Qc. Using the data in the passage, and other evidence about the UK with which you are familiar, examine the view that, compared to women ‘men are not doing as well here as they once did’
Men are not doing as well as women in some aspect the pay gap between men and women is narrowing, the number of women in work has increased by 18 percent since the late seventies while males employment has fallen 7 percent. Research shows that women especially married women are in employment and after having children; women are more likely to go back to work. Lady Jay, the minister for women outlined that the equal pay Act has to be amended in order for women to find it more easier to challenge unfair wage levels. This will enable the pay gap between men and women to close gradually. Today between 35 to 60 percent of women aged16 to 60 in most of the European countries hold paid jobs outside home. Even though women are doing much better, so concerns are still been discussed according to Marxist women are seen as reserved army of labour. Women have to do the least desirable jobs for the lowest pay, and women are more likely to be part-time jobs because they rely on their husband’s wages as main breadwinner. An American sociologist, Theodore Caplow argues that there are large employable women and as a result to this, employers have no reason to attract female labourers with high wages, career opportunities and improved working condition. Girls are still outperforming boys in GCSE and A-Levels but when they go off to university, boys do better than girls and the pay gap between men and women is still visible. So although women are doing better than the early centuries, men are still getting 19% more than women in employment.
Qd. Outline and critically assess two sociological explanations of economic differences between men and women.
There are differences between men and women economically. Women are more likely to be in poverty this is due to the increased number of single parent famines headed by women. They enter the cycle of poverty, poor housing, poorly paid employment and poor schooling for their children. Single parent families have risen from 900,000 in 1981 to 1,300,000 in 1991. Research shows that single parent families are more likely to be headed by women. Theodore Caplow argues that women are seen as the ‘secondary breadwinner’ and this encourages the attitude that it is right and proper that women should be paid less than men. He also points out that in the labour market, women have to move out of it and discontinue their careers to produce and rear children. The 19% pay gap between men and women still stands which makes men and women economically different to each other. Radical feminist would argue that patriarchy is the most important concept in explaining the gender inequalities. Men have the power and own the public sector (employment) and women are in the private sector (home). The workforce is more or less still overpowered by men. When women go into employment, they face a number of disadvantages in paid work. They are likely to be in part-time jobs and tend to do particular jobs, mainly low status. Although radical feminist argues that patriarchy is the problem. They argue that men exploit women because they undertake free labour for men by carrying out childcare and housework. They also wish to see patriarchy replaced by matriarchy. According to Marxist feminist capitalism also has something to do with women’s oppression. Capitalist society needs to have a reserved army of labour, which are over represented by women. Marxist feminist would argue that a capitalist society like Britain will benefit from a reserved army of labour because of their low pay employment and the increase in single parent families has something to do with the economic differences between men and women, single parent families are headed by women, who do part times jobs are poorly paid and they have to provide for the household. This leads to women been in the cycle of poverty.
