Trabalho e gênero nas interações de serviços

Abstract

There is agreement in the area of sociological research on work that service occupations and jobs are oriented by gender distinctions. The scientifi c production on this subject, nevertheless, remains timid, in spite of the importance of gender questions in the worker-consumer-employer relationship, especially concerning frontline workers, whose service activities occur mainly in direct interaction with clients. The discussion about service interactions, in the scope of sociology of work, is addressed and oriented, by the following issues: work organization and description; workers´ subordination and the expropriation of emotional labour by the business community; coping and negotiation strategies developed by frontline workers interacting with employers and consumers. One also stresses gender distinctions concerning three approaches on service work analysis. These theoretical statements are applied in the empirical research of labour and consumption in a fast food chain and in motorcycle-taxi services in the city of Goiania.