Aesthetic Labour in Health Professional Education: Dress, Discrimination and Resistance
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: PHENOMENON: In organizational studies and management literature, the term aesthetic labor is used to describe how employee appearance is managed to provide particular customer experiences. Health professional education programs also manage the appearance of students, particularly by formulating dress codes. Previous literature has shown that dress codes can reflect racist, sexist and class biases and reinforce hierarchies of privilege within and between health professions. APPROACH: This critical perspective reappraises this literature to develop an account of aesthetic labor in health professional education. FINDINGS: The aesthetic labor process is shown to support structural discrimination, but also to invoke a variety of student responses that incorporate professional resistance. INSIGHTS: This article relates these to the aesthetic labor literature using labor process theory, and identifies areas for future research as well as implications for educational institutions and practitioners.
Author: Edward Waters
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4408955921