Feminising the Masculine?

Women in Non-traditional Employment

Margaret Whittock

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781138701182
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351790468
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This title was first published in 2000: This work aims to provide a comparative and temporal assessment of the position of women in non-traditional employment in Europe, Britain and Northern Ireland. Its second aim is to provide a new perspective on the division of labour in modern Western societies and to critically examine the issues, debates and perspectives which have traditionally dominated portrayals of women and paid employment. The book assesses the potential which women themselves have for transforming existing gender relations, particularly within the structural constraints of the education, training and employment systems. In so doing, it is intended to highlight flaws inherent in much contemporary feminist theorizing, and aims to provide a more satisfactory theoretical framework within which to elaborate and develop its arguments. While related texts have tended to concentrate on stereotypical notions of women and paid employment, this book aims to fill a gap in the literature by scrutinizing the lived experiences of women in non-traditional manual occupations, and relating these to a possible transformation of the existing gender order in Western societies

1
Introduction to the Issues

The gaps and limitations characterising the study of work, particularly women and work, suggest the need for studies of new populations of women workers and of more diverse jobs (Walshok, 1987, p.274).

What Do We Mean By Non-Traditional Employment?

The gendered division of labour in the family, and in society more generally, is now a recognised and well-documented phenomenon. A wide sociological literature has sought to demonstrate and explain how gender roles are learned primarily in the family, then reinforced by the education and training systems, the media, religion, peer group pressure, and so on (see for example: Chodorow, 1978; Deem, 1978; Spender, 1982; Stanworth, 1983). But of course, that is not the end of the story. The cultivation of gendered roles during childhood and adolescence culminates in a gendered division of labour within the workforce, with women clustered in a narrow range of ‘female’ occupations. Consequently, fewer women than men will be classified as ‘manual’ workers, and within the manual category of employment, men are much more likely to be categorised as skilled (craft and similar) workers (Abbott and Wallace, 1991, p. 13 3).

Back in the 1960s, Blauner (1964) commented that successful work was not part of the traditional female role. Time has moved on of course, and as Chapter Five demonstrates, large numbers of women, both single and married, are now engaged in paid employment outside the home. However, as a consequence of such thinking a number of commentators (Brewer, 1991; Game and Pringle, 1984; Walshok, 1987) have noted how, in the past, there has been a tendency for sociologists to overlook women in the study of work. Moreover, where women have been studied, the focus has unsurprisingly been on what have come to be regarded as stereotypical ‘female’ areas of employment such as teaching, nursing and clerical work. Nevertheless, despite a consistent failure to recognise their existence there have always been women who have ‘stepped outside the stereotype’. Indeed, in an effort to recover what Connell (1993, p. 188) refers to as ‘a marginalised form of femininity’, the reader will be introduced to such women throughout the following pages. In the main, however, apart from the two World Wars, when there was a general, if often grudging recognition of women’s participation in non-traditional forms of work, we find that such activity, in Sheila Rowbotham’s words (1974), has often been ‘hidden from history’.

Two areas of employment where women have ‘stepped outside the stereotype’ can be identified at this point: male-dominated professions, and, to a lesser extent, male-dominated blue-collar or manual employment. In compensation for the earlier dearth of literature on the subject, a considerable corpus of work has been developed in recent years which examines the position of women in male-dominated professions (for example, Agnew et al., 1987; Brewer, 1991; Greed, 1990, 1994; Spencer and Podmore, 1987). This will be referred to at intervals throughout the book, and more particularly in Chapter Six. Conversely, as Walshok points out (1987, p.xvi), ‘most studies of blue-collar workers have emphasised the concerns and attitudes of males’. While there have been a number of researchers and writers who have examined women’s involvement in blue-collar non-traditional employment, the majority of such studies appear to have been undertaken in the United States (for example, Lunneborg, 1990; Padavic and Reskin, 1990; Reskin and Padavic, 1988; Schroedel, 1985; Walshok, 1987).¹

The term ‘non-traditional employment’ has now been mentioned several times. But, what is meant by this? For the purposes of this book, non-traditional employment can be taken to denote any occupation of a manual nature, which is, or has been, traditionally undertaken by a man. While areas such as transport, construction, and other trade jobs are of particular interest, a plethora of occupations remain which are still considered to be non-traditional for women. Research for this book uncovered the fact that women are working not only in those male-dominated areas already mentioned, but in occupations as diverse as road gang foreperson, landscape gardener, coastguard, motor cycle courier, saddler, stone carver, and stained-glass window installer. In Northern Ireland,² where research for this book was undertaken, such women are invariably the sole representatives of their kind. A few professional occupations, such as outdoor pursuits instructor and acoustic engineer, have also been included. These occupations were deemed sufficiently ‘physical’ or ‘manual’ in nature to satisfy the criteria of the research, and, again, such occupations are normally associated with males. Of course, the terms ‘non-traditional’ and ‘traditional’, with regard to women’s paid employment, remain culturally specific. It is still relatively unusual to find women engaged in the occupations outlined previously, both here in the United Kingdom, and in Europe generally. However, this may not be so in other areas of the world, particularly in developing countries where both social and cultural conditions affect women’s economic activity.

