Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons^™

The Sexual Division Of Labor : The Impact Of Organizational Change Upon Group Cohesion And The Creation Of Occupational Identity, Robert M. Bossarte

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to identify the impact of recent organizational change upon the culture of firefighting.

The experiences of female firefighters were utilized as a measure of cultural change. A purposive sample of twenty-seven male and female firefighters were interviewed in a semi-structured format about their experiences in the fire service.

This research found that the culture of firefighting has adjusted to the presence of previously excluded groups by forging a division among the identities and roles of male and female firefighters. The white, male firefighters, who have traditionally constituted a majority of the workforce, have continued …