A Quiet Claim to Expertise: School Canteen Workers, a Feminised Care Activity

In French nursery and primary schools, staff accompany the children to the school canteen. They chat with them, calm conflicts, encourage them to eat, cut their meat, teach them how to use their cutlery. From washing their hands to clearing away their trays, these workers are essential to the smooth running of the children's lunchtime. However, they are rarely the subject of attention, recognition or academic study.

The aim of this communication is to explore the issue of professionalism in this low-skilled group, which consists mainly of women – and in large cities, of ethnic minority women. I will draw on an ongoing qualitative study that I have been conducting since October 2023 in two canteens, one in a working-class district of Paris and the other in a rural school of average socio-economic status in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

Far from being a job that requires no skills or that simply reactivates skills from the domestic sphere, repeated observation of their daily activity reveals all the specific competences needed to carry it out. Feeding one's own child is not the same as ensuring the safety, wellbeing and satiety of dozens or even hundreds of children, with all the associated noise and constraints such as time pressure. The workers are aware that a form of expertise gained through practical experience on the job enables them to carry out demanding tasks effectively, but they have internalised a sense of subservience both to the educational professionals alongside whom they work in the school and to the professionals who prepare the meals, who are more qualified and more likely to be male. Although the group has professionalised since its emergence in the last century, this process therefore remains incomplete due to obstacles stemming from their work situation and the (gendered) representations associated with their job.