Gender, School and Work in Contemporary Britain

1. Gender, School and Work in Contemporary Britain International Perspectives on Gender Lecture 2

2. Structure of lecture • UK has not ‘made it’ to gender equality • Girls lose out in education • Boys lose out in education • Masculinities and education • Characteristics of gendered labour market • Explaining the Gender Pay Gap • Masculinities and paid work • Gendering Austerity

3. UK has not ‘made it’ • Women = 20% of MPs; 17% of ministers; 12.5% of FTSE Directors; 15% of High Court Judges; 44% of managers • Women’s hourly full-time earnings = 84% of men’s • Women’s average personal pensions = 62% of men’s • 1 million women abused annually by current/former male partner • Average of 2 women killed by male partners per week • Women have higher life expectancy than men • Young men 80% more likely to be victims of violent crime • 3 times more men than women commit suicide http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/documents/Facts%20and%20Stats-%20August%202011(1).pdf http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=1208 http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic_violence_topic.asp?section=0001000100220041&sectionTitle=Domestic+violence+%28general%29 http://www.train2000.org.uk/research-reports/pdfs/GenderEqualityIndex.pdf http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/human-rights/international-womens-day-2011/how-fair-is-britain-for-women/

4. Girls lose out in education • 1970s and 1980s research on post WW2 education policies found them disadvantaging girls as a group over boys as a group. Why? - Educational achievement assumed to be less important for girls than boys   - Girls assumed to be less capable of rational, abstract thought than boys • Social class intersects with gender

5. Boys lose out in education? • From late 1990s girls outperforming boys at school • GCSE: 63.7% of boys and 72.3% of girls awarded A*-C in Summer 2013 , 8.6% gap • 8.3% girls all A*s, 5.3% boys, 3% gap • A-level: overall pass rate for women higher since 1992 but gap narrowing • 25.9% of boys and 26.7% girls awarded A*-A in Summer 2013, 0.8% gap • 7.9% of boys and 7.4% of girls awarded all A*s, 0.5% gap • Why? Shift from modular assessment to exam Subject choice • Boys concentrated at top and bottom ends of achievement, girls more bunched

6. Source: CEER, Buckingham The A’ Level Gender Gap, 1995-2011

7. Higher Education • 1960s - 85% of University entrants were men • 1980 - 60% • 2011-12 UK – 44% of u/grad entrants men; 48.1% of p/grad entrants; 51.5% PhD entrants • 2011-12 16.6% of female graduates in UK got 1sts, 17.3% of male • Women over-represented in medicine, veterinary science, education and languages; men in engineering, computer science, architecture • Social class and ethnicity intersect with gender

8. Why the gender gap in education? • Removal of systematic disadvantaging in educational system • Are girls naturally more able than boys on a level playing field? • Gendered socialization in the familyprepares girls • Gendered peer pressure limits boys • Boys not as suited to coursework • Little to aspire to in labour market (working class boys) • Greater exclusion of boys (nearly 80% of all excluded are male)

9. Masculinities and Education • Jackson and Dempster focus on relationship between constructions of masculinity and boys’ approach to ed. • Multiple masculinities but hegemonic, dominant, form can be identified: most valorized • Hegemonic masculinity ‘repudiates [shuns, disparages] the feminine’ • Requires investment in social life, sport, having a laugh • Not trying hard (or not looking as though trying hard) protects boys from poor results • If results are good this proves superiority of male intellect, able to achieve effortlessly • Outcomes: assert male superiority over female; reproduce men’s underperformance

10. Gendered Labour Market a) Labour Market Participation • Female labour force participation rate grown over 10%, male declined by about 10% • In 1971 women were 38% of total employees in employment, in 1983 43%, reached 50% but 2013 47% • British women of Afro-Caribbean and non-Muslim Asian origin more likely to be in paid employment than white women, British women of Bangladeshi and Pakistani Muslim origin less likely • Women with a male partner in paid work three times more likely to work themselves • Disabled people have lowest labour market participation

12. b) Hours of Work • About 43% of women work part-time, only 13% of men (latter increasing slowly from very low base - 2.4% in 1975) c) Type of Work • 80% of all women workers are in the service sector • 40% of all women workers are in public sector (15% of men) • Horizontal Segregation: extent different groups clustered in restricted range of occupations • Vertical Segregation: extent different groups employed at different levels in organisations • ACTIVITY: What kind of jobs are especially male? What kind of jobs are especially female?

13. Gender segregation boundaries not necessarily fixed • 65% of occupational groups dominated by either women or men • Soon there will be more female GPs than male, but women are only 10% of surgeons • Over 40% of academics are now female but there are 5 male University Professors for every 1 female • Two-thirds of top civil service jobs go to men Lady Hale, UK’s most senior judge 1 female among 12 male High Court judges

14. d) Earnings • 1971: women’s average full-time earnings 64% men’s,1994: just under 80%, 2000: 82%, 2006: 83% , 2011: 84% • Despite Equal Pay Act of 1970 (came into force 1975) • Part-time gender pay gap is worse: 62% • Male managers earn on ave.£10 000 > female managers • EOC reported in 2011 women graduates earning 15% less than male within 5 years of starting work • Women graduates in their 50s earn 44% less than male • Age is an important variable: full time gender pay gap lowest for under 30s, around 5%, then grows steadily • Ethnic pay gap even more significant than gender pay gap(Law Society: BME solicitors earn 17% less than white, female 7.6% less than male) • Growing class divisions between women

17. Explaining the Gender Pay Gap • Women don’t identify primarily as workers • Women’s disproportionate share of domestic work (78% more) & child- care (12% more) means choose part-time work, poorer pro-rata pay • Interruptions to employment due to caring work • Male career takes precedence • Women have ‘natural’ skills for particular jobs that don’t accrue a wage premium

18. Masculinities and Paid Work • David Morgan: ‘Workplaces seem to be the crucibles out of which male identities are forged or through which they are given shape and meaning’ (p. 77 of Discovering Men) • Concept of dominant or hegemonic masculinity • Home: not identified as site of work or identified as site of female work only, but organised around male work • Shopfloor key site of working class masculinities • Contrasts with masculinity assigned to male managers • Contrasts with femininity • Irony: WC masculinity helps reproduces class inequality • Office shifted from mainly male to mainly female • In management, sporting and military metaphors abound and reflect specifically middle class masculinities

19. Gender and Austerity • Equality Act and budgetary responsibility • Austerity worsening inequalities • Triple jeopardy for women: • jobs, wages, pensions worsened disproportionately • services and benefits cut disproportionately • extra work as try to ‘fill the gap’ • Inequalities between women widening • Who is hurting the most?

20. Conclusions • UK has made progress but has not achieved gender equality • Austerity may see reverses • Gendered gaps in outcome • Women outperform men in educational achievement • Men outperform women in average earnings • Concentration of women and men into particular subjects in education and sectors in employment • Education and Work are both sites for performance of masculine and feminine identities • Next Week: UK Families and Sexualities