Event
Gender Equality in Paid and
Unpaid Work
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Abstracts
Equality in the Labour Market
Professor Linda McDowell (University of Oxford)
Diversity,
difference
and discrimination: Migrant workers in health and hospitality
(presentation)
One of the most
significant features of the
continuing transformation of the UK labour market has been the
increasing
diversity and intensification of competition between workers, both
within and
between organisations and workplaces. The combination of economic
restructuring
and the rise of the service sector where
growing numbers of women, older people, and migrants are working
part-time, on casual contracts and in other insecure forms of employment has altered the workforce itself and
the ways in which it is attached to the labour market. In this paper I
shall
explore these changes, assessing the ways in which migrants with
different sets
of social characteristics (gender, nationality and skin colour) and
different
sets of legal entitlements (legal citizenship, EU membership and
entitlement to
residence) are differentially placed in the competition for some of the
poorest
jobs in the British economy. I illustrate the argument through a study
of
migrant agency workers in an NHS hospital and a large hotel, both
located in
west London, concluding that new and deeper divisions are emerging
between
foreign-born workers in the UK.
Professor Shirley Dex (Institute of Education, London)
The ups and downs of women’s and men’s careers (presentation)
This project is set against the background
of aggregate rises in women’s employment, especially in the public
sector, in
women in professional occupations, in falling men’s employment rates,
and in
improving female to male hourly wage ratios. Against this background,
we
compared the occupational career trajectories of people born in 1946,
1958 and
1970, with the aim of seeing whether women and men’s work-life
experiences have
been growing closer towards equality over time. Have women been moving
onwards
and upwards?
The answers are complex. Whereas women have
undoubtedly made occupational career gains across the generations, and
have
moved closer to men in their career progress by the 1970 born
generation, these
gains show up less when comparing their occupational pay trajectories,
than
when viewed in terms of the social status of their occupations.
Intervening
labour market downturns have affected some generations (eg. 1970
entries to the
labour market, and 1958 early careers) more than others. There are
different
stories at the bottom than at the top of the occupational hierarchy.
The story
of women’s improvements from the bottom rungs is one of moving up the
ladder to
the same extent as men, but, unlike men, failing to retain the gains.
But men,
as a whole, also experienced almost as much occupational downgrading as
women
by their 40s. At the top end, women still had a very high risk of
downward
mobility if they changed from full to part-time work over childbirth.
However,
notable changes across cohorts were evident in women’s experiences over
childbirth. Against the background of continual improvements in
maternity
rights, recent generations of mothers are now far less likely to
experience
occupational downgrading at this juncture, along side taking far less
time out
of paid work. Also, they no longer incur a part-time (compared with
full time)
pay penalty by working part time after the birth – if they return to
work with
the same employer, and do not stay too long working part time.
Gender equality would be assisted by
further increases in part-time working opportunities at the higher
ranges of
the occupational hierarchies. However, this preference by mothers for
part-time
work when they have children, and for occupations with higher status,
but lower
pay, will continue have career costs. The move into such jobs in the
public
sector has taken women so far along the route to equality. But further
movement
is likely to rely on women moving into non-public sector, higher paid
jobs and
keeping them. And it is likely, on the basis of past experience, that
the
latest recession will slow progress.
Equality at Home
Fran
Bennett (Oxford University), Professor
Sue
Himmelweit (Open University) & Professor Holly Sutherland
(University of Essex)
Within household
inequalities: policy implications (presentation)
The major driver of income inequality within working age couples is differences in earned income. But income inequalities within couples can be mitigated by the effects of taxes and benefits and it is possible to think of a range of reforms which could achieve this. However, public policy currently often treats the distribution of resources within households as a private issue. Obstacles to a gender aware analysis of income distribution include a view of the family as an undifferentiated whole, and of the UK's income maintenance system as relating to household need rather than individual rights. This research looked inside the 'black box' of the household to investigate the control, management and use of resources within working age couples, and to draw out the implications for what could be done via public policy.
It found that the joint views of couples often reinforce gender inequalities. For example, both men and women tend to put more weight on the man's employment than the woman's. If couples act on these shared views, gender inequalities within and beyond households are reinforced. This suggests that the most important step towards challenging gender inequalities and breaking that cycle is to loosen the economic constraints and/or gender norms that give rise to such shared views.
This may be particularly important for poorer
couples, for whom jointness may
be more of a necessity. Interviews with members of low- to
moderate-income
couples did reveal a clear loyalty to sharing finances. But underlying
this was
a more complex picture, with women in particular more aware of tensions
between
togetherness and individual interests, and of the importance of money
in their
own right. These findings will be related to current developments in
welfare to
work and wider income maintenance policies.
Professor
Jonathan
Gershuny (University of Oxford)
Gendered divisions
of labour and the intergenerational transmission of inequality (presentation)
National
systems of regulation of access to work have effects on life chances
which
differ markedly by gender and class-of origin. Strongly
gendered
choices over the daily balance among paid
work, unpaid work, and leisure or consumption time, are influenced both
by
resources deriving ultimately from individuals’ households of origin,
and by
the constraints and opportunities associated with national systems that
regulate access to work. These
time-use balances have consequences for gender differentials in rates
of
accumulation of economically salient capital through the life course. This talk, first, uses the Multinational
Time Use Study to demonstrate that typologies of national systems of
work
regulation and gender ideologies—regime types—are indeed strongly
associated
with contrasting historical patterns of changes in work time. Second, it uses the British Household
Panel Study to demonstrate how, in a liberal market regime, lifecourse
dynamics
of gender work sharing serve to polarise class mobility and
life-chances.
Organised by Dr Jackie Scott and Dr Anke Plagnol, ESRC Gender Equality Network, Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3RQ.
