Work and income – women are disadvantaged

Key statistics
 Approximately 70% of people in national minimum wage jobs are women (Low Pay Commission)

 Up to 30,000 women are sacked each year simply for being pregnant and each year an estimated
440,000 women lose out on pay or promotion as a result of pregnancy (Fawcett Society)

Impact of the current economic situation in the UK

The cuts to public sector jobs affect women disproportionately because women make up two thirds of the
workforce. According to the Fawcett Society, a survey of over 2,000 working mums found that over half said
they will be forced to stop work or significantly reduce their working hours as a result of the cut to support
for childcare costs (Childcare Tax Survey).

The Pay Gap

The Women and Work Commission report in 2006 found that women in full-time work were earning 17%
less than men. However it is argued that this pay gap has now fallen to around 10%.

Dex & Tzavidis found that male pay rose faster than female pay in their 30s and the main reason was that
men were in expanding and more highly paid sectors of the economy. For example men were in banking
and finance whereas women were in public relations and communications.

General factors associated with lower pay

 women's lesser education (only applies to older women)
 being in part-time employment
 discontinuous careers due to childcare and other family-care

Horizontal and vertical segregation

Horizontal segregation refers to how many different job areas men and women are in. The Women and
Work Commission 2006 found that women were disproportionally clustered into the 5Cs – cleaning, caring,
cashiering, catering and clerical. These five areas are low-paid and have low-status, many of which are part-
time. Barron and Norris found that there is a dual labour market. Women are in the secondary labour
market which includes low paid, low status, low power jobs e.g. the 5Cs, whereas men are in the primary
labour market which includes high paid, high status and influential jobs.

Modern Apprenticeships (2004)

Women can get into better paid jobs but cannot progress up the ladder. This is because of the glass ceiling
and discrimination. For example there are large numbers of women in nursing and primary education but a
very small percentage have the top jobs e.g. headteachers. Men are reluctant to promote women believing
that they will still prioritise their family and home life. In particular they believe that younger women are
likely to go on maternity leave which is an expense to the company.

Poverty
The Equal Opportunities Commission found that women are 14% more likely to live in households classed
as below the poverty line. Flaherty believes the reason for this is due to the reasons discussed above e.g.
pay gap, more likely to work part-time, discrimination at work etc. Lister adds that women are also more
likely to have to deal with the consequences and pressures of living in poverty e.g. raising children on their
own.

Evidence against women being disadvantaged:

Rational Choice Theory
Women make up 45% of the workforce but 40% of these work part-time compared to only 11% of men.
Many sociologists would argue that this is due to women’s responsibilities in the home – Feminists would
argue this is a social construction and women feel they must look after their children. However Hakim
argues it is due to ‘rational choice theory’, ie that women choose to invest time in domestic activities at the
expense of career development.

Cohort Replacement Theory

As young women now have better educational qualifications than men it is tempting to think that unequal
pay is being phased out and will disappear as this younger generation grows older. This is called ‘cohort
replacement’ theory.

Crisis of masculinity
Mac an Ghail (1994) found that working class men were experiencing a crisis of masculinity.

Legislation
The 1970 Equal Pay Act also made it illegal for men and women doing the same job to be
paid differently. However many would argue that these laws have not been effective as
sex discrimination is very difficult to prove.

The family – women are disadvantaged

Key statistics
 At least 75% of mothers have primary responsibility for childcare in the home (Family and Parenting
Institute)

 Childcare costs in the UK are the highest in the EU and families pay on average 26.6% of their income
on childcare fees, compared to an OECD average of 11.8%

 On average two women a week are killed by a violent partner or ex-partner in the UK (Department of
Health)

Feminist views on roles in the family

Dunscombe & Marsden (1995) found that women carry out the emotional work in the home. Women
carried out the role of giving love and sympathy, particularly to the children where as men found this
difficult and often did not do it. They argued that women operate a triple shift, performing the emotional
work as well as housework and having a paid job.

Feminists such as Oakley would argue that women have segregated conjugal roles in the family where the
roles are divided unfairly with the women having to do the majority of the work.

Seager (1997) used time diaries as a way of researching the number of hours men and women spent per
week on household and work tasks. It was found that women spent more time on domestic tasks and men
more time on work tasks but men spent more time on leisure and rest than women.

