Women who ‘talk the tools’ and ‘walk the work’: Using capital to do gender differently and re-gender the skilled trades

Social and cultural capital are valuable assets that assist individuals to succeed in work. This article reports on gender segregation in the skilled trades. We use Bourdieu’s theory of capital to illuminate how women are successfully recruited and retained in the skilled trades. Our findings indicate that women with pre-existing forms of capital are advantaged. Notably tradeswomen utilise masculine gender capital while maintaining aspects of feminine and female gender capital. In doing so, they re-gender the skilled trades and do gender differently. The study also found that female and feminine gender capital detracts from other forms of capital women bring with them or acquire in their trades work. Male gender capital privileges men and disadvantages women. We conclude that capital is an important point of intervention where women can be supported; however, the problems that gender capital creates for women can only be resolved by cultural change.

The Long-Term Impacts of Grants on Poverty: Nine-Year Evidence from Uganda’s Youth Opportunities Program

In 2008, Uganda gave $400 per person to thousands of young people to help them start skilled trades, work more, and raise incomes. Four years on, an experimental evaluation found grants raised work by 17 percent and earnings by 38 percent (Blattman, Fiala, Martinez 2014). After nine years, we find these gains have dissipated. Grantees’ investment leveled off; controls eventually increased their incomes through business and casual labor; and so both groups converged in employment, earnings, and consumption levels. We see little effect on mortality, fertility, or family health and education. However, grants had lasting impacts on durable asset stocks and skilled work. (JEL H53, I32, I38, O15, O22)

Women and Work: Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries

In Europe in the Early Modern period, women worked an enormous range of jobs and professions. From farmwives who helped plant and harvest crops to fishmongers who sold their wares in markets to guildswomen who engaged in skilled labor, as well as artists, scholars, midwives, doctors, prostitutes, and servants, women participated in every corner of the economy. This wide participation was evident in all of Europe, east as well as west, despite many local and regional differences in how women labored. But notwithstanding the presence of women in all sectors of the economy, women’s work was not understood or valued in the same way as men’s work. In contrast to male workers, female workers saw their ability to practice certain trades curtailed and their capabilities were often seen as inferior to those of men. Women were paid less than men and their work was often more contingent, despite that fact that many families relied on the income or work of all their members. Nonetheless, despite the patriarchal ideology that sought to limit or undervalue their working contributions, women forged ahead working in all sectors of the economy. They did so in order to not only support themselves and their families, but also as part of their self-conception as productive and contributing members of their communities. This article provides sources to support this understanding of the vast range of female economic activity in Europe in the Early Modern period. While women participated broadly in the labor market, it cannot be denied that the pay, professions, and status they enjoyed from those activities were shaped by the assumptions of patriarchy. In her 2008 work Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, Merry Wiesner notes that “the gender of the worker, not the work itself or its location, marked the difference between what were considered domestic tasks and what was considered production” (p. 104); we can add, the conditions of work and pay hinged upon gendered definitions. For example, one of the most prestigious and lucrative sectors of the economy were skilled trades, often controlled by guilds, especially in France, Germany, the Low Countries, and Italy; English guilds had little real influence by the Early Modern period, but the trades they had controlled remained high-status ones that tried to admit few women. Nonetheless, women found ways to work in skilled trades, regardless of how they were organized. Likewise, other professions marked by high levels of education, pay, and status, such as the law, medicine, academia, and the fine arts, created bars to women joining their ranks, despite the presence of a handful of path-breaking female practitioners. Globally, women were found in greater numbers in less skilled and less lucrative jobs.

The long term impacts of grants on poverty: 9-year evidence from Uganda’s Youth Opportunities Program

There is growing enthusiasm for cash grants as a tool to tackle poverty globally, but we have little sense whether the promising short-run impacts persist in the long term. In 2008, Uganda gave $400/person to thousands of young people, to help them start skilled trades. Four years on, an experimental evaluation found grants raised earnings by 38% (Blattman, Fiala, Martinez 2014). We return after 9 years to find these start-up grants raised earnings and consumption temporarily only. Grantees’ investment leveled off; controls eventually increased their incomes through business and casual labor; and so both groups converged in employment, earnings, and consumption. Grants had lasting impacts on assets, skilled work, and possibly child health, but had little effect on mortality, fertility, health or education.

Demographic differences play strong role in determining “who commits?” and also “who engages?” at work

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings In a study of workplace commitment and engagement, managers were more likely to commit than non-managers on all indicators. Individuals in occupations such as skilled trades, sales, operatives, and elementary were likely to be much less committed and engaged than managers. Meanwhile, employers in unions were less likely to commit and be engaged than nonunion members. Other important factors that influenced responses were age, gender, and longevity at work. Practical implications The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information, and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.