About the Sexual Division of Labour Contributes - Term Paper Example

Name: Tutor: Title: About the sexual division of labor contributes Course: Date: Introduction The sexual division of labor in Australia takes two key features. On the one side division of labor occurs inside and outside domestic household where the work of women is inappropriately directed to unpaid tasks within the household, while the men’s work is inappropriately directed to the paid work within the labor market. Furthermore, the aspect of division of labor takes place in the paid labor market itself. This involves women being crowded into smaller ranges of the occupational niches. The Australian state is faced with continued occupational gender segregation, increased incidences of the part-time and casual employment as well as the on-going gender pay gap. However, there are various legislative and industrial measures designed to enhance the position of women within the workforce. Such developments include anti-discrimination, EEO legislation, equal pay and parental leave rights. The labor market of Australia remains largely gendered with the gender equality issue stalled and in some regions absolutely not considered (Baxter 2002). Despite the massive developments in the women’s educational outcomes, particularly in the labor market, in the last two decades little change has been made to enhance women participation in the full-time labor market. Generally, less research have been made to the general distribution of women across the various jobs, and as result fewer efforts have been made in the gender pay gap of Australia. Australia like other Western developed states is faced with a crisis related to various fronts such as skills shortages and pension deficits with the gender equity as well as female opportunities largely linked to such developments. Although there is a growing concern about such impending challenges, a number of debates on them hardly ever approach the main problem-sexual division of labor. For example, the ageing population and shortage of skills in relation to the idea of targeted policy to enhance women’s workforce participation is not worth to mention. Women in Australia concentrate more in the short-time work which reflects some forms of underemployment in the country (Charlesworth, et. al. 2002). Since the middle of 20th century, Australia has experienced increased women’s labor force participation. However, the trend of labor force participation in the country remains strongly gendered than in several other comparable countries. This trend is evident within the relatively low participation rates in mothers and comparative prevalence of the part-time among the employed mothers. This indicates that the decisions of women around employment vary markedly. The employment participation patterns in Australia raise questions on the influences of economic and industrial context, the policy frameworks as well as prevailing attitudes towards motherhood and employment. Such factors may reflect and reinforce several other influences on the labor force participation patterns. For instance, the impact of policy systems is complex where labor force attachment among women in Australia is substantial though the country has taken time to implement policies on paid maternity leave (Chalmers, et.al. 2005). Gender contracts and reproductive bargains-the changing breadwinner models Social settlement that emerged in mid-twentieth century has been considered subsequently normative for the various employment arrangements as well as working conditions. As a result, labor force regulations and the associated welfare provisions failed to recognize the need for a more robust division between the paid and unpaid labor. This could enable women to be in charge of unremunerated caring work within the private sphere, a situation commonly known as a male-breadwinner model. Although there is rapid increase in labor force participation among the women as well as the dwindling legitimacy of settlement, no new developments have been made in settlement what emerges, therefore, is the proliferation of the breadwinner models. The breadwinner models symbolize the national political economies in relation to how distribution of the paid and unpaid work among men and women is highly supported by the labor force regulation as well as welfare institutions (Vosko 2010). The emerging question concerns whether or not possible to enhance the heuristic value of the breadwinner typologies, particularly which work best to distinguish the patterns of female labor force involvement. This is to determine whether the advocates for unpaid caring work promote the participation of women’s labor force throughout the employment course. Therefore, gender contracts and the reproductive bargains reveal the horizon of standards against which the employment relations, development of welfare policies and wage determination are such key norms and practices gendered. It is important to note that prioritizing gender in such a manner proves to be consistent with the normative evaluation of the institutional factors that shape economic outcomes that could be beyond the labor market and policy forces. According to Irwin and Bottero (2000) without resorting to only the slippery idea of culture, the value and variability of the existing normative considerations greatly impact on the capacity of women to effectively negotiate paid labor. Paid and Unpaid work within the Australian Households The paid and unpaid work in the Australian households provides a clear understanding of the trends within the gender division of its labor. Therefore, shifts in the men and women’s rate of labor force participation raise questions concerning how such individuals manage the coalesce responsibilities of the paid and unpaid work. Since a number of couple families are currently engaging in the paid employment, it becomes relevant to consider both the paid and unpaid work whilst examining the household divisions of labor and how it contributes to gender inequality. It has been argued that the prevalence of the conventional male breadwinner family with the single male earner as well as the non-employed female couple has gradually declined as a result of the increase in labor force involvement rate of the married women. Due to such trends it is necessary to evaluate the workloads of men and women in Australia and among the couples so as to assess whether if the gender specialization within the paid and unpaid work has truly declined. Thus, enabling to collect evidence on whether or not there is an increase in the gender equality in the general work time (Baxter, 2002). Gender specialization is the amount of total work time assigned to both paid work and unpaid by the men and women within the couple families. Despite the fact that the workloads of both men and women who were initially employed on the full-time basis was equal, the combination of paid and unpaid work participations has been skewed to the housework for men while the paid work to be taken on by men. This clearly indicates that gender specialization