Women and Work

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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Managers

6. 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.

7. Female work

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. Female work as drudgery

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. Sexuality and work

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

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