The female bartender in Mumbai, India

Research methods, techniques and bar hopping Introduction of the female bartenders.Part 2 Chapter 3. Gender norms in India, a battle against gender apartheid.The ideas on Stigma.The effects of gender norms and law on the work experience.Chapter 4. The fun of freelance.Chapter 5. From bar academy to bar counter. Conclusion. Introduction.Concerning relations in the labour force, anthropological and ethnographic research can trace complexities across places and times, between particular industries, states, communities, workplaces, and people.I argue that we should focus more on occupations (rendered services) rather than on industry alone to trace these complexities.Inspired by what I have been preferring to do for almost ten years in daily life, I chose to conduct a research on female bartending.A bar, as a clear social setting, is a place where much social interaction takes place.This social interaction is constructed by difference and interplay in power-relations, status, and gender-roles.Here, in the Netherlands, it is a common phenomenon when a female bartender is serving guests drinks at the bar or at tables.In India however, this has only be the case since 2010 when the Supreme Court overturned a British law that banned women from working in bars.The Punjab Excise Act, dating from the colonial era, stated that it was forbidden for women to serve alcohol 1 .Even though the Supreme Court overturned this law, each of India's states has it's own laws that protect female bartenders (curfews, training workshops or night transport) or restrict women from working in bars.My research showed me, that the legalization of female bartenders in India resulted in valuable ways of employment for women.With this thesis on the female bartender I wish to contribute in making a small group of middle class women workers in Mumbai more visible, and, inspired by the readings of Smith (2002) I will unravel to what extend the inclusion of women in the labour market maintains or reproduces power in gender relations.Furthermore, I will reveal how the introduction of female bartenders in the public space has appeared in wider public discussions and how these female bartenders have to negotiate the cultural meanings that are attached to female bartenders.These insights concerning the image and ideas of the female bartender can be used for comparative research across boundaries to unravel complexities and contradictions in labour and gender inequalities (Mills, 2003).Another point of interest is that little attention has been paid to female bartenders in academic literature.They have mostly been studied in relation to work in sex industries (Brennan, 2004 Sherman, 2011).Somehow female bartenders working at other workplaces have been neglected.With my thesis on the female bartender in Mumbai I would like to fill in this gap 5 in researches and insights, and I will hopefully contribute to an understanding of gender and labour in a specific context.During my three months of fieldwork in Mumbai I studied how female bartenders perceive their occupation, what happens when women enter a male-dominated occupation, and how they cope and deal with gender ideologies that contradict the new law enforcements.The discussions in the following chapters on different themes surrounding female bartending in Mumbai will help me answer my research question:How do female bartenders in Mumbai perceive their occupation?And is their occupational status related to, or does it contradict the status of middle-class women and gender relations in Mumbai?How do these outcomes influence their agency?This thesis consists of an introduction, five chapters, and a conclusion.There are two parts.Part one is divided in two chapters, which will provide the reader with the necessary background information.In chapter one the theoretical concepts and themes that are central to my research will be discussed.Furthermore, I will zoom in on my field of study -Mumbai, India.Chapter two gives an elaborate overview over the methodological course of action in the field.In this chapter the female bartenders will be introduced.Part two of this thesis is divided in three chapters, these chapters present the data collected in the field.The first chapter of the second part, chapter three, will focus on the effects of gender norms in law and bartending.In addition, my preconceived idea that female bartending in India is a stigmatized occupation will be challenged.Chapter four will cover the benefits of freelance bartending, and in chapter five, my findings obtained from the bar academies and my first encounter with a female bartender at her work will be discussed.Finally, the conclusion offers an analytical summary of the research findings.

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