Gendered Labor and Entrepreneurship in the Gig Economy Public

Abstract

Since 1999, the U.S. labor market has seen a steady surge in gig work, characterized by short and temporary contract work. Furthermore, what started as a form of labor carried out by a small sect of people has come to encompass a large and diverse demographic. However, the rapid shift at which precarious labor has become a staple of the modern economy has caused alarm amongst social scientists and politicians alike, citing concerns of a trend toward neoliberal labor values. One example of such a trend has been the emergence of an entrepreneurial culture within the gig economy. Sociological studies on the platform economy have surged in recent years, exploring how factors such as gender, identity, and emotional labor influence and manifest within the gig economy. Currently, research shows that gender and emotional labor play a role in defining the experiences of gig workers. Research also shows that entrepreneurial framing within the gig economy is reminiscent of a shift towards neoliberal labor values. However, while research has been conducted on the interplay of these individual components, scholarship exploring these factors' interplay in the gig economy is non- existent. Thus, my research seeks to fill this gap by conducting a secondary analysis of interviews that were conducted with gig workers in 2019. My research found that gendered differences in the gig economy exist beyond wage gaps. I find that female gig workers cited flexibility as a reason for entering the gig work sector, especially when taking care of children. Second, I found that female gig workers were more often than their male counterparts to perform emotional labor in framing their work in a positive light despite giving negative work accounts that would indicate otherwise. Third, I found that contrary to current research, women were more likely to identify their job as entrepreneurial in nature. The implications for my research are broad but largely center around providing more insight into a large labor population in the United States as well as how a potential lack of social safety nets is driving caretakers of children into performing precarious labor.

Table of Contents

I.              Introduction….7

 

II.             Theoretical Framework & Past Research…10

III.           Methods…20

 

IV.           Findings...26

 

V.            Discussion…38

VI.           Works Cited…43

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Emory College
Department	Sociology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Business Administration, Entrepreneurship Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations Sociology, Organization Theory
Mot-clé	Gig Economy Labor Gender Amazon Uber Organization Inequality Lyft Precarious Labor Entrepreneurship
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Cassidy Puckett, Emory University
Committee Members	Hugo Mialon, Emory University Giacomo Negro, Emory University Tracy Scott, Emory University

Dernière modification

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	Gendered Labor and Entrepreneurship in the Gig Economy ()	2022-05-07 17:38:34 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions