G ENDER I NEQUALITIES G674

D O M EN OR W OMEN F ACE M ORE D ISADVANTAGE IN THE C ONTEMPORARY UK? (C OPY & C OMPLETE – P AIRS ) Female Advantage Male Advantage No difference Home Life Workplace Health Media Representation Crime Education Political Life

K EY P OINT Gender is considered the main site of social inequality in the contemporary UK. Discuss: Do you agree? Is gender more divisive than ethnicity, age or class?

H OME The role of homemaker is still most associated with women. P/T and flexible working arrangements compliment this role – the dual role. Men increasingly have a bigger domestic role; there are almost as many male carers as female (Carers UK; 2007) Using time diaries, Seager (1997) found women spend more time on domestic tasks and men on paid work.

P OLITICS Following the 2010 General Election, only 146 out of 650 MPs were female. Why are there so few female MPs? List as many possible reasons as you can: Which are the most likely?

H EALTH ( SEE NEXT SLIDE ALSO !) MenWomen Life Expectancy Healthy life expectancy Years spent in ill health

H EALTH : D ISCUSS (P AIRS ) What does the table show? What are some potential problems with the data? What explanations might there be for the data?

M ASS M EDIA Ratio of men to women on television has barely changed in the last ten years. In Movies, TV shows, literature etc: The Bechdel Test, sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.

A CTIVITY (G ROUPS – 5 MINS THEN FEEDBACK ) Study the two tables on the handout and answer the two questions provided.

E MPLOYMENT : D ISCUSS – R ECORD AND J USTIFY YOUR RESPONSES Do any jobs specifically require a man rather than a woman? If so, why? Should a woman have the right to 18 weeks’ maternity leave, regardless of the impact it might have on her workplace? How has the rules regarding maternity leave changed? What are your views on ‘positive discrimination’ to get more men or women into jobs where they are under-represented (e.g. could this work with female MPs?).

E MPLOYMENT Do women remain discriminated against in the UK workplace? 80% of men and 70% of women are employed (2005), compared to 92% men and 56% women in % of women work part-time vs. 10% of men. Women only get 82% of the average male wage (up from 63% in 1971).

E MPLOYMENT Men are more likely than women to work full time and be self-employed. Regardless of their status as fathers, men tend to work longer hours than women (Dermott; 2006) Women working full time are less likely than men to achieve authority positions (e.g. under- representation of female directors in FTSE 100).

E MPLOYMENT Horizontal Segregation Meaning: Men and women have different types of jobs. Women more likely to be in secretarial work, primary school teachers, working in hotels and restaurants. Men dominate construction, manufacturing and transport.

E MPLOYMENT Vertical Segregation Meaning: Men predominate in high-paid jobs and women in low-paid jobs. In 2005, 83% of directors and CEOs were men. 74% of waiting staff were women. The glass ceiling concept: Women can reach certain positions, but find it hard to get up to the top jobs.

I N P AIRS Discuss and Identify: What barriers do you think prevent women from reaching the top positions in the workplace? (Minimum of 4 reasons per pair)

E MPLOYMENT - G ENDERQUAKE Equal Pay Act (1970) – women should be paid the same as men for the same work. Sex Discrimination Act (1975) – discrimination on the grounds of sex is illegal in all employment, education etc. Equality Act (2006) – all public bodies must act to remove all illegal discrimination against women.

M EN A T W ORK Mac an Ghaill (1996) argued that the rise of the service sector and female employment within it was leading to a crisis of masculinity. Willott & Griffin (1996) explored this idea further and concluded that masculinity as a whole was not in ‘crisis’ – although some traditional elements of masculinity were weakening.

E DUCATION Females outperform males in SATs, KSs, GCSEs, A Levels, diplomas and degrees. Maths, physics and IT remain male dominated; English, modern languages and Biology are female dominated. Truancy rates are significantly higher for males. Some studies have found that girls receive less attention than boys in the classroom.

D ISCUSS What reasons can you identify that explain why girls do so much better than boys in education......Do you even agree it is true?

E DUCATION Explanation: Why do girls do better at school? Cultural change in girls’ attitudes (Sharpe; 1994) Opening career opportunities for women (due to equality legislation) / growth of the service sector. Feminist campaigns for women’s rights and to raise women’s self-esteem (Mitsos & Browne; 1998) Bedroom culture encourages verbal skills. Schools no longer patriarchal institutions.

E DUCATION Explanation: Why do boys do so badly? They’re not: It’s a moral panic But also, employment opportunities have decreased. Threat of losing traditional identities leads boys to adopt a laddish attitude (Jackson; 2006) More at risk from negative consequences of single-parenthood More likely to be socialised into activities that require limited verbal skills

D ISCUSS (P AIRS ) If women do better in education than men, why is their position in the workplace not improving at the same rate? Relationship between Education & Employment Sexism in the workplace

C RIME What studies/evidence did we look at in the previous unit that might suggest Gender inequalities in relation to Crime & Deviance?

W ATCH Clickview: Sociology: Women at Work

R ESEARCH A CTIVITY Find a minimum of 3 contemporary examples of gender inequality or disadvantage in one of the areas we have covered. You will present your findings to the class.

S OCIOLOGICAL E XPLANATIONS FOR G ENDER I NEQUALITIES G674

1. FUNCTIONALISM

P ARSONS (1955) Men and women serve different social roles; women play an expressive role (caring, emotional) and men an instrumental role ( the need to achieve and do stuff). Men are therefore more suited to working and women for domesticity. These differences are innate. In pairs, decide on three arguments for and three against this view.

A CTIVITY : H UMAN C APITAL In Pairs: List a minimum of five things that make an employee valuable to his/her employer. Ext: - How might the employee gain these qualities?

H UMAN C APITAL T HEORY Women are less valuable to employers as they are less committed to work and more likely to take childcare breaks. Men therefore have more ‘human capital’; their careers are unbroken and they can continually build up their skills, experiences etc. Any pay-gap between men and women is therefore justified.

C RITICISMS OF H UMAN C APITAL T HEORY Olsen & Walby (2004) Women face systematic disadvantage is acquiring human capital because......Jobs in which women are concentrated receive less training opportunities and fewer promotion prospects.

C RITICISMS OF F UNCTIONALISM Most sociologists argue that gender roles are socially constructed, not biologically ascribed. Parsons writes from the POV of a male academic in the 1950s. Human capital theory does not explain pay-gaps, as gender continues to influence pay regardless of qualifications, experience etc. (Sloane; 1994)

2. M ARXISM Karl Marx himself wrote very little about gender, but some of his theories (and the work of other Marxists) can be applied to this issue...

T HE R ESERVE A RMY OF L ABOUR A reserve army of labour is a section of the workforce that can be easily hired and fired......When the economy needs them (e.g. In prosperous times, or times of expansion or desperation) they are employed......But quickly disposed of when recession kicks in.

T HE R ESERVE A RMY OF L ABOUR Some sociologists argue that women are a classic example of this idea because: They change jobs more often than men, so are more vulnerable to redundancies They are less likely to be unionised (Beechey;1976) are more likely to accept lower paid, less skilled jobs. Capitalist ideology locates the woman at home, with fewer rights than men.

T HE R ESERVE A RMY OF L ABOUR : C RITICISMS Outdated: Relatively few occupations are unionised these days......Women are increasingly the main earners in dual-income households...

E NGELS (1972) Women were given a subordinate position in society because men needed them to produce and raise heirs so that property could be passed on... (However, this explanation is pure theory and doesn’t explain why women do not benefit from these inheritance laws.)

3. W EBERIANISM Note: The concepts of Horizontal and Vertical segregation are often attributed to the Weberian perspective.

D UAL L ABOUR M ARKET T HEORY (B ARRON & N ORRIS ; 1976) The labour market is split in two: 1. The Primary Labour Market Secure, well-paid jobs with good prospects 2. The Secondary Labour Market Insecure, poorly-paid jobs with few promotion opportunities Women are more likely to be in the secondary labour market because...

M YTHS A ND S TEREOTYPES ABOUT THE UNSUITABILITY OF WOMEN FOR PRIMARY SECTOR JOBS (Z IMMERMAN ; 1991) Workers don’t like working for female managers Women are less dependable Women are financially dependent on men (so don’t need pay rises or promotions) Women will stop work to have children (so no point training them) Working mothers cause damage to their children (so don’t employ them for the sake of their kids!)

E VALUATION (B RADLEY ; 1996) Fails to explain inequalities within a single sector. For example, teaching is a primary labour market occupation, yet women are less likely than men to gain high status teaching jobs e.g. 70% of teachers are female, but only 35% of senior jobs in education are held by women.

F EMINISM

F EMINISM What is meant by first wave feminism and second wave feminism. Explain: Liberal feminism Marxist feminism Radical feminism Black feminism

S OME G ENERAL F EMINIST E XPLANATIONS Male trade unionists restrict women’s opportunities. Sexual harassment is used at work to keep women in their place (Stanko; 1988) Jobs like bar work and secretarial work are sexualised ; not taken seriously. Sexual work (e.g. looking good, tolerating sexual innuendo, flirtatious banter) has become integral to many women’s jobs (Adler; 1995)

AS R ECAP ! How would Anne Oakley’s views on the social construction of gender contribute to arguments about gender inequality?

L IBERAL F EMINISM Gender inequality today exists because it has been historically unchallenged (Friedan; 1963) The main reason for inequality is the dominance of the mother/housewife role (Oakley; 1974) Liberal Feminists tend to be positive about the future potential for equality and support positive discrimination.

M ARXIST F EMINISM An example of a dual-systems theory, as it requires two areas of thought (patriarchy and economics) to explain gender inequality. Hartmann (1981) describes it as an ‘unhappy marriage’, because these two areas can be difficult to fit together into a single theory.

M ARXIST F EMINISM Most Marxist Feminists would agree with what we have already discussed regarding the reserve army of labour. Some, like Benston (1972) argue that women have been used to benefit the development and continuation of capitalism, in various ways...

H OW W OMEN ARE U SED F OR C APITALISM ’ S B ENEFIT : A CTIVITY (P AIRS ) For each, identify a way to solve the problem and a potential problem with trying to solve the problem... Women assist capitalism by... Possible solutionsPotential problems Providing free housework Pay women for carrying out housework How much to pay? Where does the money come from? Providing free childcare Promoting the ideology of the nuclear family Beautifying themselves Working for lower wages than men Provides emotional support to (male) workers

R ADICAL F EMINISM Society is patriarchal : Women are controlled by men in both personal and public spheres. The source of patriarchy is biological e.g. women’s ability to give birth (Firestone; 1971).

R ADICAL F EMINISM Many radical feminists disagree with the biological argument; there are many disagreements regarding the source of patriarchy. According to Walby (1990), patriarchy is socially/culturally variable. Men will always try to oppress women, but they cannot always succeed in this in the same ways.

R ADICAL F EMINIST ‘ SLOGANS ’ : What do they mean: All feminists are lesbians All men are rapists Marriage makes women sick

P REFERENCE T HEORY Hakim (2004) – ‘Inequality is down to personal preference’. Adaptive Women ; combine paid work/family equally. Seek flexible, p/t work. Work-Centred Women; focus on career and fit family life around it. Home-Centred Women; prefer not to work.

W RITTEN A CTIVITY Outline and evaluate the view that the patriarchal nature of contemporary British society is the cause of gender inequality in the UK [40]