Self-monitoring, self-blaming, self-sacrificing workers: Gendered managerialism in the non-profit sector

Abstract

Synopsis The findings discussed in this paper are drawn from a larger study of the changing work experience of front-line workers in four comparable, restructured, liberal welfare states, in a subsector of the economy known as the nonprofit social services (NPSS). Older practices, unique to the sector, such as collectivist ethics, relationship building, care and social justice are being colonised and displaced by the new technologies of performativity such as self-monitoring, target setting, outcome measures and technocratic solutions. In addition, changes in labour markets have produced high numbers of unemployed men in some countries, some of whom have moved into jobs in this traditionally female sector, reshaping aspects of the work and its mission-based ethos. This paper suggests a continuum of masculinised and feminised strategies exist in the NPSS. The latter depend on idealised, female self-sacrifice and reinforce social justice ethics while most of the former challenge non-profit ethics and alter work practices to be more consistent with managerialist aims.