Analyzing Intersectionality of Inequalities in Employment Wendy Sigle-Rushton* and Diane Perrons** *Department of Social Policy **Gender Institute London School of Economics and Political Science GENDER, CLASS, EMPLOYMENT AND FAMILY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE City University, London, March 27-28th, 2008

Motivation Context: globalisation and rising inequality inequality and gender inequality gender inequality and other forms of difference Theory: feminist theorising of complex differences Analysis: how do we conceptualise difference in empirical work? adopting the inter-categorical approach

Globalisation (Increasing Trade) and Economic Restructuring (Changing Composition of Employment) Overall inequality (rising) Gender inequality (enduring) Skill biased technological change/finance Superstar effect ‘Skill’ debates Productivity and employment forms/ domestic labour Difference between women Intersectionality Employment De-/re-regulation Gender regimes/ wage structures GM and GPG Individual – gender deficit/structural explanations EO/Diversity Policies as performances ? Social norms Individualisation/ zombie categories Gendering/ethnicising of social norms Performativity/-gendered/ethnicised/racialised social practices

Intersectionality Feminist critique of using gender, class, or ethnicity as single analytic categories. Different social divisions are mutually modifying and reinforcing. How to analyse ‘forms of difference (that) are lived relationally’ ? (Moore 1994)

Methodological Approaches McCall’s (2005) typology Anti-categorical Intra-categorical Inter-categorical

Methodological Approaches McCall’s (2005) typology Anti-categorical: desconstructionist, draws on post-modern and post-structural theories Intra-categorical Inter-categorical:

Methodological Approaches McCall’s (2005) typology Anti-categorical Intra-categorical: focuses on differences that cut across one particular category of interest Inter-categorical

Methodological Approaches McCall’s (2005) typology Anti-categorical Intra-categorical Inter-categorical: focuses on how analytically defined categorical difference intersects in practice

Methodological Approaches McCall’s (2005) typology Anti-categorical: most common Intra-categorical: qualitative research Inter-categorical: most amenable to quantitative analyses

Applying the Inter-Categorical Approach Applying a more inter-sectional approach requires a large number of observations can result in extremely complex tables of results can uncover important differences that would be masked by more traditional models Various possibilities: cluster analysis classification trees Look back to classical demography Make the most of existing samples pseudo-cohorts

Analysing Intersectionality in UK Labour Market Data repeated cross sections from spring quarters LFS sample: women aged 19-40 dependent variable: employed at the time of interview controls year of interview age in years (dummies, 19 reference category) ethnic group partnership status* education* number of children born (1-4+)* time since birth of last 4 children and time squared* Method logit models

Simulation 1: Predicted Probability of Employment for Low Educated Women, Aged 25 in 1993 Who Partner At Age 28 and Have One Child At Age 30 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 White Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Caribbean African

Simulation 2: Predicted Probability of Employment for Highly Educated Women, Aged 25 in 1993 Who Partner At Age 28 and Have One Child At Age 30 and a Second Child at Age 33, Selected Ethnic Groups 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 White Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Caribbean African

Making Sense of/Contextualising Empirical Findings Overall inequality (rising) Gender inequality (enduring) Skill biased technological change/finance Superstar effect ‘Skill’ debates Productivity and employment forms/ domestic labour Difference between women Intersectionality Employment De-/re-regulation Gender regimes/ wage structures GM and GPG Individual – gender deficit/structural explanations EO/Diversity Policies as performances ? Social norms Individualisation/ zombie categories Gendering/ethnicising of social norms Performativity/-gendered/ethnicised social practices

Summary Issues raised in the literature on intersectionality have “travelled” but in selective ways have not had a great influence on quantitative methodologies Applying a more inter-sectional approach allows description and documentation of differences as they are lived provides a basis for wider association (e.g. McCall geographical association) can run the risk of attributing causality to identity – so needs to be contextualised and linked to other explanations

References to the EOC studies Sigle-Ruston and Perrons D (2006) Employment transitions over the lifecycle: a statistical analysis http://83.137.212.42/sitearchive/eoc/PDF/WP46_Employment_transitions.pdf?page=20505 Perrons D and Sigle-Ruston W (2006) Employment transitions over the lifecycle: a literature review http://83.137.212.42/sitearchive/eoc/PDF/WP47_Employment_transitions.pdf?page=20505 The background to and some further information about the empirical analysis can be found in the above reports.