Beautifying a stigmatized occupation: Occupational destigmatization of Indian beauty salons

TY - JOUR

T1 - Beautifying a stigmatized occupation

T2 - Occupational destigmatization of Indian beauty salons

AU - Soral, Prakriti

AU - Ren, Shuang

AU - Prakash Pati, Surya

AU - Singh, Sanjay Kumar

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025

PY - 2025/8/22

Y1 - 2025/8/22

N2 - How can an occupation’s stigmatized core attributes be ameliorated? To address this issue, we examined the Indian beauty salon occupation, which has long faced core occupational stigma due to physical, moral, caste-based taints, and low occupational prestige. By drawing on published celebrity beautician interviews and conducting semi-structured interviews with salon owners and customers, we found that modifying stigmatized occupational elements and conveying these modifications to society play a crucial role in occupational destigmatization. Specifically, occupational members crafted the core-stigmatized elements of the beauty salon occupation—people, purpose, and processes (3Ps)—with the support of the relevant stakeholders. Changes were then communicated to society through direct interactions and social media, challenging caste-based associations and branding the occupation alongside non-stigmatized, high-prestige occupations. Together, these activities help address the root cause of stigma and disseminate occupational knowledge beyond caste boundaries. Our work theoretically extends the destigmatization literature by framing destigmatization at the occupational level, offering new insights into how core-stigmatized occupations reshaped societal perception and address intractable stigma, such as those linked to caste.

AB - How can an occupation’s stigmatized core attributes be ameliorated? To address this issue, we examined the Indian beauty salon occupation, which has long faced core occupational stigma due to physical, moral, caste-based taints, and low occupational prestige. By drawing on published celebrity beautician interviews and conducting semi-structured interviews with salon owners and customers, we found that modifying stigmatized occupational elements and conveying these modifications to society play a crucial role in occupational destigmatization. Specifically, occupational members crafted the core-stigmatized elements of the beauty salon occupation—people, purpose, and processes (3Ps)—with the support of the relevant stakeholders. Changes were then communicated to society through direct interactions and social media, challenging caste-based associations and branding the occupation alongside non-stigmatized, high-prestige occupations. Together, these activities help address the root cause of stigma and disseminate occupational knowledge beyond caste boundaries. Our work theoretically extends the destigmatization literature by framing destigmatization at the occupational level, offering new insights into how core-stigmatized occupations reshaped societal perception and address intractable stigma, such as those linked to caste.

KW - caste-based

KW - destigmatization

KW - occupational crafting

KW - occupational stigma

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105014018730

U2 - 10.1177/00187267251360643

DO - 10.1177/00187267251360643

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105014018730

SN - 0018-7267

JO - Human Relations

JF - Human Relations

M1 - 00187267251360643

ER -