answers he got. Most the workers interviewed said that they wouldnt see themselves doing any other job and that they feel happy and fulfilled in their occupations. One worker, Harry, says that being a manual worker is a source of masculine identity both in the public sphere and in the private sphere at home . Others said that this line of work was made for them because they are tough men needing to do a tough job in order to affirm their masculinity . Collinson also noted that white Anglo-American workers mostly gave these kind of answers, which can be related to the old Mediterranean definition of masculinity. Masculinity and continuous employment are also closely related, as Collinson suggests . Being unemployed or fired from a job can be a devastating experience for man. When all of a sudden a man finds himself unemployed, he loses all of his reference points, and it is not only the loss of his earning power that generates the most problems but the concept of being a man that is destroyed. Masculinity is shaped in the early stages of life. As author Christine Williams says, boys and girls learn to have different aspirations throught textbooks, schools and sports . She says that boys are trained to be masculine early in their education and are thought to develop their typical masculine qualities through sports and competition.Another fundamental concept explained by Williams is hegemonic masculinity. It is a concept that was first introduced by R. W. Connell and he defines it as follows: The socially dominant form of masculinity in any given historical period. Qualities currently associated with hegemonic masculinity include physical strength and bravado, exclusive heterosexuality, stoicism, authority, and independence. According to Martin Kilduff and Ajay Mehra, male hegemonic masculinity is specially present in elite MBA schools where students learn to develop typical hegemonic qualities such as aggressiveness and compe...
