Keele Research Repository

Using Acker’s concept of ‘inequality regimes’, this article examines the practices and processes of gender inequality in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, highlighting the complex and subtle nature of discrimination sometimes at play and the strategies used by those who progress within this context. The project involved in-depth interviews during which participants recounted their career stories. Our research study examines the ways in which men and women in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter account for their careers in order to examine the underlying gender regimes that influence the everyday practices of workers in this context. Our findings suggest that contrary to contemporary images of the creative industries, jewellery making remains deeply traditional with structures and processes that both overtly and covertly disadvantage women workers. Empirically, this article enhances our understanding of the way that this creative cluster operates and examines how that disadvantages particular groups of workers. Theoretically, this article contributes to our knowledge of the use of the concept of gender regimes at a cluster level.