In many developing countries it is common to find women employed in unskilled, heavy manual work, such as labouring on construction sites, and road building. Similarly, women are responsible for much of the manual work in the agricultural sector, although generally, such employment goes unpaid. Mukhopadhyay notes of Indian women (1985, p.49):

Women who work as farm labourers … put in an average of fourteen hours of work per day. This includes, besides the hard manual labour necessary in agricultural operations, arduous tasks like collecting firewood (and) fetching water.

Such cultural differences in the allocation of work are proof of the fact that work roles are not necessarily assigned on the basis of biological or physical attributes, a point which will be taken up again in a later chapter.

It has already been noted how the empirical research for this book was conducted in Northern Ireland. It can be argued that one reason for the lack of empirical work on the variety of roles adopted by women in this country reflects and reinforces what Montgomery (1993, p.17) has referred to as the ‘traditionalism’ thesis. As she explains, numerous accounts of the position of women in Northern Ireland are permeated by the assumption that it is a highly traditional society in which women’s role as homemaker and mother is seen as the primary one. This, at least in part, can be attributed to Northern Ireland’s history of sectarian aggression which has helped perpetuate ‘patriarchal ideologies’ (Roulston, 1998). However, as the Equal Opportunities Commission for Northern Ireland (EOCNI) notes (1997):

Over the past twenty years one of the most fundamental transformations in Northern Ireland has been the change in the level and pattern of women’s participation in the labour market.

While Northern Irish women are no longer restricted to the domestic sphere, and, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, have been entering paid employment and training schemes in ever-increasing numbers, nonetheless their participation in key areas remains low. In Northern Ireland, few women are found at the partnership or executive level in the public or private sectors, and most key positions of power continue to be held by men. Moreover, Montgomery believes that traditionalist attitudes have tended to inhibit research of the type carried out elsewhere.³ Hopefully this book will go some way to rectifying this omission.

The Components to be Examined

Non-Traditional Employment, Training and Education: The Production of Empirical Evidence

This book has four principal aims: first, by the adoption of a multimethodological approach, it attempts to discover the degree to which women are involved in non-traditional employment, particularly in Northern Ireland, but also further afield, examining the experiences of the women who are working there. While the paucity of such research has been noted previously, we can point to individual attempts to examine women’s employment, both paid and unpaid, in Northern Ireland (for example, Davies and McLaughlin, 1991; McLaughlin and Ingram, 1991⁴). Moreover, the EOCNI has commissioned a number of reports which deal with both education and training provision for girls and women (Agnew et al., 1989; Montgomery and Davies, 1990; Mulhem et al, 1996), and with various aspects of women’s employment (see particularly Women’s Working Lives, 1993; The Working Lives of Women and Men, 1997). However, non-traditionally employed women are conspicuous by their absence from such texts, unless it is to mention how little change there has been in this area. Indeed, there is an implicit suggestion that such women do not exist. In demonstrating that they do exist, both as employers and employees, this book examines their lived experiences, both negative and positive, and explores those factors which have been persuasive or dissuasive in their pursuit of non-traditional employment. As Walshok notes (1987, p. xvii):

It is important to understand what sort of needs, perceptions, and opportunities enable women to seek out non-traditional roles, particularly those in male-dominated work spheres which are often perceived as ‘dangerous’, ‘dirty1, ‘physically taxing’, and ‘mundane’.

A series of in-depth interviews, conducted with thirty-five non-traditionally employed Northern Irish women produced the necessary data (see Appendix A). Mostly collected ‘on-site’, these data are presented across a number of chapters, but primarily in Chapter Six. Here, the women’s experiences are mainly relayed to the reader via quotes from interviews. Thus, in keeping with much current feminist methodological thinking (for example, Fonow and Cook, 1991, Opie, 1992, Rheinharz, 1992, Roberts, 1981), the women involved have themselves been ‘given a voice’.

Of course, the provision of a holistic account of non-traditional employment for women requires us to look beyond the employment system. This is necessary, first, in order to understand the reasons why so few girls and women continue to select non-traditional careers, and second, to uncover the factors which persuaded those who are involved to select a career of this nature. Thus, the following chapters also contain an exploration of both the education and training systems, and the way in which gender affects subject and career choices. As various reports have indicated,⁵ girls and boys in Northern Ireland, as elsewhere, continue to leave school with skills and qualifications in different subjects, with different expectations of adult life, and with different training and employment prospects. For example, in the summer of 1998, at GCSE level (mode 1 Syllabuses), almost three thousand male students (N=2822) were examined in the subject, Craft Design and Realisation. This was in comparison to two hundred and sixty four females. At the same level, just over two thousand, seven hundred girls (N=2,755) took Home Economics as a subject in comparison to four hundred and sixty males. This may be a stark indicator of future developments in the labour market.

