Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Gender or Skill? The Continuation of Segregated Work

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Gender, Class and Power

  • 2623 Accesses

Abstract

Research with union officials, employers and union members, male and female, informs this chapter. The changing labour process is analysed. Evidence for a shift away from traditional print employment to what has become more of a communications sector is provided, along with survey evidence of the extreme gendered occupational segregation in the industry. The nature of flexibility is examined, demonstrating that, although it increased, it has not breached the gender divide. Instead, employers have segmented men’s jobs, reducing the numbers claiming the highest pay and misdirecting male trade unionists’ attention towards gendered protectionism at the expense of cross-gender solidarity. Consequently, employers have gained greater control of the labour process to the detriment of all workers in the industry and reinforcing women’s low pay.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    This figure was established using the GPMU membership data, BPIF data and official statistics.

  2. 2.

    This was especially true for the significant number of men who were apprenticeship-trained. However, the later research seemed to support the move from industry-specific to firm-specific skills today.

  3. 3.

    Double keystroking referred to the process whereby customers produced material on disk and typesetters re-typed it rather than just formatting it as a way of preserving jobs.

  4. 4.

    See Glossary.

  5. 5.

    This was one of the machines that was used in offices and which skilled printers failed to hold on to, although they belatedly tried to get them categorised as printers work by the TUC and failed.

References

  • Acker, J., & Van Houten, D. R. (1992). Differential Recruitment and Control: The Sex Structuring of Organizations. In A. J. Mills & P. Tancred (Eds.), Gendering Organizational Analysis. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, M. (1980). Women’s Oppression Today. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beechey, V. (1986). Women and Employment in Contemporary Britain. In Women in Britain Today. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beechey, V., & Perkins, T. (1987). A Matter of Hours: Women, Part-Time Work and the Labour Market. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, H. (1986). Technological Change, Management Strategies, and the Development of Gender-Based Job Segregation in the Labour Process. In D. Knights & H. Willmott (Eds.), Gender and the Labour Process. Aldershot: Gower.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, H. (1999). Gender and Power in the Workplace. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Braverman, H. (1974). Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burchell, B., & Rubery, J. (1994). Divided Women: Labour Market Segmentation and Gender Segregation. In M. E. Scott (Ed.), Gender Segregation and Social Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burchell, B., Elliott, J., Rubery, J., & Wilkinson, F. (1994). Management and Employee Perceptions of Skill. In R. Penn, M. Rose, & J. Rubery (Eds.), Skill and Occupational Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cockburn, C. (1983). Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cockburn, C. (1988). The Gendering of Jobs: Workplace Relations and the Reproduction of Sex Segregation. In S. Walby (Ed.), Gender Segregation at Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cockburn, C. (1991). In the Way of Women. Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, G. (1939). British Trade Unions Today. London: Gollancz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W. (1983). Which Way Is Up? London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Craig, C., Garnsey, E., & Rubery, J. (1984). Payment Structures and Smaller Firms: Women’s Employment in Segmented Labour Markets. Research Paper No. 48. London: Department of Employment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunnison, S., & Stageman, J. (1995). Feminizing the Unions. Aldershot: Avebury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, H., Joshi, H., Rake, K., & Alami, R. (2000). In K. Rake (Ed.), Women’s Incomes Over the Lifetime. London: The Stationery Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delphy, C., & Leonard, D. (1994). Class Analysis, Gender Analysis and the Family. In R. Crompton & M. Mann (Eds.), Gender and Stratification. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickens, L. (1997). Gender, Race and Employment Equality in Britain: Inadequate Strategies and the Role of Industrial Relations Actors. Industrial Relations Journal, 28(4), 282–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doeringer, P., & Piore, M. (1985). Internal Labor Markets and Manpower Analysis (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: D.C. Heath & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duffy, P. (2000). The Skilled Compositor, 1850–1914: An Aristocrat Among Working Men. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, A. (1974). Beyond Contract: Power, Work and Trust Relations. London: Faber & Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (2008). From Redistribution to Recognition: Dilemmas of Justice in a “Postsocialist” Age. In K. Olson (Ed.), Adding Insult to Injury: Nancy Fraser Debates Her Critics. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallie, D. (1991). Patterns of Skill Change: Upskilling, Deskilling or the Polarization of Skills? Work, Employment and Society, 5(3), 319–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Game, A., & Pringle, R. (1983). Gender at Work. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, D. (1972). Theories of Poverty and Underemployment. Cambridge, MA: D.C. Heath.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graphical, Paper and Media Union. (2002). GPMU Women’s Committee Report to the GPMU Women’s Conference.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, A., Ackers, P., & Black, J. (2002). Going Against the Grain: Perspectives on Gendered Occupational Identity and Resistance to the Breakdown of Occupational Segregation in Two Manufacturing Firms. Gender, Work and Organisation, 9(3), 266–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grimshaw, D., Ward, K. G., Rubery, J., & Beynon, H. (2001). Organisations and the Transformation of the Internal Labour Market. Work, Employment and Society, 15(1), 25–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hacker, S. L. (1990). Doing It the Hard Way. London: Unwin Hyman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hakim, C. (1979). Occupational Segregation: A Comparative Study of the Degree and Pattern of the Differentiation Between Men and Women’s Work in Britain, the United State and Other Countries. Research Paper No. 9. London: Department of Employment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, H. (1981). The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union. In L. Sargent (Ed.), Women and Revolution: A Discussion of the Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism. Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holgate, J., Hebson, G., & McBride, A. (2006). Why Gender and ‘Difference’ Matters: A Critical Appraisal of Industrial Relations Research. Industrial Relations Journal, 37(4), 310–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, R. (1994). Changing Trade Union Identities and Strategies. In R. Hyman & A. Ferner (Eds.), New Frontiers in European Industrial Relations. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Labour Market Trends. (2003). Vol. III, No. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liff, S. (1986). Technical Change and Occupational Sex-Typing. In D. Knights & H. Willmott (Eds.), Gender and the Labour Process. Aldershot: Gower.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loveridge, R., & Mok, A. L. (1979). Theories of Labour Market Segmentation. London: Kluwer Academic.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lown, J. (1983). Not So Much a Factory, More a Form of Patriarchy: Gender and Class During Industrialisation. In E. Gamarnikow et al. (Eds.), Gender, Class and Work. London: Heinemann Educational Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lukes, S. (2005). Power: A Radical View. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McEwen Scott, A. (1994). Industrialization, Gender Segregation and Stratification Theory. In R. Crompton & M. Mann (Eds.), Gender and Stratification. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munro, A. (1999). Women, Work & Trade Unions. London: Mansell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Office for National Statistics (ONS). (2017). Table 13 Employment by Industry.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, A., & Taylor, B. (1980). Sex and Skill: Notes Towards a Feminist Economics. Feminist Review, 6, 79–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pollert, A. (1983). Women, Gender Relations and Wage Labour. In E. Gamarnikow et al. (Eds.), Gender, Class and Work. London: Heinemann Education Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Printing and Publishing Industry Training Board (PPITB). (1982). Equalising Job Opportunities for Women in Printing and Publishing: An Attitude Survey Report. London: Printing and Publishing Industry Training Board.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubery, J. (1994). Internal and External Labour Markets: Towards an Integrated Analysis. In J. Rubery & F. Wilkinson (Eds.), Employer Strategy and the Labour Market. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubery, J. (1997). Wages and the Labour Market. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 35(3), 337–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rubery, J., & Fagan, C. (1995). Gender Segregation in Societal Context. Work, Employment and Society, 9(2), 213–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT). (1976). Biennial Delegate Council Report, p. 398.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trades Union Congress (TUC). (1973). Report of a Conference of Affiliated Unions to Discuss the Implementation of Equal Pay. London: Trades Union Congress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogler, C. (1994). Segregation, Sexism and Labour Supply. In A. MacEwen Scott (Ed.), Gender Segregation and Social Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walby, S. (1986). Patriarchy at Work. London: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walby, S. (1990). Theorizing Patriarchy. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, J. (1982). Work, Women and the Labour Market. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, I. (1981). Beyond the Unhappy Marriage: A Critique of the Dual Systems Theory. In L. Sargent (Ed.), Women and Revolution: A Discussion of the Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism. Boston, MA: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Keele Management School, Keele University, Keele, UK

    Tricia Dawson

Authors
  1. Tricia Dawson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Dawson, T. (2018). Gender or Skill? The Continuation of Segregated Work. In: Gender, Class and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58594-3_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation