Most feminists believe that the position of women in the labour market is an important source of disadvantage. Discuss.
UK Labour Market
The UK labour market serves an important role in the country’s economic growth. This is because of the importance of their contribution in the production of goods and services across different business activities that take care of the needs and wants of society. To monitor the condition of the labour market, the government utilises productivity as the measure of the trends in the status of UK employees. According to (1999), productivity serves as the largest sole element of economic growth. This means that increasing productivity involves targeting the closure of the productivity gap arising between the productivity levels of other western countries and the UK as well as the productivity gaps arising within the labour market caused by factors such as gender gap. These gaps need filling if the UK expects to optimise the productivity levels of its labour force. These endeavours involve serious decisions on government labour policies to create a working environment conducive to the achievement of the optimum productivity contributions of employees. However, an initial step in policy-making is the investigation into the nature, extent, characteristics and causes of these gaps. An important productivity gap that needs focus centres on the differences in the productivity levels of men and women. According to statistics, greater levels of productivity come from men relative to women so that women are seen as underperforming contributors in the workplace. The cause of this perception needs investigation to determine its truth as well as identify ways of addressing this issue.
Gender Gap in the UK Labour Market
Based on studies, productivity gap based on gender is due to two causes, which are 1) deficit in labour skills and 2) failure in the labour market.
Skills deficit has been identified as commonly occurring across the labour market contributing to low levels of productivity. This is defined as the allocation of labour force to jobs that are not appropriate to their skills level due to the rigidities in the labour market. The result is the underperformance of employees because they lack some of the skills necessary in meeting the requirements of the job but they are retained as employees because of the lack of other more qualified applicants. (2000)
In relation to gender, women on the average hold lesser educational qualifications relative to men. Even if young women have been able to shorten the gap due to higher educational attainments, the average woman remains less qualified when compared to the average man. The extent of the gap is expressed through the explanation that if the average woman will become at par in educational level with the average man, she needs to incur .3 years of additional education. However, in terms of age group, women over the age of 40 constitutes majority of the female population creating the education gap because of their status as unemployed or employed part time. The greater number of women beyond the 40 and older age group constitutes a significant portion of the women population who are employed so that they contribute greatly to the gap. (2000)
Although there are a significant number of women who are unemployed or employed part time because of their limited skills, studies show that 63 percent of women who are unemployed and 66 percent of women who are employed part-time would like to enhance their skills by undergoing education and training. Despite their willingness to enhance their employment skills, 63 percent of women who are unemployed and 63 percent of women who are employed on a part-time basis find it hard to set aside money for additional education and training. Out of the total number of women keen on enhancing their skills for employment, 79 percent consider as the most important help free education and training. ( 2000)
Failure in the labour market refers to a situation developing in the employment status of people in the labour market that creates a productivity gap based on gender. Some of failures in the labour market cover segregation, discrimination, interruptions in employment due to lack of flexibility in employment conditions, and the persistence of part-time employment.
In relation to segregation, the labour market shows a stark concentration of both male and female workers in various occupations, with women represented excessively in occupations with lower income. This type of gender segregation causes a certain level of rigidity in the labour market that averts the allocation of people who are most qualified to a particular job. This constitutes a failure of the labour market to place people, regardless of gender, in positions that fit their qualifications even if this defies gender infrastructures. (Rubery 1998) This means that the issue of gender segregation that causes women to be excluded from certain job positions because of their gender even if they are better qualified than their male contenders for the job, contributes to the productivity gap. There are certain occupations or professions where women are excluded from engaging in high or key positions because of their gender and not because of their qualifications. Jenkins, Lucio and Noon (2002), conducted a study of the employment conditions in postal work and determined that the continued consideration of postal work as a man’s work has created a situation that excludes women from engaging in this work even if they have similar qualifications with their mail counterparts. The persisting power struggle linked to the persisting perception of postal work as allocated for men has segregated men and women in this occupation. This segregation contributes to the inability of the UK labour market to reach optimum levels of productivity.
With regard to discrimination, this comprises a failure of the labour market because it prevents qualified people from being allocated to jobs that match their requirements due to their gender. This is closely linked to segregation but the difference is that in segregation, qualified women are prevented from taking on jobs or positions even when they are most qualified while in discrimination women are given little choice but to take on jobs deemed as appropriate for women. This results to the depression of the potential productivity levels of women because of the mismatch arising from the skills of women with their present job. (1998) In the case of postal work, the (2007) provides that maintaining competitiveness in the workplace and achieving the status of the employer of choice involves the need for employers to have high level of awareness, flexibility to change, and creativity in attracting the most qualified people for the job. This recognition constitutes an initial step towards understanding the existence of segregation and discrimination in the workplace in order to achieve significant change.
In terms of employment interruptions due to lack of flexibility in the workplace conditions significantly affect the productivity. Even if men experience greater incidence of unemployment, women experience higher incidence of taking time off work in order to provide care for family members. A significant number of women suffer downward movements in employment mobility from their best job prior to having children to their present job. However, women with higher educational attainment, higher income, and employed with firms offering greater work flexibility are able to retain their job even after having children. (2001) This means that women are able to maintain their best jobs even with family responsibilities and childcare if the employer offers flexibility in the workplace in the form of maternity and other benefit leaves. Moreover, income also constitutes a determining factor for the ability of women to balance employment and caring. Income is necessary to support care, lessen the burden for women, and enable them to balance work with familial responsibilities.
In relation to the persisting part time employment status of the workforce, especially women workers, this contributes to the level of productivity lower than the potential productivity levels that women can contribute to economic growth. Most women employed in firms without work flexibility and with low income give up their jobs for part time employment after giving birth. After their children grow up, women tend to remain in part time employment because of their short employment histories and limited work experience. Part time women workers rank higher in the UK with 23 percent, relative to other European countries while 44 percent of women without dependent children remain in part time employment. There is need to combine education and skills training with employment flexibility and income to minimise part time employment and support the optimum contribution of women to productivity. (2001)
Policy Implications
To achieve optimum levels of employment productivity, gender gap in employment need to be addressed. There are two major causes of gender gap in the workplace, which are deficiency of women in skills and failure in the labour market. On the average, women have lower levels of educational attainment because of the higher number of women belonging to the 40 years old and above age group that are either unemployed or employed part time. Majority of the women belonging to this group who are willing to engage in higher education and skills training find it hard to pay for their own education and training. This means to address gender gap in productivity, the government need to provide accessible higher education and training. Women experience the failure of the labour market to accommodate their skills offering due to restrictive conditions in the labour market such as segregation and discrimination. This means that the government need to create an employment environment that enhances women competitiveness in the labour market across different positions based on qualifications and not on gender.
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