A ‘job for the boys’? The career pathways and gendered employment experiences of women paramedics

Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate and understand the careers and working lives of women paramedics in an historically male-dominated ambulance service. It seeks to explore the experiences of women throughout various stages of their employment as paramedics, including entry into the occupation, career progression, training and professional development and career-breaks, as well as advancement – or otherwise – to senior and strategic leadership roles. It employs Joan Acker’s ‘gendered substructure’ framework to analyse how multiple and complex ‘gendering processes’ structure and shape the experiences of women within a gendered ambulance organisation. The empirical research involves a qualitative case-study of a large Australian ambulance service. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 women paramedics as well with three key informants from the organisation’s senior management and three key informants from paramedic trade unions. Interview data is supplemented by documentary analysis of key workforce data and policies. The thesis finds that despite women paramedics presently comprising a numerical ‘critical mass’ in Ambulance Org, they have not made genuine in-roads into the career structures of the organisation. Women remain under-represented in operational management and specialist paramedic positions and they face significant obstacles to their career success in Ambulance Org. the thesis contributes new knowledge and insights into the challenges faced by women working in male-dominated occupations and organisations, and the mechanisms through which men’s dominance is maintained in these contexts. The findings of the thesis add to our theoretical understandings of gendered organisations by showing how deeply masculine gender regimes remain resilient, even in the context of significant numerical workforce feminisation. Further, the thesis builds on Acker’s theory by proposing extensions to the gendered substructure framework to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of gendering processes in a range of occupational and institutional contexts.