ESRC Gender Equality Network

1
ESRC Gender Equality Network

• Research Priority Network on Gender Inequalities
  in Production Reproduction
• www.genet.ac.uk

2
Background

• Demise of male breadwinner family - labour market
  changes/changes in parenting partnership
• Paradigm shift in gender relations
• Greater policy recognition of equality although
  policies ambiguous
• Some human capital convergence but inequalities
  persistent

3
GeNet Aims

• Produce theoretically informed high quality
  empirical research that illuminates three
  inter-related aspects of gender inequalities
  (life course pathways, resource contexts policy
  response)
• Contribute to theoretical debates e.g. space-time
  dimensions of life course theory contextualised
  capabilities gender inequalities
• Contribute to evidence of how lives/structures
  are changing how policy can intervene to
  effectively to promote greater equality

4
9 Linked Projects3 Inter-related themes

• Pathways to Adult Attainment Life Course
  Processes
• Changing occupations and careers of women and men
• Biographical agency and developmental outcomes
• Gendered pathways to adulthood
• Resources, Gender, Ethnic Class Inequalities
• Gender, time allocation the wage gap
• Within-household inequalities in income and power
• Gender, ethnicity, migration and service
  employment
• Class gender, employment and family
• Policy Responses to Gender Inequalities
• Addressing gender inequality through corporate
  governance
• Policy initiatives tackling inequalities in work
  and care in UK EU

5
Addressing Gender Equality through Responsible
Corporate Governance (Simon Deakin)
Kingsmill review responsible corporate
governance share holder activism substitute
for hard law in achieving pay equality

Optimism
Pragmatism
Discrimination Law Review reflexive
approaches to regulation of equal pay alternative
to hard law

Absence of collective bargaining absence of
mandatory pay audits absence of shareholder
activism
Scepticism
6
UK and EU Initiatives on work and care
Jane Lewis

• Male Breadwinner Model (MBM) womens economic
  dependence on men provision for care didnt
  fit with reality.
• Citizen Worker Model (CWM) problematic. No
  better reality fit than MBM obligation to care
  problematic.
• Hard and soft policy logics differ e.g. US
  anti-discrimination laws (Hard) UK social
  policy approach (soft)
• Since 1997 UK has embraced policy goal shift in
  favour of better work/family balance, but
  instruments of policy implementation less bold
• (e.g. no shift on 48 hr working week, maternity
  leave lengthened not parental leave)
• Policy fudges around gender equality aiming at
  gender neutral solutions to work-life balance
  but unrealistic when family care remains so
  highly gendered

7
Careers Project(Shirley Dex, Heather Joshi et
al)

• How far is production and reproduction
  incompatible or in tension, particularly for
  women?
• How do associated processes differ for men, women
  and childrens lives across generations?
• Data British Cohort Studies 1946, 1958, 1970
  and New Millennium

8
Careers Project

• How do policy initiatives and employer practices
  affect careers of men and women and mothers and
  fathers?
• Is part-time work directive reducing part-time
  pay penalty?
• Are penalties for career gaps narrowing across
  generations?

9
UK Cohort differences in family and education
women now aged 35-85
10
Masculinization of Female Life Course (UK Cohort
effects Participation- Joshi et al 2005)
11
Time out-of-work penalty increasedpredicted
probabilities of occupational downward
mobility(WES 1922-53 NCDS 1958)
12
Part-time work penalty increasedpredicted
probabilities of occupational downward
mobility(WES 1922-53 NCDS 1958)but will p-t
work directive be effective?
13
Paid and Unpaid Work intrinsically linked

• If women want to get to top in business or
  professional world then recommendations from
  research clear
• Do not have children or at least dont expect
  to spend much time with them
• Do not take time out of employment career to care
  for others
• Do not put others needs above own, if interested
  in maximising pay promotion opportunities

14
Gender inequalities in production reproduction
the implications

• GeNet events archive on www.genet.ac
• Shows materials of conferences/workshops/seminars
  including
• Gender and valuing of care
• Gender inequalities in ageing societies
• Women Employment Survey 25th anniversary
• Gender, class, employment and family

15
Challenges facing GeNet EHRC

• How to best
• avoid gender being interpreted as women
• balance the attention given to inequalities in
  paid and unpaid work
• ensure that focus on diversity doesnt imply
  disproportionate attention given to minorities
• enable research primarily concerned with UK to
  engage with international agendas