Labour Market Disadvantage for Women and Ethnic Minorities - Coursework Example

Labour market disadvantage for women and ethnic minorities Introduction Gender and ethni can be considered as two important angles of social stratification. This can be further explained by suggesting that being part of an ethnic minority group or being a male or female can have significant repercussions on one’s status and position in the labour market. Claudia Buchmann, Thomas A. DiPrete & Anne McDaniel (‘Gender inequalities in education’, Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 34, 2008, pp. 319-337) indicated that gender and ethnic minority disparities has declined dramatically over the decade in the educational sector but the same cannot be said for labour market. In most labour markets worldwide, women participation and involvement of ethnic minority groups were determined to relatively low along with greater involvement in informal labour market at lower wages (Fenella Fleischmann & Jutta Hohne, ‘Gender and migration on the labour market: Additive or interacting disadvantages in Germany?’, Social Science Research, vol. 42, 2013, 1325–1345). The western labour markets are no exception to this situation and as a result, residing ethnic minority groups are experiences high unemployment and low occupational status (Anthony F. Heath & Sin Yi Cheung, Unequal chances: Ethnic minorities in Western labour markets, pp. 256-260). The paper assess various available data in this regard for developing better understanding of the kind of disadvantages women and minority ethnic groups face in context of definite cross border examples. The paper discusses widespread theories in this regard followed by relevant examples and statistics in this regard. Gender gap in labour market with respect to ethnic variation Gender gap in labour market can be possibly determined by appropriate measurement of labour force participation (full time and part time) and occupational status of the workforce in this regard. Full time and part time work choices are highly individualistic in nature and are often influenced by cultural norms with respect to gender roles and thereby develop an angle of ethic difference in gender gap (Tanja Van der Lippe & Liset Van Dijk, ‘Comparative research on womens employment’, Annual review of sociology, 2002, pp. 221-241). Gender gap, ethnicity and labour market participation has faced favourable and unfavourable debatable thoughts for long. According to certain authors gender issues in labour market and occupational status often depends on various layers such as individualistic, household and societal levels (Fenella Fleischmann & Jutta Hohne, ‘Gender and migration on the labour market: Additive or interacting disadvantages in Germany?’, 1325–1345). With respect to women participation, it has been argued that at macroeconomic level, welfare and family programmes and other taxation policies create incentives for females to be either active or inactive in the job market as well as in their personal activities along with their partners. Some authors have discussed women participation in job market with respect to the human capital theory. They debated that workforce participation, occupational status and hours worked can be conveniently related to one’s household condition and educational qualifications. They generalised the notion and posited that every individual aims at maximising their returns from education by means of employment and earning but often the aspiration can be overruled by other household concerns (Fenella Fleischmann & Jutta Hohne, ‘Gender and migration on the labour market: Additive or interacting disadvantages in Germany?’, 1325–1345). Gary S. Becker (‘Human capital, effort, and the sexual division of labour’, Journal of labour economics, 1985, pp. S33-S58) posited that based on household specialisation approach and human capital approach, it can be deduced that women participation in job market is prominently affected by their age, marital status, presence of children and educational achievements. Geraldine Healy & David Kraithman (‘The Other Side of the Equation — The Demands of Women on Re-entering the Labour Market’, Employee Relations, Vol. 13, no. 3, 1991, pp. 17-28) argued in this regard often men are preferred over women based on the presumption that men are more capable than women in terms of skill, talent and management. However, they also agreed that demand for women employees has increased in various labour markets considering the declining supply of youths in the job sector and potentials of female workforce remains largely underutilised. With respect to disadvantage of ethnic minority, sufficient literary work has not been undertaken and consequently, it was determined that in this regard primary data from various authentic databases will prove reliable and resourceful. In the following section, existing disadvantage for ethnic minority in the job market has been discussed critically. Ethnicity and labour market disadvantages Labour market disadvantages and discriminations prevail in various labour markets of developed and emerging economies, particularly in the industrial economies such as Europe and the United states. Data from various countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and China suggest that gender and minority variation in labour market exists in different degrees. Studies identified Pakistani, Black African, Black Caribbean and Bangladeshi, Indian and Chinese as the prominent ethnic minority groups that face issues related to unemployment in the global job market and