The Contradictions and Intersections of Class and Gender in a Global City: Placing Working Women's Lives on the Research Agenda

10.1068/a3781 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda McDowell ◽  
Diane Perrons ◽  
Colette Fagan ◽  
Kath Ray ◽  
Kevin Ward
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Global City ◽  
High Status ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Gender Divisions ◽  
And Gender ◽  
New Research

In this paper we examine the relationships between class and gender in the context of current debates about economic change in Greater London. It is a common contention of the global city thesis that new patterns of inequality and class polarisation are apparent as the expansion of high-status employment brings in its wake rising employment in low-status, poorly paid ‘servicing’ occupations. Whereas urban theorists tend to ignore gender divisions, feminist scholars have argued that new class and income inequalities are opening up between women as growing numbers of highly credentialised women enter full-time, permanent employment and others are restricted to casualised, low-paid work. However, it is also argued that working women's interests coincide because of their continued responsibility for domestic obligations and still-evident gender discrimination in the labour market. In this paper we counterpose these debates, assessing the consequences for income inequality, for patterns of childcare and for work–life balance policies of rising rates of labour-market participation among women in Greater London. We conclude by outlining a new research agenda.

Exploring the experiences of women and migrant medical professionals in Swedish hospitals

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 666-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Mulinari
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
High Status ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Collective Resistance ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Gender

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the different ways in which experiences of marginalisation within organisations are named and acted upon. Of particular interest is examining the ways in which the visibility of gender discrimination and the invisibility of ethnic discrimination indicate what the professionals in the study identify as horizons of possible individual and collective resistance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes as its point of departure Cho et al. (2013) notion of “intersectionality as an analytical sensibility” (p. 795). The material consists of qualitative semi-structured interviews with 15 chief medical doctors employed in two Swedish hospitals. Findings – The findings indicate that while there is an organisational visibility of gender inequality, there is an organisational invisibility of ethnic discrimination. These differences influence the ways in which organisational criticism takes place and inequalities are challenged. Female Swedish identified doctors acted collectively to challenge organisations that they considered male-dominated, while doctors with experience of migration (both female and male) placed more responsibility on themselves and established individual strategies such as working more or des-identification. However, they confronted the organisation by naming ethnic discrimination in a context of organisational silence. Research limitations/implications – The paper does not explore the different forms of racism (islamophobia, racism against blacks, anti-Semitism). In addition, further research is needed to understand how these various forms of racism shape workplaces in Sweden. Originality/value – The paper offers new insights into the difference/similarities between how processes of ethnic and gender discrimination are experienced among employees within high-status professions. The value of the paper lies in its special focus on how forms of resistance are affected by the frames of the organisation. The findings stress the importance of intersectional analyses to understand the complex patterns of resistance and consent emerging within organisations.

scholarly journals Donne al lavoro in Italia tra parità formale e disparità sostanziale

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Toffanin
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Full Time ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Condition Of Women ◽  
The Welfare State

The contribution aims to articulate in critical terms the condition of women in Italy, in light of the recent transformations that have affected the welfare state and labour market. In particular, the attention has been paid to the more hidden aspects of the recent reforms implemented by Italian governments, concerning the relation between care work and social and material changes. The casualization of labour among young women is producing a postponement of the reproductive choices while among older ones, especially the unskilled ones, it is producing a returning as a full-time housewives, with all the implications that this dynamic has in terms of loss of emancipation and autonomy. For many women the impossibility to balance work and personal life is leading to their exclusion from the labour market. The reflections developed in this paper aim to highlight the process of invisibilization that continues to mark the reproductive work and the consequences that this process has on the reproduction of class and gender inequalities.

Occupations, age and gender: Men and women’s earnings in the Irish labour market

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-295
Author(s):  
Tom Turner ◽  
Christine Cross ◽  
Caroline Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Public ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Women's Earnings ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

While many studies investigate gender wage disparities, few have examined the impact of gender, education, part-time working and sector on earnings for men and women across different occupational groups and for different age groups. The purpose of this article is to undertake a more nuanced approach to further our understanding of the gender pay difference between men and women in different occupations in order to tackle and close this gap. The study’s findings suggest that the labour market is segmented into primary and secondary jobs. Additionally, the earnings returns for education are generally lower for women compared to men and women appear to fare better in the public sector in terms of a lower earnings gap for full-time and part-time employees and higher returns for education compared to women working in the private sector. The article concludes with a discussion of the policy implications.

Reactions to anti-male sexism claims: The moderating roles of status-legitimizing belief endorsement and group identification

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara L. Wilkins ◽  
Joseph D. Wellman ◽  
Katherine D. Schad
Keyword(s):  
Gender Bias ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
High Status ◽  
Gender Identification ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Gender

Men increasingly identify as victims of gender discrimination, but it is unclear how people react to men who claim to be victims of gender bias. We examined how status-legitimizing belief endorsement (SLBs) and gender identification (GID) moderated men and women’s reactions to a man who claimed to have lost a promotion because of anti-male sexism or another cause. Consistent with theory that claiming bias against high-status groups reinforces the status hierarchy, SLB endorsement was associated with more positive reactions toward an anti-male bias claimant for both men and women. Group identification, in contrast, affects group-specific concerns and thus differentially predicted male and female participants’ reactions. Men evaluated the claimant more positively the more strongly they identified with their gender. The more women identified with their gender, the more negatively they evaluated the male claimant. We also demonstrated that SLBs and GID moderated the extent to which the claimant was perceived as sexist. We discuss how these reactions may perpetuate gender inequality.

scholarly journals Underemployment of Immigrant Women in Iceland – A case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aija Burdikova ◽  
Stéphanie Barillé ◽  
Markus Meckl ◽  
Soffía Gísladóttir
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Immigrant Women ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
The North ◽  
And Gender ◽  
New Research ◽  
The University ◽  
Immigrant Men

The number of immigrants living in Iceland has been steadily on the rise for the last decade; between 2007 and 2017, the percentage of immigrants living in Iceland has increased from 7.6 % to 11.9% (Statistics Iceland, 2017a, 2017b). Akureyri, the largest town in the North of Iceland with considerable industry and service, has seen its immigrant population double in the last decade, and is now home to 931 immigrants for a total of 18 488 inhabitants (Statistics Iceland, 2017a, 2017c). New research from the University of Akureyri[1]shows that immigrant women are the most vulnerable people in the labour market in Iceland. Many occupy positions that do not fit with their level of education; despite having received higher education than men. For example, in the survey conducted 30% of immigrant women in Akureyri answered that they are in employment that does not suit their background, compared to the same answer by only 8% of Icelandic women. This difference has a direct impact on the income: just 11% of immigrant women answered that they earn 300 000 ISK or more per month, compared to 37% for Icelandic women and 22% for immigrant men. We begin the discussion by reviewing the literature on migration, labour market and gender, with an emphasis on the Icelandic context. Then, we introduce the context for this study and describe the participants and the methodology, before we explore the immigrant women’s thoughts on their employment situation.

Gendering the practice turn in diplomacy

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 140-165
Author(s):  
Catriona Standfield
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Practice Turn ◽  
And Gender ◽  
New Research ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Thinking Tools

International Relations has developed an exciting new research agenda on diplomatic practice, drawing largely on the theories of Pierre Bourdieu. However, it largely ignores Bourdieu’s theory of patriarchy, as well as extensive feminist Bourdieusian analysis. These are analytical tools that can be used to understand how diplomacy reproduces itself as a masculinized field. They are ‘practice theory’ as well and should be incorporated into our research on diplomatic practice. My aims here are to recover feminist practice theory for a diplomatic studies audience and to indicate how we can develop an interdisciplinary research agenda on gender and diplomacy. The first part of the article provides an overview of practice theory in diplomatic studies and discusses Bourdieu’s overlooked contributions regarding gender. I then use Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ of field, habitus and practice to examine diplomacy and gender using examples drawn from the literature, as well as from some primary sources. Throughout, I show how feminist sociologists have developed his ideas to create sophisticated approaches to studying the persistence of patriarchy. This does not capture all the ways in which diplomacy is gendered, but these tools reveal the limitations in our current understanding of diplomatic practices. I conclude with suggestions for future interdisciplinary research that takes gender seriously.

Forging new communities: Gendered childhood through the lens of caste

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepa Sreenivas
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Sexual Difference ◽  
Female Child ◽  
Girl Child ◽  
Child Rights ◽  
The World ◽  
Dalit Women ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Feminist Practice

This article focuses on the narratives of two dalit women which offer new, enabling imaginings of community that open up radical possibilities for rethinking questions of childhood and gender. These texts turn a critical gaze on an upper caste feminist practice and the discourses of childhood, schooling and emancipation that are tied to it. Childhood has been hegemonically represented as a state of innocence and vulnerability and is marked off from the world of adult anxieties and responsibilities. Such representations are generally implicated in abstract, internationalist notions of child rights and remain disengaged from the historical contexts that shape children’s lives. The dominant discourse of the girl child does not problematize the field qualifying as childhood; instead, it proposes that the female child has been excluded from the same. The cause of this exclusion is identified as gender discrimination, reinforcing the primacy of sexual difference and allowing it to subsume all other forms of differences — caste, class, region or community — that exist among children. The article argues that these two narratives disrupt the neat separation between the modernizing nation/ emancipatory self and the regressive community. As each narrative takes us through the life of a dalit girl, it articulates a critique of gender as a category abstracted from material circumstances that constitute women’s lives. Gender in these narratives emerges as complexly intermeshed with caste and community.

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