Thread by @AndrewBrunatti

As we turn the corner into the week of August 12, I want to focus this #Castlereagh200 🧵 on a final area of #MentalHealth risk connected to the workplace: job insecurity.

Bear with me though--I turn this one on its head.

#ViscountCastlereagh #twitterstorians

1/14

If you've been following these #Castlereagh200 threads, you may call that I'm drawing from a risk framework that forms the basis for my upcoming article on Castlereagh and mental health. See the attached table, adapted from Boini, 2020 and Gollac et al, 2011.

2/14

Job insecurity has long been recognized as a mental health risk. But was Castlereagh's job insecure? No.

Electorally he was in safe seats, only losing his home seat briefly in 1805. His position in Cabinet after 1812 was arguably more secure than Liverpool's.

3/14

However, more recent research has suggested that feeling trapped in a stressful job can be as bad for one’s health as being unemployed.

Perhaps, then, the more interesting question is why Castlereagh stayed in a job that was so stressful.

4/14

Certainly by c1820, the number of anecdotal instances where he indicated he might resign seems to increase. The simple answer, esp for this period, is that he felt honour- and duty-bound to stay.

Let's dig into this a bit more by looking at sociocultural expectations...

5/14

The workplace is one of the most important environments in which men define their masculinity through contest. This is particularly true in traditionally male-dominated professions (politics) where the culture has internalised contests--known as masculinity contest cultures.
6/14

Politics was connected to an ideal masculinity. Gisborne (1797) and Ensor (1806), both writing about the duties of Englishmen, indicated that a parliamentary career was one of the principle ways that a man should prove himself if given the opportunity.

7/14

Masculinity contest cultures in the workplace have been found to value and encourage four broad behaviours:

(1) Show no weakness;
(2) Strength and stamina;
(3) Put work first; and
(4) Dog-eat-dog.

How these behaviours are valued/embedded depends on the workplace.

8/14

Castlereagh’s professional manner shows evidence of all four behaviours.

He showed little emotion in the professional realm, and contemporary observers frequently commented on his sang froid in the face of political hostility and personal danger (‘show no weakness’).

9/14

He regularly worked long hours and travelled frequently for professional duties (‘strength and stamina’).

He brought work home as a matter of course, worked from his personal spaces, and conducted business while in social settings (‘Put work first’).

10/14

Lastly, the nature of parliamentary politics couched ‘dog-eat-dog’ behaviour in subtle rules and patterns, but did not eliminate it. There was always a winning side and a losing side, and Castlereagh’s official roles placed him in the centre of this competition.

11/14

In exhibiting these behaviours, Castlereagh was responding to the dominant expectations of his workplace. This explains why family and close friends record a different, warmer Castlereagh at home--he was no longer in the competition space.

12/14

So, why didn't Castlereagh quit in the face of crushing professional burdens? Consider the significant sociocultural cost. In a highly gendered society, Castlereagh’s political success defined his masculinity--even more so for a man that never fathered children.

13/14

Leaving his profession for any reason that could be construed as weakness would have carried significant risks to Castlereagh's identity, and particularly his masculinity.

Far from being insecure in his job, Castlereagh was psychologically handcuffed to it.

14/14

@threadreaderapp unroll