Women in UK Labour Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Women in UK Labour Market - Essay ExampleThis led to the composition of a cornflake packet family where the male was the breadwinner, the wife was the housewife, and the family consisted of two children - a boy and a girl. The mother had an expressive role, while the father had an instrumental role of going out to work. The inequality, and the extent to which the assorted aspects of this are interconnected, suppose that is some use the concept of patriarchy to describe this set of sociable relations. Patriarchy is a social system through which men dominate, exploit and oppress women. However, in recent decades, changes in the economy and union have altered the situation - several of these changes will be outlined below.One of the most primal areas to look at for the changes in womens lives is in terms of pay and employment relative to men. Women are little likely than men to be in paid employment, but the gap has closed steadily over recent decades. The proportion of those in employment who are women rose from 38.1% in 1971 to 49.6% in 1995. However, most of the ontogeny in womens employment has been in part time work. The proportion of women working part time has increase steadily, from 34% in 1971 to 47% in 1995.Women workers are concentrated within a very specialise range of occupational groups, although in that respect have been some significant changes in this recently. Over 40% of in full time women workers are to be found in clerical employment. In contrast, men are circulate through a much wider range of occupations. Women are confined both to lower grade jobs (vertical segregations) and to different jobs (horizontal segregation). The pattern of segregation however has changed significantly over recent years. At the top end of the power structure the number and proportion of women in the managerial and professional grades have substantially increase. However, in the most right on positions in public life, women continue to be seriously und er-represented. Discussion and AnalysisIn the contemporary society, there occurred many changes in the labour market. Businesses have moved away from mass labor towards the flexible production of small batches of specialized products. In doing so, they employ a core of highly skilled workers who are adapted of using their skills to produce a wide variety of products. Other work is carried out by part-time workers, or workers on short-term contracts, or is contracted out to other firms. These changes are reflected in the increased use of part-time female labour and the reduction in the employment of males in full-time durable jobs. But while it is clearly important to take account of changes in the labour market and the economy as a whole in order to understand the changing patterns of gender inequality, it is necessary to be cautious about basing an analysis.Rosemary observes in her book Women and Work in Modern Britain that Clearly, there has been a substantial restructuring of the gender division of labour over the last forty years. Its broad outlines may be