WOMEN, EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS

(1996) - John Bynner, Samantha Parsons, Leslie Morphy

Journal: Policy Studies Institute
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Tags:: #paper #NCDS #Gender #LabourMarket
Cite Key:: [@Bynner1996]

Abstract

There is a degree of invisibility about women's skills. Such works as International Comparisons of Vocational Education and Training for Intermediate Skills (Ryan, 1991), Keyworks (Brown, Evans, Blackman and Germon, 1994), Future Skill Demand and Supply Metcalf (ed) (1995); Skills, Qualifications and Utilization (Pearson and Marshall, 1996) and many others, do not index, 'women', 'gender' or 'girls'. Skills are believed to be embodied in the jobs people do, rather than in the attributes people bring with them into jobs. Jobs are differentiated to a large extent by gender, which reflects in part the skills men and women have. But the focus on jobs rather than people does disguise very wide differentiation between men and women in the skills they possess, regardless of occupation. The relationship between skills, the labour market and occupation is complex, with skills operating at the interface between what people have and what they acquire through work. But the marked differences in these relationships between men and women is often masked by analyses which overlook the gender variable. Women are, of course, not homogeneous as a group: their labour market history is affected by personal characteristics, including the educational qualifications they have obtained and their experience of having children. Another focus of interest is the way such differentiation affects further the acquisition of skills and accentuates further the gender gap.

Notes

“First it is clear that women's relationship to the labour market is more complex, and the involvement more intermittent, than men's” (Bynner et al., 1996, p. 31)

“They are also to be found in much larger numbers in the 'half-way' or 'patchwork' category of part-time work, which enables them more easily to combine employment with home and family care.” (Bynner et al., 1996, p. 31)