Domestic violence
Some feminists see rape in marriage as the extreme form of patriarchy. The Government commissioned
"The Cost of Domestic Violence" from Professor Sylvia Walby at the University of Leeds as part of its
commitment to tackle domestic violence.
The independent research also shows that domestic violence costs services in England and Wales, such as
health and criminal justice, £3 billion. It also assesses the human and emotional suffering caused by
domestic violence and estimates that cost at £17 billion.
Evidence against the Feminist view
Wilmott and Young (Functionalists) would also argue that the family has moved away from segregated
conjugal roles towards joint and the family is now symmetrical where men and women share the roles
equally. Parker and Lyle also found there was now the ‘new man’ where the man helps to share the roles
in the home as well as having a paid job.

Male victimhood is likely to be much higher as women are encouraged to report violence, whereas there is
a social stigma against men in this position.

The media – women are disadvantaged

Key statistics
 Just 23% of reporters on national daily newspapers in
the UK are women with only 1 female editor of a
national daily

 Research on UK media found that men typically

outnumber women as ‘experts’ by 4:1 on major TV and radio programmes across channels

How are men and women represented in the media?

Gauntlett argues that men continue to take the leading roles in films, often playing the part of heroes who
are needed to save women (e.g. superhero and Disney films), self-fulfilling prophecy.

Radical Feminists believe that traditional stereotypes of women still exist in the media with women
represented as sex objects for men. They believe that men set the agenda for the media and reflect a
‘malestream’ perspective. Whelehan studied men’s magazines such as FHM and Loaded and found they
challenged feminism by dismissing changes to gender roles as jokes.

Criticisms of Feminist views on the media

Liberal Feminists would argue that there are an increasing number of women employed in the media and
representations of women are changing which are challenging the stereotypes. There has been an increase
in television programmes which centre on a main female character.

Frazer adds that the idea that we are passively influenced by the media is over-deterministic and we are
aware of the difference between ‘make-believe’ and reality.
Gender and Crime – men are disadvantaged

Women make up only 4% of the prison population.

Campbell conducted a study on 66 urban 16 year old girls and used her data to compare against Farrington
and West’s longitudinal study of boys. She found that boys committed 1.33 offences for every one offence
committed by females.

Buckle and Farrington found that 2.8% of males shoplifted, compared to 1.4% of females. Considering that
shoplifting is seen as a traditionally female crime, these findings are significant in finding that men still do
twice as much. This would suggest that men are much more criminal than women.

In View from the Girls Burman concluded that 10% of girls described themselves as ‘violent’ and 10%
reported having committed seven or more different types of physically violent acts (e.g. punching, kicking
and hitting with object). The figures for boys are around 35%.

Why do men commit more crime than women?

- Socialisation
- Lack of social control
- Labelling from the police leading to self-fulfilling prophecy
- More likely to join subcultures

Chivalry theory
Some sociologists argue against the idea that men are more criminal than women, instead believing that
women are just less likely to be convicted. This is known as the chivalry theory in sociology – the idea that
the police and courts treat women more leniently than men and are therefore more likely to let women off
with a warning or a fine as opposed to a prison sentence.

Education – men are disadvantaged

Key statistics

Statistics show that girls on average achieve around 9% higher in their GCSEs compared to boys with
around 73% gaining A*-Cs compared with 64% of boys.

Outside influences on gender and education

Attitudes – Sharpe found that in the 1970s girls prioritised family and being a wife but by the 1990s their
priorities had changed with girls now wanting to do well in education and have a career.

Changing job market – Mac an Ghail argues that working class boys are experiencing a crisis of masculinity
so boys lack the positive attitude in education as they do not feel there is a job at the end of school to aim
for.

Inside school influences on gender and education

Labelling – Swann found that teachers have a more positive perceptions of girls as they are less disruptive
than boys.

Subcultures – Willis claimed boys are more likely to join subcultures

Feminisation of the school environment – there are a disproportionate amount of female teachers in
education which provides girls with positive role models and gives the impression that school is feminine.
Health – men are disadvantaged

Key statistics
 According to the Department of Health in 2010 women have a longer life expectancy than men, 82
years compared to 78. However this gap is closing.
 Men are twice as likely to die in accidents as women
 Men are three times more likely to commit suicide.

Why do women live longer than men?

Men are more likely to be addicted to alcohol and drugs which can lead to them being at greater risk of
certain illnesses as well as lowering their mortality. It also increases the likeliness of suicide which is the
most common cause of death amongst young men (Taylor and Field). Lyng argues that young males are
more likely to engage in risky behaviour which makes them more at risk from accidents or death.

Seligman argues that there is ‘learned helplessness’ where it is more socially acceptable for women to
admit they are ill than men.

Evidence of increase in risks to female health

Women are more likely to be sick throughout their life. For example due to the stress of caring for their
family. Winlow (2007) argues that risk-taking behaviour is increasing for girls as they are joining boys in
binge drinking and violent e.g. ladette culture.