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Three themes are drawn together in this book: gender and sexuality, the organisation of work, and the impact of technological change. Their inter-relationship is explored in six area studies: manufacturing, banking, retailing, computing, nursing and housework.
Gender at Work presents an account of how each area has changed since the Second World War; sets out ways in which the notion of what constitutes 'proper' work for men and women changes with new work processes; and analyses the prospects for, and limits of, sexual 'equality' in the workplace.
Based on the first-hand observations of workers, reflecting on their work experience, this book allows workers to speak for themselves: they reveal the centrality of gender to the way capitalism is organised.
List of contents
Foreword by Edna Ryan
Acknowledgements
Introduction1 Masculinity and machines: automation in manufacturing industry
2 Kentucky-fried money: the banks
3 Working at a discount: retailing
4 Roaming around computer-land: sex-typing in a new industry
5 Sex and power in hospitals: the division of labour in the 'health' industry
6 The labour process of consumption: housework
A new feminist politics
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Ann Game teaches sociology at the University of New South Wales. Rosemary Pringle teaches sociology at Macquarie University. Both are active in the women's movement and have worked closely with trade unions on the impact of technological change and on the position of women in the workforce. They have written extensively on aspects of feminism, sociology and the labour process.
Summary
Gender at Work presents an account of how six fields of work have changed since WWII with regard to the inter-related themes of gender and sexuality, the organisation of work, and the impact of technological change.
