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three - Women’s labour market situation: myths, puzzles and problems
- Edited by Sue Yeandle
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- Book:
- Policy for a Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 21 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 26 November 2008, pp 35-56
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter outlines a set of difficulties – conceptualised here as ‘myths, puzzles and problems’ – that need to be addressed if women's position in their local labour markets is to be understood, explained and addressed in public policy. It draws on a reading of the now extensive literature on women and the labour market, and considers some of the ‘received wisdom’ about women and employment. The chapter identifies a number of themes to which we return in later chapters of the book. In it, we highlight some aspects of women's employment and labour market situation that remain poorly understood, and consider topics where evidence, theories and ‘knowledge’ have been produced – and where (in some cases) policy actions have been developed – but where interpretations and theories are contested, misleading or incorrect, or where apparently intractable problems remain.
The critical backdrop to this discussion is a question often posed (and one initially addressed to us by some policy makers and practitioners, both at national level and in some of the localities studied in the GELLM research programme). With both jobs held by women and labour market opportunities on an upward trajectory, and with improving educational outcomes and qualification levels among young women (often exceeding the achievements of young men), what is the difficulty for women in participating in and progressing in the labour market? Surely at the start of the 21st century women have better jobs, more opportunities in the labour market and more choices and options than at any previous time? The chapter challenges the assumptions behind this perspective, paving the way for our presentation (in later chapters of this book) of evidence from the GELLM studies.
The new evidence produced in the GELLM research programme between 2003 and 2006 – an extensive and detailed body of evidence about women's situation in 12 local labour markets – provides a wealth of local-level, gender-focused data about women's experiences of paid work and access to employment. As we move through the chapter, we highlight a range of topics, arguing that in each case there are three types of concern to which our evidence can be applied: myths about women in employment that have wide currency and have influenced policy; puzzles where there are competing theoretical positions or gaps in understanding; and problems that have been tackled at the practical or theoretical level (or both), but which have not gone away.
two - Local labour markets in public policy context
- Edited by Sue Yeandle
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- Book:
- Policy for a Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 21 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 26 November 2008, pp 13-34
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter presents a broad outline of the public policy context in which the topic of gender and local labour markets addressed in this book needs to be understood. It lays out our claim that while public policy has engaged very actively with the labour market in recent decades, it has not done so in ways that offer most women – especially poor or disadvantaged women – opportunities for change, achievement of their potential, or equal access to the best rewarded and most influential labour market positions.
In the opening sections of the chapter we outline some of the major structural factors affecting local labour markets in England, noting major demographic shifts and key issues of labour supply and demand, with particular reference to developments in the localities included in the GELLM study. Here our concerns are with population and workforce ageing and with changing family lives and rising demand for care, as well as with industrial restructuring and changing patterns of employment. In the second part of the chapter we give our attention to the different arenas in which policy makers have addressed local labour market issues, often with the explicit aim of influencing and shaping local economies. Here we consider policy emphases and developments relating to labour market activation, to urban regeneration and neighbourhood renewal, to skills and productivity, and to (in)equality and diversity.
Although in recent decades local labour market problems have been addressed in at least some of these ways in all the localities studied, our review emphasises that, overwhelmingly, the actions taken have used ‘gender-blind’ approaches. Without objectives specifically addressing the labour market needs or circumstances of women, local agencies have often missed key opportunities to support disadvantaged local residents in entering or progressing in the labour market, and have struggled to work together to address local problems. Usually the key focus at local level has been on tackling high rates of recorded unemployment (frequently with a focus on local youth unemployment or problems of initial labour market entry, devoting most energy to the situation of young men), or on responding to the collapse of local jobs (often in one major industry where there has been a significant loss of jobs by local men).
eight - Tough at the top: women’s career progression – an example in the local government sector
- Edited by Sue Yeandle
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- Book:
- Policy for a Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 21 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 26 November 2008, pp 137-156
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter takes up the issues facing women with the skills and qualifications to progress to the most senior levels in the labour market. Research by employers and academics shows that women are very poorly represented in the boardroom and in senior management teams, despite over three decades of legislation and policy interventions on their behalf. Herein lies the puzzle. Do women themselves lack commitment to their jobs and to earning their own money, and are they uncomfortable wielding power, as some have suggested? Or are structural explanations, and the indirect discrimination found in workplace cultures and processes of advancement, more compelling explanations? To explore these issues, we discuss the experiences of qualified women in the local authority sector, a sector that has been in the vanguard of the development of family-friendly and equal opportunities policies. All the women whose experiences we discuss here had attained jobs that were judged to have promotion prospects, earning upwards of £18,000 pa in 2005.
The GELLM study discussed here was concerned with women's advancement within the workplace (Bennett et al, 2006a). It focused on women with educational qualifications who were in jobs, paid above the national average, with career development potential. Women's work–life preferences and their perception of the choices they had to make to achieve these preferences were at the heart of the investigation. Data were collected about their aspirations and attitudes towards their current career, the value they attached to employment, and to their own job in particular, and their perceptions of the opportunities and challenges facing them when considering applying for promotion within their organisation.
As described elsewhere, the policy agendas of the local authorities involved in this study fed into and guided the research design (Bennett, 2008). Four local authorities chose to examine women's career progression within their own organisations and gave the team access both to their employees and to their workforce data. The research design, carried out in the same way in each participating local authority, incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research methods (described in Appendix A).
The study discussed here is based on 1,370 structured questionnaire responses from female employees in these four organisations and focus group discussions with 106 of these same women, grouped according to their age, caring responsibilities and career stage.