simon.fiala@seznam.

cz

Notes: Witz, A. (1997) Women and Work

In Victoria Robinson and Diane Richardson. Introducing Womens Studies. Second edition. London MacMillan. pp. 239-258.

Notes:
The analysis of the processes that generate gender division in work is linked to feminist campaigns to end sex discrimination Feminist analyses of women and work of sociology of 1970s o Production paradigm Production of social life through work relations o Assertion: Sociology back then explained only mens work o Theoretical and empirical elaboration of gender division by race, class 1980s - Feminists developing analyses of the gendering of work place cultures and hierarchies o Relationship between sexuality, power and embodiment at work o Concept of work redefined unpaid labour included Gender differentiation of work two types: o 1) men working, women at home o 2) typically male/female occupations the most important change in the work forces during the twentieth century has been the increasing participation of women in paid employment o at the beginning of the 20th century only a fraction of women employed, even less then in mid-19th century rapid growth of womens employment in the EU, of new jobs between 1983 and 1992 assumed by women o the increase of part time work as a major factor employment ratings distort o necessity to distinguish between employed, unemployed, non-employed, inactive while the male breadwinner/housewife model has been destabilized on the empirical level, it is still resilient on the ideological level gender segregation o persisted despite equal chances policies o horizontal men and women commonly working in different kinds of occupations Women tend to be concentrated in a narrower range of occupations than men, namely catering, cleaning, hairdressing and other personal services; clerical and related occupations; and professional and related occupations in education, welfare and health occupations are becoming more 'feminised' and less 'masculinised' o vertical different ratios of men and women according to hierarchical level within the occupation

simon.fiala@seznam.cz men tend to predominate in higher-level occupations, such as the middle and upper echelons of managerial and professional form of work, whilst women tend to be concentrated in lower professional and clerical jobs, as well as semi-skilled and unskilled manual jobs women often ghettoized in lower-level jobs

in the UK o The process started later than in the US, namely in 1980s o Period of desegregation But three-quarters of occupations continue to be male dominated and onequarter female dominated Desegregation achieved by women moving into typically men jobs, not otherwise This suggests a greater resistance of men to take 'female jobs' and a greater willingness by women to enter 'male jobs' Can be attributed to: o 1) Challenge of masculine identity o 2) Unprofitable conditions Both lower pay and the relative lack of autonomy o desegregation and restructuration by 1997 change in management from 21% of women to 30% women gain access through qualification o Large racial, age and educational divisions remain Not only employment rations, but also the probability of occupation loss varies between the subgroups Gender + racial divisions o The difference between full-time and part time workers is especially notable in case of combination of racial and gender division Women in general more often accept part-time jobs (already gendered structure) Between 1971 and 1995 in Britain the increase in women working full-time was only 3%, compared to an increase of 75% in women working part-time. Part time job is insecure, less paid o Women from ethnic minorities work more often full-time, but lack the securities and advantages of full commitment o Social inequalities of class, race and gender are also replicated and reproduced in the homeworking labour force Feminist perspectives o Production paradigm post-structuralism, post-modern feminism Shift from labour and production and towards culture, identity and consumption o 1970s and 1980s points of focus: 1) the relative importance of family and labour market structures in explaining women's position in the labour market

simon.fiala@seznam.cz 2) the relative significance of 'capitalism' or 'patriarchy' as the structural determinants 3) whether gender divisions in work were rooted in 'ideological' or 'material' processes classic feminism term sexual division of labour preferred by those who traced the specific nature of women's position at work to the logic of capitalism term 'gender relations' came to be preferred by those who focused on patriarchy as an explanation of gender divisions in employment lack of class, racial, elaboration voluntaristic framework predominated in sociology, women theoretically subordinated to the claims of domesticity o Dual labour market theory Contemporary feminism Culture (rather than economic factors) Discourses of sexuality (rather than gender ideologies) relationship between gender, sexuality, and embodiment in the experience of work Dual labour market theory jobs in the primary sector were characterised by higher wages, more fringe benefits, recognised skills, opportunities for education and training, greater employment security and higher levels of unionisation than jobs in the secondary sector Women recruited into secondary jobs o Explained by the concept of patriarchy beyond the dominant, gender-blind, 'production paradigm' of Marxism Marxist-feminist production paradigm Women made up for a labour reserve o substitution thesis higher job loss in manufacturing was also linked more to strong male trade unionist protectionist strategies dual systems theory (Heidi Hartmann) patriarchal relations have sustained in capitalist economy job segregation provided means to control womens work and ensured services such as home unpaid labor and sexual services assertion: gender segregation and patriarchal practices in the labour market that have proved vital in forging patterns of male domination generally in modern societies Silvia Walby: The domestic gender regimes the public gender regime New directions Production paradigm macro level challenged by new approaches Post-structuralist / culturalist analyses 3

simon.fiala@seznam.cz exploration of sexuality, gender, power and organisational cultures focus on the embodied and sexualised aspects of gendered work lived realities and experiences of job segregation, the gender hierarchies of skills, and the intersection between class, gender and race in the work place deconstruction of the term skill to unveil its patriarchal meaning o embodiment allocation of qualities perceived as skills to males culture and sexuality o Rosemary Pringle boss-secretary relation within 'discourses of power' o Cockburn deploying a 'politics of the body' to undermine the goals of equality politics in workplace organisations