Women and Work Outline and assess the view that women’s role in the economy has changed since 1945.

Changes to the economy  There was labour shortage after 1945 but there was increasing unemployment after the 1970s.  Heavy industry (coal mining, iron and steel) has declined.  Service sector (call centres, catering) has increased.

Gender and change  Male employment opportunity has declined.  Female employment opportunity has increased.  There is more part-time low paid work.  Women are generally employed in such work.

Gender segregation  Men and women do different types of work.  Women are over-represented in least skilled and lowest paid jobs.  White men appear in the management structures. Women tend to be in junior and low paid clerical secretarial work.

Managers

Class and gender  Middle class women are tending to take on male professional occupations, but generally the lower paid, lower status work (teaching, public services)  Females are not taking on male occupations in working class work. Traditional working class work is therefore male.

Female work

Ethnicity and gender  Ethnic minority people are focussed in some industries – Chinese/Bangladeshi people in catering for instance, Afro-Caribbeans in the health service.  There are different gender patterns of work among some communities with Afro-Caribbean women taking on professional work and Bangladeshi women being less likely to work.

Pay  The Equal Opportunities Commission monitor pay rates over the years.  Women earn less than men.  The average pay differential is 20%  Part-time female workers earn 60% of what men earn.

Self-employment  Self employment is higher among men than women.  Women’s work tends to support male self-employment (secretary, shop assistant).  Women are more likely to be employed in the black economy and as home workers.

Gender ideology and work  Male work is heavy, dangerous, outdoors, aggressive, technical and highly valued.  Female work is boring, repetitive, low status, and involves subservience to male authority.  Female work is based on gender assumptions of: dexterity, caring and emotional support of people.  Scott (1992) female work is drudgery.

Female work as drudgery

Gender and work  Early studies looked at how married women combined paid work with domestic chores.  Government policies saw women as domestic labourers who also had jobs – domestic roles were paramount.  Working mothers were blamed for delinquency among children.

Recent studies  Recent studies look at how women are treated in work, how gender divisions remain despite equality legislation.  Males control technology and skills, excluding certain people from training and jobs.  As skilled jobs became mechanised and accessible to women, this challenged gender assumptions and males felt threatened.

Sexuality and work

Workplace culture  Workplace culture is masculine.  Examples include: girly posters, male centred conversation, and sexual harassment.  However, males crossing into female work experience similar discrimination.  Females in work downplay their femininity and regulate their bodies in such a way as to render themselves sexually ambiguous.

Leisure industry work  Adkins studied hotel and pub work.  Men are usually expected to marry, their wives are not employed however.  Women in this work must be attractive and sexualised, although men are not.  Defining women by their sexuality lowers their status because they are servicing male needs.

Summary  Women are in the workforce in greater numbers.  They tend to be low paid and low status.  Men still command the work situation in ways that suit their needs.  This is less obvious in middle class work, but does occur.

The End If you have ideas for improvement, see Mrs Griffiths