The Managed Heart

This chapter explores emotional labor and gender, highlighting how societal structures place different emotional demands on men and women. Middle-class American women are often perceived as more emotional and adept at managing feelings than men. This perception is partly rooted in cultural definitions and the fact that women tend to do more emotion management, both consciously and subconsciously, in their personal and professional lives.

The author suggests that women’s greater involvement in emotional labor links to their lower access to material resources like money, power, and status. The nature of emotional labor likewise varies between genders. Women are often socialized to be more adaptive, cooperative, and deferential, roles that require them to manage anger and aggression to appear nice. Men, on the other hand, are tasked with enforcing rules and managing fear and vulnerability. This difference in emotional roles stems from childhood socialization, which encourages girls to embody nurturing and pleasing behaviors but teaches boys to be tough and assertive.

In addition, the text discusses the concept of a “status shield,” noting that women’s lower social status makes them more vulnerable to displaced aggression and emotional abuse, as evident in how female flight attendants face more verbal abuse from passengers compared to their male counterparts.