Account for the continued existence of gender inequalities at work

Despite the laws and move handsts, women quench do not enjoy have-to doe withity in the workplaceplace, in position or salary. In this essay I will discuss the origins of gender difference in an effort to identify out where this was maiden instigated. Initially I will talk about the diachronic motives of gender inequality and the work of the earlier womens movements and campaigns for equal rights in the early 1900s. I will because discuss various womens rightist theories of gender inequality, including recent government statistics.Finally I will in nameit with my confess viewpoints on gender inequality in the workplace in an attempt to discover why it slip bys to exist today. Ann Oakley 1981(cited in Haralambos and Holborn) gave a historical analysis of the changing role in society for women from before the industrial revolution in the 19th century to the 1970s housewife. Oakley says that men and women and also the children of the work class were employed in the f enc ounterories. 1819 saw the beginning of the factory act that gradually restricted child effort.From 1841 to 1914 (the beginning of World War 1) women were seen as a threat to men and their study. In 1852 womens employment was greatly decrease by The Mines Act which banned women from working in the mines, tradition give tongue to women should be in the home as a housewife and mformer(a). In 1851 merely 1 in 4 women were in paid employment by 1911 it was 1in 10. With the combination of these various acts passed and the growing restrictions on womens employment, much and more women began to stay at home but not by their profess choice.Harolambos and Holborn 2000 p. 144) World War I saw galore(postnominal) women return to the custody while men were apart fighting in the war the saving needed women in the work fight even though they were paid slight than they were worth. In February of 1918 the representation of peoples act gave 2 Women the right to vote for the first time. U nder this act only women over 30 were allowed to vote if they were householders, wives of householders, give annual rent over i5, or graduates of British universities or women who were certifi open although not graduates.About eight and a half million women were able to vote in the 1918 election. Women also became eligible to stand as MPs. several(prenominal) suffragette campaigners stood for Parliament in the 1918 election. None were successful. Between 1914 and 1950 m either women returned to work, but their simple role was still seen as that of the housewife/ mother, the industrial revolution had initiated many significant changes for women. Men were not happy about this as seen in the speech of Jack Tanner We, as an organisation argon contrasted to the introduction of women as a general principal. (Cited in Walby 1987).Braverman (1974) disagreed with Tanner verbal expression in that respect was a strong case for women being encouraged into the bear on force, and that nec essity for cheap unskilled get was a subscribement created by employers. Jack Tanner (at the time the leader of the Amalgamated Engineering sum of money in 1940) was doing his utmost to prevent women entering the male dominated workplace. The modestness why men wish well Tanner should be so conflicting to women to work in his male dominated union was not obedient because of their fear that women would work for fewer wages than men it was more a system of patriarchal objections which womens employment threatened to disrupt. Walby 1987 p2-3) 1970 saw the Equal fix Act, which meant that women were to receive equal pay to men if they were employed to do confusable work of the same value.In 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act was brought in to stop discrimination on the grounds of sex in employment, reading and equal chances of promotion. Women in work i. e. paid employment bring on deep increased, between 1971 and 1997 (E. O. C. briefings, Work and P arnting) the parcel of wome n in work has increased so that women set out now caught up with men in the labour grocery.The chief(prenominal)(prenominal) reason for this is that more and more married women are going orthogonal the home to work, although unaccompanied mothers statistics have dropped. (Harolambos and Holborn) 3 Sylvia Walby in Gender Transformations (1997) agrees with these findings, verbalism that since the 1980s integration of women in the male dominated workplace has increased dramatically, the occur of women occupying higher ranking positions mainly in the professional and managerial careers has go by 155% as opposed to a 33% cosmetic surgery by men.An increase in womens educational qualifications is seen as one of the main reasons for this remarkable boost to womens participation in higher ranking bloods. (Cited in Robinson and Richardson 1997) Norris (1987) says unquestionably women have always worked, but it is in caring for children and the remote and the preparation and servi ng of food and looking after a household, know as unpaid labour, this has constantly been invisible in official statistics. integrity of the most significant changes for women in the labour force since the 1960s has been the percentage of women reversive to the workforce and the decline of mens employment. Recently for e genuinely 6 men in paid employment there were 4 women, it has been predicted that these trends will continue to increase. However there are visible differences between round countries, in Scandinavia and North America, for example, women make up half the official labour force compared with less than a third in Spain, Ireland and America.In countries such as Canada Portugal and Norway the number of women in paid employment doubled. However in countries such as France, Britain and Germany, Women have been known to leave the workforce to start a family only to return in later years, this is known as the M curve. (Politics & familiar Equality1987) Women in work i. e . paid employment has belatedly increased, between 1971 and 1997 the percentage of women in work has increased so that women have now caught up with men in the labour market.EOC briefings, work and parenting1997) The main reason for this is that more and more married women are going outside the home to work, although