Emily Thomson

Economic Recession and Recovery in the UK: What's Gender Got to Do with It?

This study argues that a feminist economics perspective is essential in order to fully understand the gender consequences of the recent recession and the ongoing economic crisis in the United Kingdom. Unemployment and redundancy rates have been used to highlight the fact that male workers suffered the greatest impact in terms of job losses in the initial phases of the recession. However, this situation appears to have reversed with an associated program of spending cuts in public sector employment and welfare that will likely be borne by women. While accurate data are crucial in the analytical process, the exclusive use of statistics relating to paid work only gives a partial analysis. A more inclusive understanding of the range of impacts on both men and women is more useful in the formulation of gender-aware, as opposed to gender-blind, policy responses to recession and recovery.

Apprenticeship Training in England: Closing the Gap?

This article is a critical comparison of the development in apprenticeship training in Britain with that in other European countries, particularly Germany. In both countries, the apprenticeship system displays high levels of gender segregation where men dominate the ‘traditional’ apprenticeships in craft, technical and engineering occupations, while women dominate the mainly service or care sector occupations. Attempts to improve and expand apprenticeships in the UK, including tackling occupational segregation, are now unfolding in a climate of severe economic recession and public finance restraint. The article explores the extent to which increased financial investment and policy developments over recent years have improved apprenticeship training in Britain, with specific reference to gender-based occupational segregation and the impact of the global economic recession.

Managing Scottish higher and further education

Abstract This article outlines the traditional gendered nature of further and higher education and how this has been challenged by long term developments. The focus on managerialism and competition provides a context for a re-invigorated ‘agentic’ (associated with masculinity) gendering. Non-executive management in further and higher education is deeply unbalanced in gender terms. Senior management in universities is male dominated but significantly more balanced in colleges. Furthermore, in universities, the career dynamic which privileges research and the gendering of this in favour of males, more than outweighs some new career spaces open to women. In colleges, the 1990s evacuation of many male managers created openings for women but in a particularly tough economic and business environment in which some have suggested that women have been used to bolster an ‘agentic’ male styled approach to management; others that a more adaptive less stereotypical approach is emerging.

How ‘modern’ is the modern apprenticeship?

Despite the fact that some sectors of industry are facing major skills shortages, the Scottish labour market continues to be characterised by occupational segregation and a large disparity between the wages of women and men. The concentration of individuals in occupations and training based on their gender effectively restricts the pool of potential recruits to industry and is unlikely to make the best use of human capital. Moreover, it obstructs the pursuit of gender equality by reinforcing the gender pay gap and restricting individual career choices. This paper reports on the governments flagship training policy, the Modern Apprenticeship programme, from a gender perspective. It concludes that, ten years on from its introduction, the scheme represents something of a ‘missed opportunity’ to tackle occupational segregation and its deleterious effects in the wider economy and in society at large. It is recommended that the government and organisations involved in the development and delivery of Modern Apprenticeships adopt a more conscious and cohesive approach to promoting non-traditional choices at the vocational level.