In the Heat of the Moment
The Emotional Labor Strategies of Women Restaurant Servers Responding to Sexual Harassment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2292259 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Krista Lynn Minnotte (0000-0002-3134-4768, University of North Dakota, corresponding author), Elizabeth Miklya Legerski (0000-0002-2792-1542, University of North Dakota) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 96 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 151-171 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Inquiry (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0245 • E-ISSN: 1475-682X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/soin.70013 |
| OpenAlex | W4409392758 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 63 |
The #MeToo movement highlights workplace sexual harassment's pervasiveness across occupations and industries. Restaurant servers in particular report high rates of sexual harassment due to the gendered expectations and power imbalances that characterize this line of work, with servers facing harassment from co-workers, managers, and customers. Sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention from customers are especially problematic because servers often must navigate the difficult situation of continuing to serve customers whose behavior has crossed the line. Using interview data collected from 31 predominantly white restaurant servers, we conducted a thematic analysis of the emotional labor they perform in response to sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention from customers. Findings suggest a variety of strategies utilized by servers facing sexual harassment, including managing their outward emotional expressions, feigning laughter, avoiding the customer, and strategically managing their personal information. Servers described engaging in these responses in order to prioritize the customer experience but also sometimes to push back in subtle ways. All told, our findings highlight how the complex and varied emotional labor strategies used by servers as they navigate sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention from customers constitute an additional layer of work restaurant servers are called upon to perform
Criminology · Economics · Emotional labor · Harassment · Labour economics · Moment (physics) · Physics · Sociology · Emotional Labor in Professions · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Social Psychology
Effects of racial and sexual harassment on work and the psychological well-being of African American women.
When the customer is wrong
Me Too In the Kitchen
Communities of Coping
The Managed Heart
Emotional display rules as work unit norms
Putting People Down and Pushing Them Out
Low-Wage Women’s Experiences of Workplace Incivilities
Sexual harassment in contemporary workplaces
Why women don’t report sexual harassment
Customer First and Customer Sexual Harassment
Sexual Harassment in Small‐Town New Zealand
Sky Service
But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’
Something to Deal With’
Law’s Gendered Subtext
Emotional labor threatens decent work
Predicting the decision to confront or report sexual harassment
The Moderating Roles of Race and Gender-Role Attitudes in the Relationship Between Sexual Harassment and Psychological Well-Being
Exploring Retaliation as a Coping Strategy in Response to Customer Sexual Harassment
Below the “tip of the iceberg”
It's a total embarrassment”
Real Versus Imagined Gender Harassment
Customer sexual harassment and frontline employees’ service performance in China
Emotional Labor in Service Work
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Journalists, harassment, and emotional labor
Customer harassment against LGBTQ workers
Trajectory Guarding
Walking Mannequins
To Invest or Detach? Coping Strategies and Workplace Culture in Service Work
Farewell to the organization man
Boundary Lines
Just Let it Pass by and it Will Fall on Some Woman
Sexual Harassment in Display Work
The Penalties For Self-Reporting Sexual Harassment
Race, Gender, and Emotion Work among School Principals
The Economic and Career Effects of Sexual Harassment on Working Women
The Gendering of Emotional Flexibility
Metaphors at Work
Crossing the Line
All Fun and Cool Clothes? Youth Workers' Consumer Identity in Clothing Retail
The (Un)Managed Heart
The Sociology of Emotional Labor
Racialized and Classed Contexts
Policing Gender at Work
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |