Post-Fordism, Gender and Work by Andrea Wigfield

Author:Andrea Wigfield [Wigfield, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9780754610878
Google: Lx8uDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 106021
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2001-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Implications for Gender Relations

This section explores the way in which the withdrawal of part-time work in team working companies affects the predominantly female workforce. Feminist literature explores the implications of part-time work for women, examining both its potential values and drawbacks (Beechey and Perkins, 1987; Dex, 1987, 1999; Robinson, 1988; Rubery et al., 1994; Walby, 1997). This literature suggests that although women often require part-time work due to caring responsibilities, particularly in Britain where childcare facilities have traditionally been minimal, part-time workers are exploited. They have lower pay, less chances of both training and promotion, and until recently fewer employment rights. It is therefore argued that, as the majority of part-timers are female, the provision of part-time work in Britain has facilitated gender segregation in the labour market.

From this it could be inferred that women who are forced to work full-time rather than part-time, following the introduction of team working, will benefit from higher pay, job security, more training and improved chances of promotion. However, once again these feminist concepts cannot be directly transferred to the clothing industry. It has already been pointed out that part-time work in the sector is not numerically flexible and that part-time workers have traditionally had the same employment rights as full-timers. Moreover, there was no evidence from the interviews with either management or machinists that part-time workers receive lower wages than their full-time counterparts.

Nevertheless, employers may still view part-timers as marginal workers who are the first to be chosen for redundancy and the last to receive training or promotion. There were hints of this from the interviews with managers, who agreed that part-time workers could be the first to be made redundant. Furthermore, the amount of training and promotion opportunities available in the industry is limited, not only amongst part-time workers but amongst full-timers too, as chapter six reveals.

The feminist writers mentioned above rightly point out that part-time work can lead to greater gender segregation in the labour market, but the extent to which this is accurate in the clothing industry is debatable and is, in any case, beyond the scope of this book. Machinists who worked part-time on the production line and are expected to work full-time in teams, may therefore gain very little and, indeed, none of those interviewed agreed that there were benefits. On the contrary, they experience immense difficulties.

Chapter three discussed the way in which the role of caring has been constructed in our society as a feminine activity (Beechey, 1987; Dex, 1999; Pollert, 1981; Walby, 1986; Westwood, 1984; Williams, 1997). Women face pressure to conform to this stereotypical gender role. Thus, as long as the task of caring remains the responsibility of the female, and until childcare provision in Britain adequately meets demand, women who previously worked part-time on the production line but are now forced to work full-time in teams, are being made to work much harder. Effectively, they have two full-time jobs: one at home, and one at work.

This process is reaffirmed by the interviews with machinists working both on the production line and in teams.

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