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