mostly pursue informal jobs at low earnings compared to British and other whites. The conditions of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were determined to be worst in this regard (Anthony F. Heath & Sin Yi Cheung, ‘Ethnic penalties in the labour market: Employers and discrimination: Summary’, http://www.edf.org.uk/news/EthnicPenalties341summ.pdf, 2004, (accessed 19 January 2015)). It was determined that the ethnic minority occupational gap in 2007 was around 14.2 percentage and despite all possible efforts, the Department of Work and Pensions agreed that recent initiatives as well as policies in this regard failed to minimise that gap and restrict the ever increasing employment issues for minority ethnic groups. Variation was observed between minority ethnic groups and the sub groups with respect to employment. It was gathered that employment rate and earnings of Indian and Chinese employees are almost similar to the white employees in a population but the condition is fairly worse for Pakistanis, Caribbeans, Africans and Bangladeshis (Laurie Bell & Jo Casebourne, ‘Increasing Employment for Ethnic Minorities: a summary of research findings’, http://www.cesi.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/NAO_increasing_employment_ethnic_minorities_summary_0.pdf, 2008, (accessed 19 January 2015)). It was also established that first generation immigrants witnessed comparatively less success in the job market with respect to their children (second generation) and this fact was observed to be particularly applicable on Bangladeshi and Pakistani women while for Pakistani men who were born abroad were observed to be more successful than their counterparts born in the UK. The variation is not limited to accessibility to job but also has extended in terms of growth in occupation and earnings thereof. Studies suggest that ethnic minority individuals were observed to be overrepresented in low skilled jobs and underrepresented in high skilled jobs. In terms of earning differentiation, large wage inequality or gap was observed with respect to Black Africans, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (Laurie Bell & Jo Casebourne, ‘Increasing Employment for Ethnic Minorities: a summary of research findings’, http://www.cesi.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/NAO_increasing_employment_ethnic_minorities_summary_0.pdf, 2008, (accessed 19 January 2015)). Study by Anthony F. Heath and Sin Yi Cheung (‘Ethnic penalties in the labour market: Employers and discrimination: Summary’, http://www.edf.org.uk/news/EthnicPenalties341summ.pdf, 2004, (accessed 19 January 2015)) indicates that despite of evidence supporting greater ethnic disadvantages (also known as ethnic penalties) for first generation ethnic minority communities that their second generation counterparts, the differentials cannot be described with respect to age, foreign birth and/or education. Black African men as well as women were determined to be the highest sufferer of ethnic penalties. It was observed that the magnitude of penalty is limited for second generation but the same cannot be said for the pattern. Furthermore, evidence justifies ethnic penalties faced by Caribbean and Pakistani individuals show no sign of reduction; even though the situation has improved moderately for Indians (Equal Opportunities Commission, ‘Ethnic Minority Women and Local Labour Markets’, http://www.sociology.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/circle/local_labour_markets.pdf, 2007, (accessed 19 January 2015)). The Equal Opportunities Commission (‘Ethnic Minority Women and Local Labour Markets’, http://www.sociology.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/circle/local_labour_markets.pdf, 2007, (accessed 19 January 2015)) highlighted that in England and Wales, unemployment gap for English and other White women at district level was observed to be around 6 percent while that for Pakistani and Bangladeshi women stood at 21 percent and 23 percent respectively. The study further revealed that the ethnic penalties among women could not be blamed upon their residential location that has poor opportunities or the employment structure thereof. The human capital theory and household involvement was observed to be valid for most Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian women residing in the UK. Census report suggests that Black Caribbean females exhibit likelihood of unemployment that is more than twice compared to the White British women. The likelihood is above four times when comes to Bangladeshi and Pakistani women. Despite gender based inequalities that are faced by most British women at work, it was observed that their employment patterns are mostly influenced by high level economic activities while that of ethnic minority groups speaks otherwise. For Caribbean women the influence comprises both high level economic activity and high ratio of unemployment (Equal Opportunities Commission, ‘Ethnic Minority Women and Local Labour Markets’, http://www.sociology.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/circle/local_labour_markets.pdf, 2007, (accessed 19 January 2015)). Besides the US and the UK and other European countries, scope of ethnic minority disadvantage is evident in China as well. In China, the main difference exists between Han community and other minority groups and it was observed that the occupational gap has increased from 19.2 percent in 1988 to 35.9 percent in 1995 (Reza Hasmath, Benjamin Ho & Elaine M. Liu, ‘Ethnic Minority Disadvantages in China’s Labour Market?’ http://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/DP16.pdf, 2012, (accessed 19 January 2015)). Sources of ethnic disadvantages Language, skill, experience and qualifications When immigrants arrive in a new country as children they have mixed knowledge and exposure to different education system. Often cultural dissimilarities prevent them from acquiring sufficient learning experience and education. However, such children as grown-ups have significant advantage compared to their parents in terms of cultural assimilation and local knowledge. However, most individuals lack either knowledge or experience which forces them to face discrimination in the job market (Bernadette Stiell & Ning Tang, ‘Ethnic Minority Women and Access to the Labour Market in Camden’, http://www.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/ceir-S4BMEWomenCamden_180706.pdf, 2006, (accessed 19 January 2015)). Discrimination Discrimination based on one’s appearance and outlook has been held strongly responsible for development of the ethnic minority status. The status is also considered as a indicator of social injustice and economic inefficiency. In this context, certain authors have considered implications of theory of statistical discrimination as appropriate because it suggests that most employers discriminate among employees and contributes towards unemployment because they have imperfect information which is reflect at every stage of recruitment (Reza Hasmath, Benjamin Ho & Elaine M. Liu, ‘Ethnic Minority Disadvantages in China’s Labour Market?’ http://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/DP16.pdf, 2012, (accessed 19 January 2015)). Inability to fit in the working environment An organisation’s work culture is defined by various informal events such as communication, behaviour, interpersonal behaviour and decision making which directly influence a group’s assumptions and shared beliefs. Several times it has been observed that individuals belonging to major group exhibit reluctance to accept an outside from another community resulting to development of feeling of insecurity and non-belongingness among minority workers (Reza Hasmath, Benjamin Ho & Elaine M. Liu, ‘Ethnic Minority Disadvantages in China’s Labour Market?’ http://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/DP16.pdf, 2012, (accessed 19 January 2015)). Conclusion The social strata is strongly defined by assimilation of gender and various ethnic groups but most of the time it has been observed that minority ethnic groups and women face discrimination at various sectors including job market. The assessment in the paper reveals that the prevailing issue is not limited to one particular geographical location. Instead, issues of discrimination can be observed in emerging countries as well as developed countries. The ethnic groups that were determined to be major sufferer in this regard were Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Black Caribbean, Indians and Black Africans. The factors that were determined to contribute most towards the ethnic and gender disadvantage are household responsibilities, cultural norms, language, experience, knowledge, workplace discrimination and rigid work culture. The recommendation that can be provided in this regard is that greater encouragement to participation of ethnic minority groups in formal work activities and openness on the part of employers regarding hiring of such individuals and prevention of discrimination. Reference list Anthony F. Heath & Sin Yi Cheung, ‘Ethnic penalties in the labour market: Employers and discrimination: Summary’, http://www.edf.org.uk/news/EthnicPenalties341summ.pdf, 2004, (accessed 19 January 2015). Becker, Gary S., ‘Human capital, effort, and the sexual division of labour’, Journal of labour economics, 1985, pp. S33-S58 (JSTOR). Bernadette Stiell & Ning Tang, ‘Ethnic Minority Women and Access to the Labour Market in Camden’, http://www.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/ceir-S4BMEWomenCamden_180706.pdf, 2006, (accessed 19 January 2015). Buchmann, Claudia, DiPrete, Thomas A. & McDaniel, Anne., ‘Gender inequalities in education’, Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 34, 2008, pp. 319-337. Equal Opportunities Commission, ‘Ethnic Minority Women and Local Labour Markets’, http://www.sociology.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/circle/local_labour_markets.pdf, 2007, (accessed 19 January 2015). Fleischmann, Fenella. & Hohne, Jutta., ‘Gender and migration on the labour market: Additive or interacting disadvantages in Germany?’, Social Science Research, vol. 42, 2013, 1325–1345 (Elsevier Science Direct). Healy, Geraldine. & Kraithman, David., ‘The Other Side of the Equation — The Demands of Women on Re-entering the Labour Market’, Employee Relations, Vol. 13, no. 3, 1991, pp. 17-28 (Emerald Insight). Heath, Anthony F., Cheung, Sin Yi., Unequal chances: Ethnic minorities in Western labour markets (Oxford University Press, 2007). Laurie Bell & Jo Casebourne, ‘Increasing Employment for Ethnic Minorities: a summary of research findings’, http://www.cesi.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/NAO_increasing_employment_ethnic_minorities_summary_0.pdf, 2008, (accessed 19 January 2015). Reza Hasmath, Benjamin Ho & Elaine M. Liu, ‘Ethnic Minority Disadvantages in China’s Labour Market?’ http://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/DP16.pdf, 2012, (accessed 19 January 2015). Van der Lippe, Tanja. & Van Dijk, Liset., ‘Comparative research on womens employment’,  Annual review of sociology, 2002, pp. 221-241 (JSTOR). Read More