Quantitative Methods and Gender Inequalities

1. Quantitative Methods and Gender Inequalities Jacqueline Scott University of Cambridge

2. Outline • Consider whether early feminist opposition to quantitative research makes sense • Introduce the ESRC Research Priority Network on Gender Inequalities (GeNet) as an exemplar • Discuss the diverse methodologies of GeNet against a ‘fit for purpose’ evaluative framework • Consider challenges posed by understanding intersectionalities in gender research • Identify how qualitative methods used to inform and sharpen the ways quantitative researchers count

3. Feminism in 1970s /1980s • Emphasis on making women visible in social sciences and ‘giving voice’ • Concern about ‘objectivity’ & ‘impersonal’ knowledge being all too biased • Challenge to essentialist arguments about ‘natural’ differences between men and women • Championing of qualitative over quantitative

6. The difference gender makes • Shift from women to gender • Gender as analytical category – gendered processes..inclusive of male and females.. • Inequalities both between men and woman and also within men and women • Intersectionalities gender, race, class, age.. More nuanced understanding

7. ESRC Gender Equality Network Research Priority Network on Gender Inequalities in Production & Reproduction www.genet.ac.uk

8. Background • Demise of male breadwinner family - labour market changes/changes in parenting partnership • Paradigm shift in gender relations • Greater policy recognition of equality although policies ambiguous • Some human capital convergence but inequalities persistent

9. 9 Linked Projects3 Inter-related themes Pathways to Adult Attainment & Life Course Processes • Changing occupations and careers of women and men • Biographical agency and developmental outcomes • Gendered pathways from childhood disadvantage to adulthood • Gender, time allocation in paid and unpaid work & the wage gap Resources, Gender, Ethnic & Class Inequalities • Within-household inequalities in income and power • Gender, ethnicity, migration and service employment • Class & gender, employment and family Policy Responses to Gender Inequalities • Addressing gender inequality through corporate governance • Policy initiatives tackling inequalities in work and care in UK & EU

10. 3 different methodologies Pathways to Adult Attainment & Life Course Processes QUANTITATIVE LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS - unpacking gendered processes and changes across time • Longitudinal analysis of cohort differences in occupations and careers (Shirley Dex and Heather Joshi) • Childhood and adolescent transitions to adulthood across cohorts (Ingrid Schoon) • Gendered pathways from childhood disadvantage to adulthood across cohorts (Wendy Sigle-Ruston and John Hobcraft) • Gender, time allocation in paid and unpaid work & the wage gap using the BHPS (Gershuny) Resources, Gender, Ethnic & Class Inequalities MIXED METHODS (qualitative unpacking the specific context; quantitative providing estimates of sub-group differences within the population) • Within-household inequalities in income and power (Himmelweit, Sutherland and Bennett) • Gender, ethnicity, migration and service employment (McDowell) • Class & gender, employment and family (Crompton) Policy Responses to Gender Inequalities QUALITATIVE – semi-structured interviewing; documentary analysis • Addressing gender inequality through corporate governance (Deakin) • Policy initiatives tackling inequalities in work and care in UK & EU (Lewis)

11. Inter-twining of theory, empirical research and methodology • GeNet has explicit goal of promoting highest possible methodological standards in its own gender research and contributing to ESRC’s various methodological and training initiatives that are concerned to raise standards of social science generally • Is there a feminist method? No – what matters for feminist research is ‘fit for purpose’ and feminist research is sufficiently broad-ranging that it spans quantitative and qualitative divides

12. Questions requiring quantitative analysis (Source: Joshi and Pacci 1998) • Pay gap narrowing for those aged 26 (enhanced human capital and labour market experience + Equal Pay Act 1970 & 75)

13. Masculinization of Female Life Course(UKCohort effects: Participation- Joshi et al 2005)

15. The combined effects of various factors on the gender difference in annual earnings of 1995 graduates seven years after graduation

16. Time-use investigation (Gershuny et al) • Hypothesis: substantial part of gender gap in wages that persists beyond operation of work-place equal opportunities can be explained in terms of day-to-day practices of unequal division of production and caring activities in household. • Data: British Household Panel and Harmonised European Time Use

17. Time use by family change: Women aged 20- 40 (Gershuny 2004)

18. Time use by family change:Men aged 20-40(Gershuny 2004)

20. Lagged adaptation • Over the long term women who carry dual burden have choices – suffer, argue, quit • Not much of real choice – so what happens? • Over time, women and men’s share of domestic division of labour becomes more equal, with women reducing unpaid work immediately, but men’s take up of home chores taking longer and being less reliable

21. time on work (mins of day)

22. Range of models of work-family balance