Sequential MCA approach to aid worker's talk: the interactional negotiation of gender identity

This study contributes to the literature on international aid workers, which is still in its infancy. It highlights an area of research that has not hitherto been studied: aid workers’ gendered identities. It had several aims; the broader was to gain insight into the professional category of international aid workers; others were to understand whether the international aid sector is undergoing a process of feminisation, to study if/how the professional experiences of women and men aid workers might differ, and to analyse the professional benefits and/or disadvantages that could arise from one’s gender identity. Data were collected through an online survey (188 respondents) and interviews (69 participants). Participants included women and men of different ages, working for a range of aid organizations (private, government run, UN agencies, INGOs, NGOs) in both development and emergency contexts. Data were analysed with a sequential Membership Categorisation Analysis (Stokoe, 2012), and revealed how aid workers female identity was used by the participants to account for problematic situations as well as for positive ones. Gender resulted to be more relevant for female aid workers than for their male colleagues, and a gender disparity in the number of stressors was confirmed, in line with the literature (Curling & Simmons, 2010). Findings also testify to managers of aid organisations the need to invest more in offering a psychosocial preventative and proactive approach, with the goals of prevention, training, support and mentoring.