Gender Flashcards
What did UCAS (2013) find?
Women are a third more likely to enter higher education than men as they are 7% less likely to pass their GCSEs and this is continued as women gained more first class degrees
What percentage of permanent exclusions were for boys?
80%
Why does education improve life chances?
- The ability for social mobility
- The ability to travel
- Improved social capital
- Feminists argue that girl’s achievements in education, horizontal and vertical segregation take place as the hidden curriculum (Jackson 1968) influence an individual’s career choices and see themselves in high positions as they transmit messages about ascribed gender roles
What did the EOC (2006) find?
79% of health and social workforce are women, whereas in private sectors, women are over-concentrated in clerical, administrators, retail and personal services such as secretarial whereas men are mainly found in skilled manual and upper professional sectors
How many times are men more likely to be employed in skilled trades?
10 times especially as managers and senior officials
How many women are dismissed per year in the UK after becoming pregnant?
30,000
What did the office for national statistics find about the gender pay gap?
In 2016, it stood at 25% in the private sector and 17.1% in the public sector which the Fawcett society argues is as a result of the motherhood penalty by adopting part-time work which is poorly enforced by the state
How are women restricted to gain senior positions?
- Status
- Skill
- Pay
What did LSE (2016) find out about wealth?
Fewer than one in five of Britain’s top earners were women and less than one third in the top 1 per cent across European nations which their number wasn’t found to be increasing
What did the Fawcett society find out about state benefits and tax credits?
Women relied on them more than men, mainly because of their caring responsibilities and their relative economic inequality and poverty consequently, cuts to state benefits disproportionately affect women’s income
What did ONS find in 2014?
A man’s total pension wealth was nearly twice as high as women’s in 2010/12 - £63,000 compared with £34,500
What percentage of world’s wealth did women as 49.6% of the world’s population?
1%
What did employment tribunals in 2010/11 find?
Only 37% of claims against employers for sexual discrimination were successful
What are the differences in retirement poverty?
1/4 of women in poverty when they retire compared to 1/10 of men and overall, make up 70% of the world’s poor
What did Chant find?
Women are more likely to be poor because they experience time poverty whilst men spend their 20s and 30s building up their career. Women spend their time raising children. When they re-enter the workplace, they begin their career at the bottom of the pay scale
What did the Trussell trust find in 2014?
Women often experience hunger to feed their families
What did Savage find?
Men are more likely to climb the career ladder than women resulting in their restriction in low-paying jobs as they have to deal with physical restrictions
What was the life expectancy for males and females in 2020?
For men, it was 78.8 years and 82.8 years for females in England as 2/3rds of deaths are before the retirement age of 65 are males because they are more likely to take manual jobs with risks such as accidents, chemicals and dust
What are suicide rates amongst men and women?
Per 100,000 people, 5.7 deaths for women are due to suicide and 17.4 deaths for men however since 1981, this has fallen by 97% (links to the crisis of masculinity)
What did Marxist Engels (1884) find?
Women are a source of cheap and exploitable labour
How did Marxist Walby (1986) criticise Benston?
She argues that women staying at home harms capitalism, because if women competed with men for jobs, this might lower wages and increase profits. Women who earn would have superior spending power, which would also benefit capitalism
What did Marxist Benston (1969) believe?
Unpaid domestic labour of women supports capitalism as it produces the workforce and allows capitalists to pay lower wages as patriarchal ideas are used to divide and rule the working class
What did Marxist Beechey (1977) see?
Women as part of the reserve army of labour who are only hired by capitalist enterprises in times of rapid economic expansion but fired when recession hits. However, this fails to explain the gendered stereotyping of jobs and why women take domestic responsibilities
What did Marxists Dalla Costa and James (1972) argued?
Unpaid caring and housework should be recognised and paid because domestic labour holds value
What is the 1st wave of feminism?
It emerged at the turn of the century with associations with the suffragette movement with the right to vote which led to fights to gain their own property, to go to university and enter skilled professions
What is the second wave of feminism?
It emerged in the 1960s and 70s exploring the idea that the personal is political drawing attention to power inequalities in marriage
What is the third wave of feminism?
It focused on identity politics and how gender intersects with other identities therefore their experiences are diverse
What did feminist Oakley (1981) argue?
The main reason for the subordination of women in the labour market is the dominance of the mother-housewife role as ideological ideas serve to primarily ensure male dominance in labour markets as women are restricted to raise children in the home
What did feminist Freidan (1963) find?
American housewives have a sense of dissatisfaction because they feel socially pressured to live up to the feminine mystique through the idealised image of housewives created the 1950s through media, education and consumer culture
What did feminist Wilkinson (1999)?
A genderquake has taken place as women no longer prioritise marriage and motherhood like their mother and grandmother as they aspire to go to university, a high-flying carer and economic independence
What did feminist Firestone (1970)?
There is a sexual class system arising from biological differences where women become dependent on males. This encourages males to develop a power psychology where men enjoy their power over women as wish to expand it. The only way to free women is through losing the need for childbirth and nuclear family relationships
What did feminist Loden (1978) believe?
She spoke of the class ceiling concept referring to the invisible barriers shaped by patriarchal ideology in the workplace that prevent women from progressing the career ladder in terms of skill, status and pay
What did Durkheim (1893) argue about gender differences?
The gendered division of labour was functional for society that individuals should take specialised roles for maximum efficiency
How do functionalists see the gender pay gap?
It reflects the fact men have more human capital as they are less likely to take career breaks allowing them to build up their skills, qualifications and experience
How did Olsen and Walby (2004) criticise the human capital theory?
They used data from the longitudinal British household panel survey because whilst they accept that women take career breaks, they argue women’s low pay is a systematic disadvantage in acquiring human capital
What did Weberian Hartnett (1978) argue?
Workers do not want a female boss as they see themselves as less dependable because they are not the main breadwinners since they will stop to have children
What did Weberians Barron and Norris (1976) argue?
A dual labour market exists with a primary sector (a secure well-paying job with good prospects) and a secondary sector (poor pay and insecurity). Women are more likely to be in the secondary sector because women are seen are unsuitable for primary sector jobs, disrupted career prospects and a weak legal framework to support women’s rights in employment helping to explain vertical segregation because women’s subordinate status is normalised
How did Bradley (1989) criticise the dual labour market?
It fails to explain inequalities in the same sector
What does Murray (1984) argue about gender inequality?
Family diversity means that children miss out on the defined roles of fathers as the breadwinner and women as the homemaker
What does Hakim (2000) argue about gender inequality?
Women choose which she coined as rational choice theory to prioritise family over their career, leading to lower earnings and less career progression
What does Schlafly (2003) argue about gender inequality?
Women should see marriage and motherhood as the most important roles and that by pursuing careers, they are pursuing a false hope. Men should earn more money so they can provide for their wives and children so women can focus on childbearing
What does Ginn et al (1996) do to criticise the New Right?
As the choice by women to prioritise their families and children is not a choice men have to make
