1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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)

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. References to the EOC studies
Sigle-Ruston and Perrons D (2006) Employment transitions over the lifecycle: a statistical analysis
Perrons D and Sigle-Ruston W (2006) Employment transitions over the lifecycle: a literature review
The background to and some further information about the empirical analysis can be found in the above reports.