Strapping, as well as numerate: Occupational identity, masculinity and the aesthetics of nineteenth-century banking

Diane van den Broek

Business History, 2011, vol. 53, issue 3, 289-301

Abstract: In nineteenth-century Australia a 'career' in banking depended on one's technical ability, including a way with figures, good penmanship and attention to detail. However social and cultural factors were also considered equally important. To ensure the recruitment and promotion of trustworthy, dependable and committed staff, banks recruited and promoted through internal labour markets reinforced through significant monitoring and on-going assessments. A major component of these assessments related to social and cultural factors including embodied and aesthetic attributes of middle classness as well as robust notions of masculinity. This article analyses primary data from Australia's Bank of New South Wales at the close of the nineteenth century to highlight the inter-relationship between prevailing notions of masculinity, respectability, occupation and identity.

Keywords: career; masculinity; banking; aesthetics; bureaucracy; occupational identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00076791.2011.565509 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:bushst:v:53:y:2011:i:3:p:289-301

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FBSH20

DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2011.565509

Access Statistics for this article

Business History is currently edited by Professor John Wilson and Professor Steven Toms

More articles in Business History from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().