjectivity, work and the impossible politics of purity. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 9,4, 403-23.
6. Bradley, H. (1989) Men's Work, Women's Work. A Sociological History of the Sexual Division of Labour in Employment. Oxford: Polity Press.
7. BT Exact Technologies' Research overview (2003) Issue 1, 7January. Downloaded from www.btexact.com/research/researchprojects/ last consulted 16 October 2003. This site is now closed.
8. Cooper, W. (2000) Ananova: a virtual newscaster goes online. World Broadcast Engineering, 23,9, 30-3.
9. Czepiel, J.A., Solomon, M. and Surprenant, C. (eds) (1985) The Service Encounter, Managing Employee/Customer Interaction in Service Businesses. Advances in Retailing Series. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
10. DA Group (n.d.) Available online at www.dagroupplc.com, last consulted 19 March 2004.
11. Danet, B. (1998) Text as mask: gender, play and performance on the internet. In Jones, S.G. (ed.) Cybersociety 2.0 Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, Exploring Techology and Social Space, pp. 129-58. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
12. Der Abenteuer Medien Verlag (n.d). Available online at www.abenteuermedien.de/jabberwock, last consulted 19 March 2004.
13. Dietrich, D. (1997) (Re)-fashioning the techno-erotic woman: gender and textuality in the cybercultural matrix. In Jones, S.C. (ed.) Virtual Culture. Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, pp. 169-84. London: Sage.
14. Du Gay, P. (2000) Markets and meanings: re-imagining organization life. In Schulte, M., Hatch, M.J. and Holten Larsen, M. (eds) The Expressive Organization - Linking Identity, Reputation and the Corporate Brand, pp. 66-74. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
15. Elbot (n.d.) Homepage, available online at www.elbot.com.
16. Good, B. (2000) You're virtually useless: a message to Ananova from the anchors of British Columbia. BC Business, 28,6, 109, Ip, 1c.
17. Guerrilla Girls (2003) Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes. New York: Penguin Books.
18. Gustavsson, E. and Czarniawska, B. (2004) Web woman: the online construction of corporate and gender images. Organization, 11,5, 651-70.
19. Hine, C. (2000) Virtual Ethnography. London: Sage.
20. Hochschild, A.R. (1983) The Managed Heart. Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
21. Humany (n.d.) Available online at www.humany.com, last consulted 5 May 2004.
22. IKEA (n.d.) Available online at www.IKEA.com, last consulted 24 May 2005.
23. Jones, S.G. (1997) The Internet and its social landscape. In Jones, S.G. (ed.) Virtual Culture. Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, pp. 7-35. London: Sage.
24. Kelly, S. (2003) Virtal humans edge closer. BBC ClickOnline. Available online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3096415.stm., last consulted 19 March 2004.
25. Kiwilogic (n.d.) Available online at www.kiwilogic.com, last consulted 5 May 2004.
26. Lane Lawley, E. (1993) Computers and the Communication of Gender. Available online at http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html, last consulted 19 March 2004.
27. Lee-Raymond, E. (2000) Gender Matters, hypertexts. Available online at www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/gender/Raymond/READERWRITER.html, last consulted 19 March 2004.
28. Leidner, R. (1993) Fast Food, Fast Talk. Service Work and the Routinization of Everyday Life. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
29. Lexicle (n.d.) Available online at www.lexicle.com, last consulted 19 March 2004.
30. LIVETV, Sky Digital 214 (n.d.) Available online at www.livetv.co.uk.
31. LIVETV Strip (Sky Digital 214) (n.d.) Available online at www.stripme.co.uk/sm/ livetv_tour.jsp, last consulted 19 March 2004.
32. Loebner Prize homepage (n.d.) Available online at www.loebner.net/Prizef/ loebner-prize.html, last consulted 19 March 2004.
33. Mattsson, Å. (2000) Varför heter de inte Johanna och Jonna? Aftonbladet. Stockholm.000413, 4-5.
34. McCulloch, L. (2002) Digital broadcasters. Computer Graphics World, 25,10, 18-20.
35. Multiple Sclerosis Gateway (n.d.) Available online at http://www.ms-gateway.com/ start.html, last consulted 5 May 2004.
36. My Little Tony (n.d.) Available online at www.mylittletony.com.
37. Noctalis shop, n.d. Available online at http://noctalis.com/dis/ laracroft/ pr0205a.shtml, last consulted 19 March 2004.
38. O'Brien, J. (1999) Writing in the body gender (re)production in online interaction. In Smith, M.A. and Kollock, P. (eds) Communities in Cyberspace, pp. 77-104. London: Routledge.
39. Pierce, J.L. (1996) Reproducing gender relations in large law firms: the role of emotional labor in paralegal work. In Macdonald, C.L. and Sirianni, C. (eds) Working in the Service Society, pp. 184-219. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
40. Plant, S. (1997) Zeros + Ones: Digital Women + the New Technoculture. London: Fourth Estate.
41. Ryan, M-L. (2001) Narrative as Virtual Reality -Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
42. Schult/, M., Hatch, M.J. and Holten Larsen, M. (2000) Introduction: why the expressive organization. In Schulte, M., Hatch, M.J. and Holten Larsen, M. The Expressive Organization - Linking Identity, Reputation and the Corporate Brand, pp. 1-7. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
43. Smith, M.A. and Kollock, P. (1999) Communicties in Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
44. Stone, A.R. (1992) Will the real body please stand up? Boundary stories about virtual cultures. In Benedikt, M. (ed.) Cyberspace: First Steps, pp. 81-118. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
45. Thefab.net (2003) Digital Babes strut their stuff: New Babes on the Net! Available online at http://ww.thefab.net/topics/social_body/bm12_digital_babes. htm., last consulted 19 March 2004.
46. Turkle, S. (1995) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
47. Twist, J. (2003) Cyber Women Tests what's Real. Available online at BBC News http:// news.bbc.co.Uk/2/hi/technology/3207462.stm., last consulted 19 March 2004.
48. Tyler, M. and Taylor, S. (2001) Juggling justice and care: gendered customer service in the contemporary airline industry. In Sturdy, A., Grugulis, I. and Willmott, H. Customer Service, Empowerment and Entrapment, pp. 60-78. London: Palgrave.
49. Wajcman, J. (2004) Techno Feminism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
50. Webopedia Computer Dictionary (n.d.) Available online at www.webopedia.com/ TERM/C/chat_bot.html, last consulted 19 March 2004.
51. Wennö, N. (2000) Virtuell tv-stjärna tar over. Dagens Nyheter. Stockholm. 000317, B3.