12%. Taking these results we can conclude that female managers and foremen fall
to a minority in these areas, compared to men. These figures also show that gender
differences in the white ethnic group, are much more uneven compared to the
other ethnic groups. White male managers form a 23% of this occupational area,
compared to other ethnic counterparts. Black males only form 13% and Indian
males slightly more at 17%. White females make up 14 % of managerial
positions, but the split between females and their ethnic groups in much smaller.
Black women account for 14% and Indian females for 10%.The foreman
occupation is much more evenly split between the ethnic groups and gender.
Analysing these results, it could be concluded that it’s far more likley to obtain a
manager position, when being of white ethnicity and male in sex. In other
occupational areas, inequallities in gender or race tend not to occur or appear as
significant.
- Until recently, unemployment has been falling (see table 3.1). Looking at tables 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3, how much do gender, ethnicity and age affect the likelihood of unemployment? Looking at the number of workless households in table 3.4, how does this complicate the picture of an overall fall in unemployment?
3. Table 3.1 shows that although unemployment has fallen, your are much more
likely to be unemployed if you are male. If we take table 3.2 you can see that
female unemployment in every categorie, is less than that of males
unemlpoyment. The highest rate for unemployment in relation to age occurs in 16-
17 year olds regardless of gender, although again males show statistically higher
unemployment rates. Throughout this time stability has been established with
figures moving only slightly 1 – 2 percent either way. Table 3.3 focuses on
unemployment rates by ethnic group and age between the years 2001 – 2002.
Interestinly in the age group 16 – 24 the white ethnic group has the lowest rate of
unemployment and the Bangladeshi the highest. On closer inspection the white
ethnic group has the lowest rate of unemployment regardless of age at all. Using
table 3.4, we can look at how the working age households compare by household
economic satus. Since 1992 there has been an 8% increase in households with all
in employment compared to a 1% fall in workless households and working-age
people living in workless households. This complicates the picture for an overall
fall in unemployment because circumstances differ depending on what type of
household you live in and what type of occupation is being looked for.
- What does table 4 indicate about changes in the numbers of males and females in full and part-time employment since 1987? What accounts for these changes?
4. Since 1987 to 2002 there has been a increase of people in empolyment in every
area in both full and part-time occupations reguardless of gender. The greatest
increase shown in table 4 is the increase in the amount of women employed in full
time work. In 1987 5.5 million women worked full time, this then went on to
increase to 6.2 million by the year 2002. Part time employment also sees a steady
increase in the female gender. In 1987 4.2 million women worked part-time, by
2002 this figure increased to 5.1 million. The only other significant change is that
part-time employment by males has doubled since 1987 from 0.5 million to 1.1
million. After evealuating the evidence I have come to the conclusion that
females in part-time and full-time employment are responsible for the overall
reduction in unemployment. This could be due to the fact that many of them may
never have worked before. Many females were expected to stay at home and care
for their childrens and husbands and home needs. However times have changed
and women are now encouraged to return to work after childbirth. Additionally
there are many single parent families now compared to 1971, therefore forcing a
lot of single parents into work. The government has had a huge impact regarding
employement over the years by introducing benefits, family credits, free training
and education. All these points help and encourage the population to seek out
employment or move onwards and upwards in their chosen career path.
- Are men and women’s experiences of work becoming increasingly similar?
- During the twentieth century there has been evidence to show a steady increase in the number of women in paid employment, especially in part-time work. After the Second World War, Britian saw many married women start some form of employment other than their work as a mother or wife. This has steadily increased over the past 58 years to the point at which men and women are normally in paid employment for the majority of the years for which they are employable. However although men and women both tend to work for the same amount of time in their working lives many areas remain with huge inequalities. These areas include the amount of hours worked in a week, the occupations in which men and women are employed, the amount of pay recieved for employment and promotion opportunities.
Looking at these points one by one in more depth will help answer the question
asked. The amount of hours worked in a week by men and woman do vary.
Women tend to work more part-time hours of between 1 – 30 hours a week compared to
men, who form a very small sector of the part-time work. Men on the otherhand
tend to work for longer hours, between 40-60 hours a week compared to very few
women. Both genders however tend to even out between 30-40 hours a weeks.
As the majority of people normally work 30-40 hours in a week, this illustrates
that men and women in full time work do experience similar working hours to
one another.
Examining occupation and the segregation of gender in employment, in 2002 18%
of males held managers and senior officials posts
compared to 9% (half) of women. In fact in nearly every occupation there is a
hugh difference between the number of male and females involved in that
profession. The only professions in which there seems to be an even female to
male ratio are professional occupations (males 13% females 10%) , associate
professionals and technicals (male 14% female 14%) and elementary occupations
(male 13% female13%). All other occupations show massive differences in
gender. In the skilled trades 16% of males take up this occupation compared to 2
% of females. Segmented labour markets mean women are concentrated in certain
occupations (horizontal segmentation ) and at the lower level within that
occupation (vertical segmentation).
Looking at pay received by workers again this will vary depending on gender. In
- figures from the Department of Employment showed that amoung full time
non manual employees in the UK women on average earned £179.00 less per week than men did. As manual workers females received an average of £113.00 less per week than their male collegues. There appears no justifiable explanation as to why females and males are paid differently for doing the same job, but this definitely remains a big reason as to why men and womens experiences at work will differ.
Finally looking at promotion opportunities it could be argued that if women are
paid less to do the same job, then surely a woman would be more preferable to
promote as she would cost less to employ. This is not the case.
“Overall, the evidence with respect to the opportunities for promotion for
women is that women are less likely to be promoted than men and indeed
are concentated in jobs that are less likely to lead to high remuneration and
promotion.” (Crompton and Sanderson 1990; Evetts, 1994).
Women experience both horixontal and vertical labour market segmentation as previously discussed. Furthermore, when an occupation seems to be seen as ‘a female one’ it will decline in job status. However men will still continue to dominate the senior posts.
Evaluating these points has helped me form the conclusion that although working conditions for men and women have grown similar over the past 30 years compared to how they once were, men and women still firmly face diffences in the employment market. Although women’s circumstances in employment have started to improve there is still a long way to go and unless the issues discussed above are dealt with then the gendered division in labour will continue preventing any fundemental change in repect of work. Finally in conclusion even if gender inequality was iradicated we would still be faced with problems in areas of age, ethnicity and class, therefore it may be better to address all the areas collectivly rather than individually.
Bibliography
Abbott Pamela & Wallace Claire. 1997 An introduction to Sociology – Feminist perspectives. Routledge
Bilton Tony, Bonnett Kevin, Jones Pip, Lawson Tony, Skinner David, Stanworth Michelle & Webster Andrew. 2002 Introductory Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan
Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics.
Subject: The Sociological Imagination
Tutor: John Varty
Subject Code: SOB2019
Student Name: Tara Stevens
Student No. 0307404 / 1