Originally published in 1990, Gendered Jobs and Social Change is a systematic exploration of the changing structure of women’s paid work in Britain since the Second World War and an invaluable and accessible text for undergraduate students, and teachers and researchers, in the areas of employment, gender, and class theory.
Four substantial case-study chapters, drawing upon original research material, give in-depth accounts of developments across the whole range of women’s employment, from the ‘post-feminist’ finance professional to unskilled workers in the hotel and catering industry. This empirical work is set within a context of discussion relating to current theoretical debates of the time concerning gender, occupational segregation, and class and stratification theory and research; it is then complemented by a review of the structure of women’s employment in other western countries. Besides making an original contribution to research and theory, it also provides an invaluable summary and critique of developments at the time within a series of important sociological debates.