is still embedded within the division of labor in households. According to Baxter et al. (2008) argued that the increase in the gender specialization associated with parenthood is more tied up with the concept of good parenting. For example, women are considered to be good parents through their expressions of involving in more housework, while for men their good parent identity is expressed through partaking more paid work. This sexual division of labor links the disparities within the composition of workloads with the idea of doing gender. Based on the above research, therefore, it is relevant to argue that there are still high levels of inequality regarding the composition of workloads where women continually specialize in the unpaid work, while men increasingly specialize in the paid work. This sexual division of labor force largely contributes to gender inequality. On the other hand, Jacobs and Gerson (2004) research on parenthood and specialization discovered that men who were fathers took much time on the paid work than fellow men who were not fathers, while mothers spent less time on the paid work than women who were not mothers. This created a larger gender gap within the paid work hours, particularly for couples with dependent children. Australia’s restructuring labor market and welfare through gender Public policies within Australia as in other related capitalist welfare countries have largely depended on sex and gender issues or differences. Work is defined based on whether and to what level should be rewarded, policies which determine who to take the responsibility and obligation to work in various spheres, for instance, in family or household, community and in market. Therefore, ideologically developed naturalness of sex-based division of the work for wages as well as work accomplished by women within the family or household, providing care for children, aged and disabled people is considered as basic premise through which definition of work is constructed by the public policies in the modern societies. Such premises are based on the idea that women’s main responsibility is to provide care work accompanied by other involvement in the market activity (Greenstein 2000). On the other hand, the main responsibility and obligation accomplished by men is breadwinning through the market activity, and thus take residual participation in caring work. It is worth to mention that to feature the gendered division of the care-giving work as well as market work is basically to employment, welfare arrangements and work within the capitalist welfare countries. This can be considered as a way to disregard the obliging evidence of union where the women’s role of care-giving is viewed as provision of informal welfare infrastructure. It is relevant to argue for that sexual division of labor force contributes to inequality. The responsibility to provide care and to take care of work as well as to enhance private welfare is linked to the paid employment status and the closely related activities. The activities include hours, conditions, types of the paid work and the capacity to take full participation in state politics and authoritative structures of a given workplace (Breen & Cooke 2005). Prospects of continued sexual division of labor force in Australia Since the Australian labor market remains increasingly gendered with the gender equality issue stalled, there also remain important research as well as policy issues related to the gendering of labor market. The agendas include, the obstacles to career opportunities and employment entitlements, outstanding relations between work and the welfare provision linked to the male breadwinner system of work. It would also be important to focus on the changes made towards the individualism within the bargaining regime and in the policies formulated by human resources in organizations, shifts to the individualism at legislative level, hence affecting the capacity to collectively process the various claims and effect change. Research is also required to determine the availability and quality of the part-time jobs in women’s selected areas of employment to facilitate career continuity. Fundamentally, there is need to investigate the nature as well as form of the institutional and social structures that work to reinforce the conventional breadwinner ideologies and the labor market patterns attached (O'Reilly & Spee 2008). Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that the shifts in the rate of men and women labor force participation raise questions on how such individuals manage the joined responsibilities of the paid and unpaid work. The combination of paid and unpaid work participations is increasingly being skewed to the housework for men while the paid work to be taken on by men. Gender specialization is still embedded within the division of labor in households. There are still high levels of inequality in the composition of workloads where women continually specialize in the unpaid work, while men increasingly specialize in the paid work. Gender contracts and the reproductive bargains shows the horizon of standards against which the employment relations, development of welfare policies and wage determination as key norms and practices gendered. The Australian state is increasingly faced with continued occupational gender segregation, increased incidences of the part-time and casual employment as well as the on-going gender pay gap. The labor market of Australia remains largely gendered with the gender equality issue stalled and in some regions absolutely not considered. Bibliography Baxter, J. (2002), Patterns of Change and Stability in the Gender Division of Household Labor in Australia, Journal of Sociology, 38, 399-424. Baxter, J. et.al. (2008), Life course Transitions and Housework, Parenthood and Time on Housework, Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 259-272. Breen, R. & Cooke, L. (2005), The Persistence of the Gendered Division of Domestic Labor, European Sociological Review, 21(1). Charlesworth, S., et.al. (2002), Balancing Work and Family Responsibilities: Policy Implementation Options, Melbourne, RMIT University. Chalmers, J., et.al. (2005), Part-time Work and Caring Responsibilities in Australia: Towards and Assessment of Job Quality, Labor & Industry, 15, 41-66. Greenstein, T.N. (2000), Gender and the Division of Labor in the Home, Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 322-335. Irwin, S. & Bottero,W. (2000), Gender and theories of change within the employment relations, British Journal of Sociology 51(2), 261-280. Jacobs, J. A. & Gerson, K. (2004), The Time Divide: Work Family and Gender Inequality, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press. O'Reilly, J. & Spee, C. (2008), The future regulation of work and welfare: Time for a revised social and gender contract, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 4(3), 259-281. Vosko, L.F. (2009), Managing the Margins: Gender, Citizenship and the International Regulation of Precarious Employment. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Read More