Transcript Document

ORGANISATIONS, WORK AND SEXUAL
DIVISIONS:
Occupational change in market economies and
remaking gender?
Janette Webb
University of Edinburgh
Framing Questions
• Interactions of markets and gendered power
relations
• Are some forms of ‘market economy’ more
conducive to greater equality between the
sexes?
• What drives what?
– Cultural change in gender relations drives
economic restructuring?
– Economic restructuring, and occupational change,
drives cultural change in gender relations?
Two Models from Feminist
Political Economy
• Varieties of Capitalism (VOC)
– Liberal market economies (LME)
– Coordinated market economies (CME)
– These result in different patterns of occupational
sex segregation and inequality
• Post-Industrialism
– Change as dominated by universal dynamics of
post-industrial shift, which reinforce occupational
sex segregation and ‘gender essentialism’
Varieties of Capitalism
• LMEs
–
–
–
–
Education and training for general skills
Deregulated, individualised labour markets
Short-term orientation to profitability
Social policy emphasis on individual responsibility
• CMEs
– Education and training for organisation- and industry-specific
skills
– Coordinated/regulated labour markets
– Long-term orientation to governance and profitability
– Social policy emphasis on protection and pooling of risk
Feminist Analysis of VOC
• CMEs/ specific skills regimes
– Expected to have higher levels of occupational sexsegregation
• LMEs/ general skills regimes
– Expected to have less segregated occupations but higher
income inequality
• Might speculate therefore that:
– gender is a more prominent principle of social division in
CMEs?
– While class is more prominent in LMEs?
• Drivers of change perceived as primarily economic,
overlaid on essentialised model of dualistic gender
Feminist Post-Industrialism
• Interaction of universalising economic forces
of post-industrialism with universalistic
gender dualism
• Effect is to reinforce occupational segregation
• Gender ideology, rather than economics,
drives
– horizontal segregation between manual (male)
and non-manual (female) occupations
– and pervasive vertical segregation within
occupational hierarchies
Comments on the VOC and
Post-Industrial Models
• Utility of models emphasising one or two
macro-level concepts to explain complexity
• Limitations of labour market data over 15
years old when dealing with questions of
economic restructuring
• Snap shot of occupational segregation at a
single time
• Focus on occupational categories rather than
incorporating industrial sector
Using Data from ILO Labour
Market Stats
• Less discriminating occupational classification
• Problems of different cultural interpretations of the
‘same’ occupational classifications
• But allows some longitudinal comparison
• And more recent data (1985-2005)
• Crude occupational breakdown compensated for to
some extent by ability to disaggregate occupation by
industrial sector
• Descriptive statistics for concentration of men and
women in occupations rather than index of
segregation
Rationale for Selection of
Countries
• Sweden and Japan as contrasting examples
of CMEs
• USA and UK as contrasting examples of
LMEs
• Likely to share common shift towards
services
• Since 1985, all have increased proportion of
economically active population
Total Economically Active,
1985-2004
160000
140000
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
Sw85
Sw04
USA85
USA05
UK85
UK05
Ja85
Ja05
Women as % of Workforce
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Sweden
USA
UK
Japan
mid-1980s
mid-1990s
mid-2000s
Declining Employment in Extractive
& Transformative Industries
• Growth in economically active population
• Alongside decline in proportion of
employment in extractive and transformative
industries
• Japan continues to have the highest
proportion of employees in these sectors
– now has only 31% in such employment
– equivalent to the position of the USA twenty years
earlier
% of Labour Force in Extractive &
Transformative Industries
45
40
35
30
Sw
USA
UK
Jpn
25
20
15
10
5
0
mid-1980s
mid-1990s
mid-2000s
% of Women in Extractive &
Transformative Industries
35
30
25
Sw
USA
UK
Jpn
20
15
10
5
0
mid-1980s
mid-1990s
mid-2000s
Labour Force in Extractive &
Transformative Industries
• As proportion of
employment
declined, maleconcentration
increased
• Most noticeable in
Japan - women
were 35% of
employees; now
28%
all employees
100
80
Sw
USA
UK
Jpn
60
40
20
0
mid-1980s
mid-1990s
mid-2000s
women
100
80
Sw
USA
UK
Jpn
60
40
20
0
mid-1980s
mid-1990s
mid-2000s
% of Labour Force in Services
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Sw
USA
UK
Jpn
mid-1980s
mid-1990s
mid-2000s
% of Women in Services
60
50
40
Sw
USA
UK
Jpn
30
20
10
0
mid-1980s
mid-1990s
mid-2000s
Labour Force in Services
• Japan - men in the
majority in services
• Sweden - post-industrial
shift associated with
less female
concentration in 2005
than 1985
• No simple relationship
between postindustrialism and
‘universal
reinforcement’ of sexual
divisions
all employees
100
80
60
Sw
USA
UK
Jpn
40
20
0
mid-1980s
mid-1990s
mid-2000s
women
100
80
60
Sw
USA
UK
Jpn
40
20
0
mid-1980s
mid-1990s
mid-2000s
Change in Occupational
Structures
• Occupational upgrading?
