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This study provides a survey and critique of the research material concerned with the sexual division of labour. The result is an account of how women's lives have changed over the last 250 years. Harriet Bradley draws on her own research, and addresses issues of gender, work and inequality. Her "case studies" are taken from a variety of occupations from agriculture to nursing, from shopwork to hosiery production. She constructs a systematic account of the development of gender-based job segregation in Britain from the Industrial Revolution to the present day. Comparative material is used throughout the book, and the author compares her cases studies with similar examples from the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and the USSR.
List of contents
Part 1 The Sociological and Historical Context: Gender Segregation and the Sex Typing of Jobs
The Historical Debates
The Sociological Debates Part 2 Case Studies:
A Primary Production Food and Raw Materials, Agriculture, Fishing, Mining
B The Secondary Sector Manufacturing and Factories, Pottery, Hosiery, Shoemaking, The New Industries
C The Tertiary Sector
Professions and Services Industries, Shopwork, Medicine, Teaching
Part 3 Conclusion: Gendered Jobs and Social Inequality
About the author
Harriet Bradley is a professor at the University of the West of England with an attachment to the Centre for Employment Research Studies in the Faculty of Business and Law. She was previously Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol where she remains a Professor Emerita. She also holds an Honary Professorship at Bath University and is an Honary Doctor at Karlstad University in Sweden.
Summary
Provides a survey and critique of the research material concerned with the sexual division of labour. The result is an account of how women's lives have changed over the last 250 years. Harriet Bradley draws on her own research, and addresses issues of gender, work and inequality.
