“Time Is Our Commodity”

The emergence of personal concierge and errand services in the past decade offers a rare opportunity to look at a fledgling occupation with uncertain prospects and in particular to examine its rhetorical struggles for legitimacy. Providers of these services are attempting to commodify household and personal tasks largely associated with women’s labor. Based on interviews and participant observation, this article demonstrates that this association of concierge work with women’s work impedes its symbolic and monetary valuation in the market. In response, concierges primarily use gender-neutral frames to legitimate their product and cast themselves as professionals. This analysis illuminates multiple dimensions of legitimacy-seeking and documents the continued influence of gender on rhetorics of work and value in the market.