Women in the UK Labour Market - Essay Example

Running Head: WOMEN IN UK LABOUR MARKET Women in UK Labour Market [The [The of the Women in UK Labour Market Introduction The position of women is often considered to have improved during the last few decades. There is, however, considerable debate as to the extent of change and the reasons for it. This essay will look at how women's lives have changed in terms of employment, pay, education, household, sexuality and the state. The most important changes for women are in education, but that the basic pattern of inequality remains in most aspects of the social structure, from paid work to the household divisions of labour, from sexuality to violence. The most important and enduring consequence of industrialization for women has been the emergence of the modern role of housewife as 'the dominant mature feminine role' Thus a combination of factors which included ideology, the banning of child labour, and restrictions of the employment of women, locked the majority of married women into the mother housewife role. This led to the idea of a cornflake packet family where the male was the breadwinner, the wife was the housewife, and the family consisted of two children - a boy and a girl. The mother had an expressive role, while the father had an instrumental role of going out to work. The inequality, and the extent to which the different aspects of this are interconnected, mean that is some use the concept of patriarchy to describe this set of social relations. Patriarchy is a social system through which men dominate, exploit and oppress women. However, in recent decades, changes in the economy and society have altered the situation - several of these changes will be outlined below. One of the most important areas to look at for the changes in women's lives is in terms of pay and employment relative to men. Women are less likely than men to be in paid employment, but the gap has closed steadily over recent decades. The proportion of those in employment who are women rose from 38.1% in 1971 to 49.6% in 1995. However, most of the increase in women's employment has been in part time work. The proportion of women working part time has increased steadily, from 34% in 1971 to 47% in 1995. Women workers are concentrated within a very narrow range of occupational groups, although there have been some significant changes in this recently. Over 40% of full time women workers are to be found in clerical employment. In contrast, men are spread through a much wider range of occupations. Women are confined both to lower grade jobs (vertical segregations) and to different jobs (horizontal segregation). The pattern of segregation however has changed significantly over recent years. At the top end of the hierarchy the number and proportion of women in the managerial and professional grades have substantially increased. However, in the most powerful positions in public life, women continue to be seriously under-represented. Discussion and Analysis In the contemporary society, there occurred many changes in the labour market. Businesses have moved away from mass production towards the flexible production of small batches of specialized products. In doing so, they employ a core of highly skilled workers who are capable of using their skills to produce a wide variety of products. Other work is carried out by part-time workers, or workers on short-term contracts, or is contracted out to other firms. These changes are reflected in the increased use of part-time female labour and the reduction in the employment of males in full-time permanent jobs. But while it is clearly important to take account of changes in the labour market and the economy as a whole in order to understand the changing patterns of gender inequality, it is necessary to be cautious about basing an analysis. Rosemary observes in her book "Women and Work in Modern Britain" that "Clearly, there has been a substantial restructuring of the gender division of labour over the last forty years. Its broad outlines may be described in very simple terms. The proportion of men in the labour force has declined, both as a consequence of a rise in the number of years spent in further education and training amongst the younger age groups, and because of an increased rate of (voluntary and involuntary) retirement amongst men over fifty. Years spent in narther education and training have risen amongst young women as well, but this has been more than counterbalanced by the increase in married women's employment." (Rosemary, 1997, p.25-26) It does seem therefore that the position of women in employment has transformed itself in recent years, though there remains considerable inequality and the picture is not one of simple progress. One area where there have been considerable changes for women's lives has been in education. Education has seen a transformation of the position of girls and young women. In schools, not only has the traditional gender gap in examination performance been closed but girls have overtaken boys; while in higher education the gender gap is closing steadily. One reason for the change is the discrimination against women in education was made illegal in the 1875 Sex Discrimination Act. A further reason was the increase in the opportunities for women in the world after education as the labour market gradually opened up. These changes in education have potential implications for other aspects of gender relations - since access to good jobs as some relationship to educational qualifications, women might anticipate taking a higher proportion of top jobs. It may also have an impact on wages, in so far as lack of qualifications, rather than discrimination, was a reason for women's poor rates of pay. However, while girls are learning in new areas, boys are not learning those subjects traditionally learned by women. The discrimination between two sexes as regards to labour unions, Grint explains the issue historically by observing that "There is a counter argument that 'unions historically do not have a good record in tackling discrimination, and the exclusion