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For women in male-dominated occupations, the gender beliefs and expectations of men co-workers create dilemmas for constructing and managing an occupational identity. Women often find themselves in a double bind where they are held accountable to contradictory expectations for a feminine presentation of self and a masculine performance of work. While previous research demonstrates the strength of gender double binds in constraining women's actions and reproducing the dominant gender system, I argue that these conditions also create possibilities for resistance and change. Based on data from in-depth interviews with women who work in the building trades, this study examines the relationship between structural constraints and women's agency in their response to normative constructions of gender. Rather than being forced into choosing between a stereotypically 'masculine' or 'feminine' role, tradeswomen manipulate gender rules by engaging in reflexive gender displays that emphasize the most advantageous identity for each situation.

Drawing on 63 interviews with a diverse sample of tradeswomen, this article examines how the cultural meanings of sexual orientation—as well as gender presentation, race, and body size—shapes the constraints that women face in the construction industry and the specific resistance strategies they develop. We argue that women's presence in these male-dominated jobs threatens (1) notions of the work as inherently masculine and (2) a gender order that presumes the sexual subordination of women. Tradesmen neutralize the first threat by labeling tradeswomen as lesbians—and therefore not "real" women—and respond to the second by sexualizing straight and lesbian tradeswomen alike. In turn, tradeswomen develop individual resistance strategies, which are shaped by the intersections of their sexual identity, gender presentation, race, and body size. Finally, we show how tradesmen deploy homophobia to stymie collective action and solidarity by tradeswomen, gay or straight.