lone mothers statistics have dropped (Hood 1997) 4. Barron and Norris (Haralambos and Holborn2000) argued that there are 2 not 1 labour market as outlined below Primary labour market is made up from good salaries, ponder security, good working conditions and good promotion prospects substitute winding labour market is made up from frown paid jobs, less job security, lower working conditions and less opportunities of job promotion.These work side by side but it is near impractical for someone from the secondary labour market to be promoted to the primary labour market. Primary sector workers include professionals and managerial, highly skilled manual workers, second ary include unskilled and semi skilled workers manual and non manual workers. multiple labour market results from employers using these methods to keep the type of labour they require so incentives are offered to keep highly skilled in the workplace, secondary sector are seen as dispensable, tardily interchanged, no incentives for high wages, job security, or promotions is offered to them.The dual labour market can apply to both men and women but mainly women, who are seen as easy to replace and having no interest in learning new skills and less interested with high wages. Men are still seen as the major kale winner and womens seen as having low status in society and not normally be tenaciousing to unions is one of the reasons why they are not as managely to aim for primary sector employment. Normally once a woman begins secondary employment there is itty-bitty chance she will progress to the primary sector (Haralambos and Holborn 2000)Gender divisions and inequality has been linked to libber campaigners who have tried to put an end to sexual discrimination and inequality in the workplace. The dominance of males doneout society is known as patriarchy. Patriarchy explains gender and radical feminist explain male power. Radical feminists like Susan Walby in 1997 explains that Patriarchy is seen as the primary form of social inequality the domestic help area is not the only one that women participate in. She shows how the idea of patriarchy is useful in explaining the relationship between womens restrictions in 5 he private and public area by showing that they work evenly to achieve this dependence as well as maintaining patriarchy. Walby explains that it is men who are to blame for womens oppression women are treated unequal because of their unwaged position in society and also because of household commitments. (Robinson and Richardson 1997)Recently in America there have been various discussions about the Glass Ceiling Syndrome and that there is a ce rtain plateau that women can progress to in the workplace, then communicate no further. Below are the three methods by which these are enforced . Networking by word of mouth most heavy(a) companies fill vacancies through word of mouth connections, employees are sometimes identified and interviewed (at lunches, dinners or clubs) and then made an offer of employment outside normal working hours 2. Networking by Employee Referrals an employee refers another employee from a group of (mostly) men mainly from within their own social group this again does little for the promotional prospects of women. 3. Executive attend Firms some companies use executive search firms to fill a large number of highs ranking jobs.Some companies have not made some of these firms aware of the equal opportunity obligations under the law. (www. theglassceiling. ) One of the projects that the government has recently introduced is the Work track Programme this was said to expediency long term unemployed a nd to help them gain new skills and also to help them patronise into the workforce. It was said to be particularly beneficial to single parents (mainly women) with children as the family reference work top up could be claimed. The downside of this was that it only lasted for 6 months. It created a ill-considered feeling of wealth and it was short term, the after effects are extended lasting.Personally I participated in this programme and although I thoroughly enjoyed my work experience it was very difficult to go corroborate to income support. Many other non Work track jobs I applied for were not as flexible, wages were a lot lower and childcare was not as easily accessible, and there was also no follow on programme 7 either which would have been very helpful. On completing this Programme participants are informed that they will be ineligible to partake in any other Worktrack courses for the next three years.Personally I weigh this is very unfair, on one hand he government is giving long term unemployed the opportunity to get a taste of what it is like to get back into the labour market, many of the women in this project had not worked for a long time either because they had stayed at home to stand up a family or because of lack of skills or educational qualifications and just when they believe they are getting out of the poverty trap the government takes it away from them. Basically it looks to me like another way for the government rigging the unemployment benefit statistics to look as though there are more women in employment than there actually is.Unfortunately I can only account here for some of the reasons I believe exist for the go along gender inequality in the workplace today, in my remit of 2000 words it would be impossible to cover everything. It is, I feel significant and teetotal that it had to be a woman, Ann Oakley, who undertook the first ever study on women and housework, she was accidentally told by her boss (probably a man) to go a way and come back with a proper topic. (Harolambos and Holborn 2000))In my research for this assignment I have to confess to feeling at times more than a little angry at the blatant and visible discrimination of women in the workplace down through the years. Gender equality in the workplace is still a myth that I personally believe will not be solved in the immediate future, although it has certainly improved in past few decades. I acknowledge that men have been about discriminated against also but nowhere near the same level that women have been and not for such a long period of time. In an prototype world men and women would share equal rights, equal pay and equal status in all societies.