strategies of unions against women and blacks have helped underpin job segregation and employment disadvantage'. The consequence is that trade unions have been race-blind in much of their policymaking." (Grint, 2005, p. 266-70) A further important issue to look at when considering the changing lives of women is in the area of the household. The most striking change is the increased likelihood of families being formed of only mothers and children, which reflects to a large degree the large increase in divorce rates. One of the most significant features of one-parent families is their tendency to live in poverty, leading to many forms of social exclusion. The poverty largely results from the lack of a male income into the household, but is compounded by the lower propensity of lone mothers to be in employment as compared with married mothers. Changes in the welfare state are also important in that they have disproportionately affected women because more of them head single parent households and more live to pensionable age. Women in old age are thus particularly vulnerable to the risk of poverty. (Pamela, 2005, 119-27) A further change in the household has been in attitudes towards housework. Men are now more likely to accept that women should not be responsible for all the housework. However, it does seem that while there has been a change in attitudes, this is not to a great degree played out in action. The UK is in contrast to some countries such as Sweden where there is more shared parenting and childcare is part of education for boys and girls. Analysing state policies regarding gender employment and sociological economics, Rosemary affirms that "State policies have obviously had an important impact on women's labour-market position and behaviour. For example, Equal Pay and Opportunities legislation had an immediate impact on women's pay levels in Britain. In the past, governments have intervened directly to prevent women taking up specific jobs -- such as underground work in the mines -- and have also restricted the times and hours of women's employment." (Rosemary, 1997, p.50) Changes in sexuality have been a further impact upon women's lives. There has been a 'transformation of intimacy' in recent years. It is widely suggested that women have made great advance towards equality with men in the area of sexuality. The sexual double standard, whereby non-marital sex was acceptable for men and not for women has reduced. Other changes include the much greater availability of contraception and safe abortion, which has made unwanted children much less likely. Furthermore, there has been greater acceptance of a wider range of sexual practices, such as gay and lesbian relationships. Feminist movements have also helped to change and shape women's lives. The 1970s was the second wave of feminism in the twentieth century, the early one being instrumental in winning political citizenship for women. Many of the feminist ideas of the 1970s which had been considered outrageously radical when first expressed are now widely accepted. For instance, male violence is now recognized as a significant problem and the subject of serious discussion by the police as well as feminists. Equal pay is also an early feminist demand now accepted into mainstream policy initiatives such as Opportunity 2000. Older women tend to be restricted by the constrains of private patriarchy, which was the dominant form of patriarchy in their early lives. They are likely to have few qualifications and therefore have limited opportunities in the labour market. Younger women, on the other hand, have benefited from some of the changes that have taken place. They are likely to benefit from increased qualifications and improved labour market opportunities. There is polarization between the younger and older women, while convergence between younger women and men. Describing the historical aspect of feminist sociological work status, Rosemary elaborates the scenario in the following words, "Industrial sociology and the sociology of work in the 1950s and 1960s had laid very heavy emphasis upon studies of male employees and male-only workplaces. In part this was a reflection of the nature of the perceived 'problems' which were being investigated in these studies -levels of industrial strife and conflict and its manifestations, such as strike rates; output restrictions (that is, failing to work hard or produce enough); negative attitudes to work; problems in adjusting to technical change, and so on. Thus predominantly masculine, usually manual workplaces and occupational groups were extensively studied -- miners, dockworkers, car workers, printers, and shipbuilders. Women were in a small minority in these industries. In any case, on account of their 'natural' docility, women workers were not seen as being as likely to engage in industrial conflict, or present a problem for management, to the same extent as men." (Rosemary, 1997, p.101-102) Conclusion In conclusion, there have been many changes in the transition to modernity, which have shaped women's lives. While some of these changes have reduced gender inequality n recent years, especially in the field of education, the basic pattern of inequality remains in most aspects of the social structure, from paid work to the household divisions of labour, from sexuality to violence. This essay has pointed to many changes in women's lives, but whether their lives have improved has been a matter of debate: Liberal feminists tend to see these changes as progress, while radical feminists tend to argue that little has changed and patriarchal domination remains firmly intact. Marxists usually claim that industrialization and the advent of capitalism led to a deterioration in the position of women and since the Industrial Revolution little has improved. References Keith Grint; 2005; The Sociology of Work: Introduction; Polity. 266-70 Pamela Abbott, Claire Wallace, Melissa Tyler; 2005; Introduction to Sociology: Feminist Perspectives; Routledge. 119-27 Rosemary Crompton; 1997: Women and Work in Modern Britain; Oxford University Press, 25-102. Read More