Thus, the book examines change, or lack of it, in the education and training systems. According to an EOCNI commissioned report by Agnew et al, 1989, many teachers see themselves working against a prior handicap when dealing with gender stereotypes and occupational choice. Pupils are realistic, according to these teachers, in their perceptions of the attitudes of future employers towards gender stereotypical divisions of labour. That is, many employers are still unwilling to accept that women are capable of undertaking non-traditional work, or, despite evidence to the contrary, use this as an excuse not to hire them. It is therefore unsurprising that until relatively recently, craft subjects were never presented as an option to schoolgirls, nor were non-traditional careers considered to be a viable option. If we are to accept what we read and see in the media, we might be led to believe that ‘this has all changed now1. The introduction of sex equality legislation, a succession of education reports, and the introduction of the new curriculum have supposedly opened new doors in the education and training systems for girls and boys alike. However, statistical evidence from these systems, information from students themselves, and data from interviews conducted for this book, tell a somewhat different (or depressingly familiar) story. This observation is given substance by the Women’s Working Lives survey, wherein Curry unearthed little evidence to suggest that current educational and training experiences had done anything to break down traditional sex roles or the gendered division of labour in Northern Ireland. This is indicative of the general scene in the United Kingdom. As The Independent reports (7th November, 1998, p.8), a study from the English Equal Opportunities Commission indicates that the subject choices made by teenage girls continue to bar them for ever from technical and scientific professions. Similarly, boys’ choices lead to their inevitable exclusion from white-collar service and caring work.

The author explored the Northern Irish education system by means of a large-scale survey, administered to one thousand fifth form schoolgirls, proportionately selected from secondary grammar and secondary intermediate schools, and from Colleges of Further Education in Northern Ireland. This was supplemented by in-depth interviews with the young women concerned, and with other relevant individuals. Central questions became: How many young women are interested in non-traditional careers, and where there is an interest, is this being fostered or discouraged, and by whom? How many girls are studying non-traditional subjects, such as technology, woodwork, and electronics? What type of girl makes such a choice: what other subjects is she studying; what is her family background? Are young women discouraged by the attitudes of others to their participation in this area, and what is the general attitude of schoolgirls to non-traditional employment and to other women who are employed there? The answers to these questions, which are both interesting and thought-provoking, are presented and discussed at length in the third chapter.

Investigation of the training system was conducted via in-depth interviews with women who had ‘been through’ the system, and with other key individuals, such as trainers, and Training and Employment Agency (T&EA) officials. Relevant secondary sources, including those of a statistical nature, were also utilised in both instances. And, in order to examine the attitude of older women to the training system, particularly women returners, an ethnographic study of a Basic Skills in Construction Course was conducted. This fascinating course, delivered under the auspices of Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education (BIFHE), ran from autumn, 1992, until summer, 1993, and consisted of basic instruction in bricklaying, plumbing, bench carpentry, and car maintenance.

While monitoring and observing the course, its participants and instructors, the author participated fully in the activities on offer, interviewing all involved on completion of the course. Adopting the role of participant-as-observer (see Babbie, 1989, pp.264–269) in this way presented the author with an opportunity to assess developments from a woman’s point of view, both with respect to instructors and fellow students, and to the physical demands of the work itself. Observations, both in relation to school leavers and women returners, are presented in Chapter Four. Chapter Five goes on to examine the ways in which the factors outlined and described in Chapters Three and Four feed into the gendered division of paid labour, restricting women to a limited number of occupational areas, stereotypically ‘female’ in nature.

Interwoven into a number of the chapters discussed up to this point will be information about the Women Into Trades and Non-Traditional Occupations Project (WITANTO). This innovative scheme, organised under the umbrella of Moylinn House Community Development Support Services Agency (CDSSA), is funded by Northern Ireland’s Training and Employment Agency (T&EA), and the European Social Fund (ESF). The project, the first of its kind to be developed in Northern Ireland, has a number of aims. These include promoting the uptake of non-traditional training and employment by girls, through contact with educationalists, trainers and employers, and attempting to remove barriers which deter young women from participating in non-traditional areas. The project also aims to support young women involved in non-traditional training and employment, and to promote positive images of women working in these areas.

The author carried out observations and interviews while participating on WITANTO’s steering group. This continued over a period of three years, during which time she took part in and ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction to the Issues
• 2 Developing Feminist Theory
• 3 The Education System: Girls’ Subject and Career Choices
• 4 Non-Traditional Training for Women
• 5 A Review of Women’s Paid Employment in Europe, Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• 6 Breaking Routines: The Lived Experience of Women in Non-Traditional Employment
• 7 Backwards into the Future?
• Appendix A
• Bibliography