Nicky Le Feuvre

Paid Employment and the Changing System of Gender Relations: A Cross-National Comparison

Equality with men in the world of paid work has been a major feminist objective. Given that work in the `public sphere has historically been shaped on the assumption that the `worker will be male, then national employment systems which facilitate masculine employment patterns (i.e. full-time work and unbroken employment careers) might be expected to be more likely to generate gender equality. This paper compares womens employment in France (where `masculine careers for women are common) and Britain (where part-time work and broken employment careers are more likely) at the macro, meso (occupational), and micro (individual) levels. The two occupations studied are finance and pharmacy. The evidence presented suggests that there are considerable similarities between women in the two countries at the occupational and individual level, despite national variations. In the light of this evidence, structural and individual explanations of womens employment behaviour are examined, and the continuing significance of structural constraint on the patterning of gender relations is emphasised.

Gender, family and employment in comparative perspective: the realities and representations of equal opportunities in Britain and France

In this paper, we will explore how contrasting national discourses relating to women, and gender equality have been incorporated into and reflected in national policies. In the first section, we will outline the recent history of EU equal opportunities policy, in which positive action has been replaced by a policy of mainstreaming. Second, we will describe the evolution of policies towards women and equal opportunities in Britain and France. It will be argued that whereas some degree of positive action for women has been accepted in Britain, this policy is somewhat alien to French thinking about equality - although pro-natalist French policies have resulted in favourable conditions for employed mothers in France. In the third section, we will present some attitudinal evidence, drawn from national surveys, which would appear to reflect the national policy differences we have identified in respect of the equality agenda. In the fourth section, we will draw upon biographical interviews carried out with men and women in British and French banks in order to illustrate the impact of these cross-national differences within organizations and on individual lives. We demonstrate that positive action gender equality policies have made an important impact in British banks, while overt gender exclusionary practices still persist in the French banks studied. In the conclusion, we reflect on the European policy implications of our findings.

Exploring women's academic careers in cross‐national perspective

Purpose – In recent years, several countries and/or higher education institutions have adopted equal opportunity policies to promote womens access to the upper levels of the academic career structure. The purpose of this paper is to argue that there is no universal solution to the glass ceiling that women face within academia. Insofar as the feminisation process evolves according to a variety of models, according to national and occupational context, the solutions adopted in one context may prove to be ineffective elsewhere.Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of the different models of occupational feminisation is based on a secondary analysis of the sociological literature on the subject, combined with recent data on womens access to academic positions in France and Germany.Findings – Although there are similarities in the structure of the academic labour market across countries and in the rate of feminisation of the most prestigious academic positions, the precise mechanisms through which women gai...

Continuity and change in the gender segregation of the medical profession in Britain and France

It is a well established fact that the entry of women into higher‐level professional occupations has not resulted in their equal distribution within these occupations. Indeed, the emergence and persistence of horizontal and vertical gender segregation within the professions has been at the heart of the development of a range of alternative theoretical perspectives on both the “feminisation process” and the future of the “professions”more generally. Through an in‐depth comparative analysis of the recent changes in the organisation and administration of the medical profession in Britain and France, this paper draws upon statistical data and biographical interviews with male and female general practitioners (GPs) in both countries in order to discuss and review a variety of approaches that have been adopted to explain and analyse the “eminisation” process of higher‐level professions. Our conclusions review the theoretical debates in the light of the evidence we have presented. It is argued that, despite important elements of continuity in respect of gendered occupational structuring in both countries, national variations in both professional and domestic gendered architectures lead to different outcomes as far as the extent and patterns of internal occupational segregation are concerned. Both female and male doctors are currently seeking – with some effect – to resist thepressures of medicine on family life.

Leisure, work and gender: a sociological study of women's time in France

In this article, I address the question of the relationship between womens labour market position and their `objective and `subjective experience of leisure. With reference to a small-scale empirical study of the social time use of mothers in France, I argue that it is misleading to consider womens leisure experience as being determined by their labour market position. I attempt to show that it could prove more fruitful to examine the complex relationship between womens class and gender identities and their simultaneous experience of work, family and leisure.

Gendered variations in the experience of ageing at work in Switzerland

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the gendered processes of ageing at work in Switzerland, a country already characterised by particularly high employment rates for seniors of both sexes, and where the notion of “active ageing” has recently appeared on the policy agenda. The study illustrates the mechanisms through which men and women accumulate dis-/advantage across the life course, and the influence that critical events in different life domains have on the conditions under which they prepare the transition to retirement. Design/methodology/approach – The data used in the paper were collected with a mixed methods approach, including secondary statistical data analysis, expert interviews (with human resource and line managers), company case studies and 63-biographical interviews with male and female seniors employed in three different sectors (food distribution, health, transport) of the Swiss labour market. The interview guide covered issues relating directly to the employment histories ...

Remaking Economic Citizenship in Multicultural Europe: Women’s Movement Claims and the ‘Commodification of Elderly Care’

It is widely assumed that one of the most visible legacies of the second wave women’s movement has been a radical transformation of expectations regarding the gender division of employment and, to a lesser extent, unpaid care activities. However, some recent feminist research has stressed the unintended consequences of the claims made in the final decades of the twentieth century for women’s ‘emancipation through employment’ under what has sometimes been called the ‘paid work paradigm’ for gender equality (Meda and Perivier, 2007; Lewis 2003, 2007). In European policy terms, there are now quite clear signs of a shift from measures predicated on women’s widespread exclusion from the labour market to policies explicitly aimed at encouraging their continuous employment over the life-course (Jenson, 2008, 2009). However, this shift has been received with ambivalence in feminist circles, notably due to its potentially divisive effects on women as a social group and to its ineffectiveness in transforming the gender division of (paid and unpaid) care activities more generally. Despite the partial shift ‘from private to public reproduction’1 (Hernes, 1987), the main burden of care activities continues to fall principally on women’s shoulders (Bambra, 2007), but not necessarily equally on women of different social and racial origins, and not necessarily to the same extent in all national contexts.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Effects of Precariousness on the Gendered Career Aspirations of Postdocs in Switzerland.

The assumption that men are more likely to undertake and succeed in an academic career, because the requirements of professional success in this occupation are compatible with normative gender assumptions, particularly that of fulfilling a ‘male breadwinner’ or main household earner role, implying reduced domestic and care commitments, is discussed. It is suggested that Switzerland offers a particularly interesting case for this study, because of the combination of the specific structure of academic careers, the characteristics of the non-academic labour market and the dominant gender regime. It is shown that, in this particular context, the aspirations of postdocs to remain in academic employment or to look for non-academic jobs are directly related to their position within the domestic division of labour and to their personal and family circumstances. However, this does not necessarily lead to a clear-cut divide between work-committed men, who ‘succeed’ (and hence stay), and care-committed women who ‘fail’ to climb up the academic career ladder (and hence leave). The results suggest that the situation is more complex and requires a subtle distinction between different ideal-types of post-doctoral experiences that do not always cut neatly across gender lines.

The Gender Division of Welfare. The Impact of the British and the German Welfare States

In sum. it is both misguided and remarkably premature to announce the death of the ethos of the bureaucratic oflice. hlany of its features as they came into existence a century or so ago remain as or more essential to the provision of good government today as they did then.. . These features include the possession of enough skill. status and independence to offer frank and fearless advice about the formulation and implementation of distinctive public purposes and to try to achieve purposes impartially. responsibly and with energy if not enthusiasm. Representative democracy still needs the bureaucratic ethos. (p. 146)