– Crude measure shows increasing proportion of
workforce employed in managerial, admin,
professional, technical and associated
occupations in 2004-05 than in mid-1980s/1990s
• Combined with gradually decreasing
proportion of employees in production jobs
(including skilled craft and routine manual
work)
Occupational structures,
2004-5
40
35
30
profs
managerial
clerical
sales/svc
AFF
production
25
20
15
10
5
0
Sweden
USA
UK
Japan
Sweden, 1984-2004:
occupation by male-female
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
pr
84 '94 '04
f
o
female
male
m
84 '94 '04
r
g
84 '94 '04 s84 '94 '04 d84 '94 '04
r
e
o
le
r
cl
a
p
s
USA, 1985-2005:
occupation by male-female
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
pr
85 '95 '05
f
o
female
male
m
85 '95 '05
r
g
85 '95 '05
85 '95 '05 s85 '95 '05
l
r
n
e
e
l
a
cl
m
sa
UK, 1995 & 2005:
occupation by male-female
100
90
80
70
female
male
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
95 '05
f
o
pr
95 '05
r
g
m
h9
c
te
5
5
'0
c
c9
v
l.s
5
5
'0
a
m
9
nl
5
5
'0
Japan, 1985-2005:
occupation by male-female
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
pr
85 '95 '05
f
o
female
male
85 '95 '05 r85 '95 '05 s85 '95 '05 c85 '95 '05 d85 '95 '05
r
g
le
o
le
r
sv
c
a
m
p
s
5
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
female
male
85
'9
5
'0
m 5
gr
85
'9
5
'0
5
cl
er
85
'9
5
'
sa 05
le
s8
5
'9
5
'0
5
sv
c8
5
'9
5
'0
pr 5
od
85
'9
5
'0
5
5
Sweden
80
20
20
0
0
UK (95 & 05 only)
sa
le
s8
5
'9
5
'0
5
m
an
l8
5
'9
5
'0
5
80
er
85
'9
5
'0
5
100
cl
100
gr
85
'9
5
'0
5
m
85
'9
5
'0
5
of
pr
40
female
male
of
'0
l9
5
95
'0
5
vc
sa
le
s8
4
'9
4
'0
4
pr
od
84
'9
4
'0
4
er
84
'9
4
'0
4
cl
gr
84
'9
4
'0
4
m
60
pr
5
5
'0
5
h9
m
an
cl
.s
te
c
'0
m
gr
95
'0
pr
of
95
84
'9
4
'0
4
of
pr
Differences in Occupational Concentrations of
men and women - LMEs v CMEs?
USA
60
40
female
male
Japan
100
80
60
40
20
0
female
male
Male-female split among
occupations 2004/5
Managers & Administrators
Professionals
100
100
80
80
60
60
male
female
40
male
female
40
20
20
0
0
Sweden
USA
UK
Sweden
Japan
Clerical workers
USA
UK
Japan
Production
100
100
80
80
60
60
male
female
40
20
male
female
40
20
0
0
Sweden
USA
UK
Japan
Sweden
USA
UK
Japan
The Effect of Industrial Sector
on Occupational Divisions
• Using only 2004/5 data
• Excludes Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Groups Industrial Sectors into 3:
– extractive and transformative
– business and finance, real estate and retail
services
– public and welfare services
• Showing % of women in each occupation
Distribution of women in occupations
by industry, Sweden, 2004
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
extractive &
transformative
financial, real estate,
retail
education, HSW
m g/ad
pr of
tech
cle r
s vc
pr od
Distribution of women in occupations
by industry, USA 2005
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
extractive &
transformative
financial, real estate,
retailing
education, HSW
m g/ad
pr o/t& a
cle r
s vc
pr od
Distribution of women in occupations
by industry, UK 2005
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
extractive &
transformative
financial, real estate,
retailing
education, HSW
m g/ad
pr of
tech
cle r
s vc
pr od
Distribution of women in occupations
by industry, Japan 2005
90
80
70
60
50
extractive &
transformative
financial, real estate,
retailing
education, HSW
40
30
20
10
0
m g/ad
pr of &
tech
cle r
s vc
pr od
Distribution of women in
occupations
Sweden
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
USA
extractive &
transformative
financial, real estate,
retail
education, HSW
mg/ad
prof
tech
cler
svc
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
prod
extractive &
transformative
financial, real estate,
retailing
education, HSW
mg/ad
pro/t&a
cler
UK
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
prof
tech
cler
svc
prod
Japan
extractive &
transformative
financial, real estate,
retailing
education, HSW
mg/ad
svc
prod
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
extractive &
transformative
financial, real estate,
retailing
education, HSW
mg/ad
prof &
tech
cler
svc
prod
Occupation by Industry & VOC
• No simple relationship between LME policies
and lesser concentrations of men and women
in segregated occupations
• In the UK, barriers to the a-typical sex
entering occupations do not seem to be lower
than in Sweden
• Swedish social-democratic model more
effective in facilitating movement of women
into career occupations in industry and in
private sector services
Continuity of dualistic gender
ideologies?
• Evidence provides support for the argument that a dualistic, if
not ‘essentialist’, gender ideology continues to underpin some
universally sex-differentiated occupational patterns
• Not the case however that shift to services universally reinforces
sex-segregated work
• Can conjecture that effects of shift to services differ according to
interaction between
– cultural, and historically located, processes of gendered
power relations
– political-economic strategies
– equality policies
– and the resulting organisation of occupations in different
sectors in different countries
Evaluation of Models
• Strengths and limitations of a feminist model of VOC
– Utility
– But over-reliance on macro-structural concepts of skills and
gender
– Loss of insight into process
– Need to integrate income data and inter-dependence of class with
gender and ethnic divisions
– Skills, and their formation and use, are not independent of power
relations, and are in flux in ‘knowledge economies’
• Strengths and limitations of a feminist post-industrialism
– Identifies the intransigence of dualistic gender
– But a version of convergence theory?
What would a sociological model of the
interactions of gender and markets look like?
– A situated account of the remaking of gender in
the context of new occupational relationships
– Gender and markets as mutually constitutive
– Organisational level is where inter-relations of
markets and personal biographies are worked out:
• Occupational positions and skills are
constituted
• And in their enactment produce the contested
strata of class, gender and ethnicity
• Which in turn reshape occupations and skills