Doing Gender as Resistance

This article examines the different ways in which “waitresses” in a traditional restaurant setting and “servers” in a routinized and standardized corporate restaurant setting “do gender” in the workplace. Whereas waitresses are permitted interpretative use of gender in the workplace, the goals and ideologies of the corporate restaurant limit servers' use of gender in the workplace. My findings suggest that normatively accepted versions of gender can be done as a method of resistance, rather than conformity, in standardized and routinized workplace settings. These conclusions are informed by ethnographic research conducted over twenty-two months in two different Los Angeles area restaurants.