Sexism at work

The Economic History Review, 2014

Women have, on average, been less well-paid than men throughout history. Prior to 1900, most economic historians see the gender wage gap as a reflection of men's greater strength and correspondingly higher productivity. This paper investigates the gender wage gap in cigar making around 1900. Strength was rarely an issue, but the gender wage gap was large. Two findings suggest that employers were not sexist. First, differences in earnings by gender for workers paid piece rates can be fully explained by differences in experience and other productivity-related characteristics. Second, conditioning on those characteristics, women were just as likely to be promoted to the better paying piece rate section. Neither finding is compatible with a simple model of sex-based discrimination. Instead, the gender wage gap can be decomposed into two components. First, women were typically less experienced, in an industry in which experience mattered. Second there were some jobs that required strength, for which men were better suited. Because strength was so valuable in the other jobs at this time, men commanded a wage premium in the general labour market, raising their reservation wage. Hiring a man required the firm to pay a 'man's wage'. This implies that firms that were slow to feminise their time rate workforce ended up with a higher cost structure than those that made the transition more quickly. We show that firms with a higher proportion of women in their workforce in 1863 were indeed more likely to survive 35 years later.

This paper assumes that the employer's choice of a particular organisation of production and, as a matter of fact, of a particular technology were not indifferent to gender. Labour markets were sexually differentiated, since women and men were considered to be distinct labour forces, separated by virtue of the differing roles they were supposed to play in the family economy -the breadwinner and the housewife -and of the characteristics associated to each of them as labourers 2 . Technological decisions were not independent of the gender division of labour. The introduction of a new technology could imply the arrival of a male profession as in railways, or the substitution of male by female workers in labour intensive industries such as tobacco manufacturing. Technology and occupational segregation according to gender are highly correlated. However, these patterns are not universal. When the cigarette-making Bonsack machine was first introduced in the market in the 1880s a strict gender division of labour operated in all countries, but women and men tasks diverged enormously. Tobacco was manufactured mainly by men in countries like the US or Cuba and mainly by women in other countries, such as France or Spain. These differences were related to the labour market structure, to consumption patterns and to the organisation of the sector regarding taxation in each country; thus we find cases of monopoly-run and of non-monopolistic tobacco industries. Despite some exceptions, in general terms, during the 19 th Century and before the mechanisation process started, female cigar and cigarette makers worked in countries where a fiscal tobacco monopoly existed, while men were in charge of the work -mainly cigars-in countries with a non-monopolistic industry, only in countries where the share of cigarettes was important in the overall consumption firms also hired women for manufacturing them. This paper is divided in two sections corresponding with the two periods in which technological change and changes in the production process caused alterations in the gender division of labour. In fact, the feminisation of the tobacco labour force happened in two phases, and the process implied important national differences. Monopolistic countries shift in a firt phase and non-monopolistic countries in a second one.

In 1960 the industrial psychologist Johannes Heskes carried out a survey among 87 senior managers at the Philips Light Bulb Company to ascertain why certain work was carried out by men, while other work was performed by women. Heskes constructed the following typology, based on this survey: men's work was responsible and skilled; women's work was precise, monotonous, routine and caring. The replies given in Heskes' survey demonstrated clearly that the work of men and women was defined in antithetical terms at Philips: men's work was tough rather than light, responsible rather than routine, skilled rather than caring. The characteristics required for this work were largely gender-related. Men were technologically competent; women were more caring, and so on. In other words, work was classified in gender terms.

Managing Diversity and Equality in Construction, 2006

In this chapter the relative significance of different factors affecting gender segregation in the manual trades are explored. It begins with a review of theoretical interpretations of gender-segregated labour markets, followed by an account of the empirical context of our research and the methodology used, and an historical overview of the role of the state in the formation of gender segregated labour markets. The main body of the chapter consists of an analysis of our research findings, covering the areas of equal opportunities (EO) policies, training and qualifications, and work and employment conditions. We conclude with recommendations for the removal of the structural obstacles preventing women from working in manual occupations alongside men.

SociologyRN: Gender & Work (Topic), 2013

Common examples of perceived workplace inequality – the “glass ceiling,” the “gender gap” in compensation, and occupational segregation among others – cannot be well understood if the explanation proffered for their existence is limited exclusively to social causes such as discrimination and sexist socialization. Males and females have, on average, different sets of talents, tastes, and interests, which cause them to select somewhat different occupations and exhibit somewhat different workplace behaviors. Some of these sex differences have biological roots. Temperamental sex differences are found in competitiveness, dominance-seeking, risk-taking, and nurturance, with females tending to be more “person-oriented” and males more “thing-oriented.” The sexes also differ in a variety of cognitive traits, including various spatial, verbal, mathematical, and mechanical abilities. Although social influences can be important, these social influences operate on (and were in fact created by) s...

IRA-International Journal of Management & Social Sciences (ISSN 2455-2267), 2016

India today is at the cusp of a paradigm change in its growth and its position in the world. Its rapid development in all fields has been faster than anywhere else in the world and it is emerged as a global power for its skilled workforce including both men and women. In today’s time women are not only competing but also matching their steps with men in many fields. Though, women have proved their mettle, but their presence in manufacturing sector seems to be negligent or on decline. Indian manufacturing sector is predominantly employs majority of the males. . It is also seen that there are a less number of women who are currently work or are keen to work in this sector. “Women may not be as welcome” in manufacturing isn’t only about perception, but it is found globally in a recent report from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) that women are paid about 18 percent less than men doing the same manufacturing work on average and this is the fourth largest gender pay gap...

Social history, 1995

Between men and machines: women workers i n new industries,

Technology and Culture, 1997

Gertjan de Groot and Marlou Schrover technological change facilitates the regendering of work. It does not necessarily cause it, but without it regendering seldom occurs. Specific historical and social settings may lead to the gendering of certain techniques, and thus to the creation or abolition of women's work, which may find its repercussions in completely different historical and social settings. Developments in England, with its early industrialization, are contrasted with those in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, where industrialization took off much later. The textile industry is the traditional field for studying the gendering of work. The idea that the segregation into men's work and women's work was passed on from the cottage system to the factory stems from this field. In this book, Harriet Bradley describes the work of women in the British textile industry; Marianne Rostgard does so for Denmark, and Gertjan de Groot for the Netherlands. Office work is a field now strongly dominated by women. Typing was, however, not women's work from the start. Meta Zimmeck shows that it was first allocated to men and boys, then to boys only and finally to women and girls. In pottery, 'skill' is not the only concept used for segregating work between the genders: 'strength' and 'health risk' may also be used to justify it. Jacqueline Sarsby writes on the pottery industry in England, and Ulla Wikander on that in Sweden. During the First World War, there were rapid changes in the nature of women's employment. Deborah Thom shows that, in England, this did not lead to a permanent modification of ideas about segregation, although it did prove that changes were possible if enforced. Women played an important role in the production of food, both for the family and for the market. The nineteenth century saw radical changes in this field, with the industrialization of food production and the rise of new industries. Women ought to have had a head start as far as 'skills' were concerned. In an attempt to explain women's place in these industries, Lena Sommestad looks at Sweden, and Marlou Schrover at the Netherlands. Although skill and technology are important concepts in the explanation of the segregation between men's work and women's work, there are many other factors to which the segregation can be attributed. 4 Waged work is sharply differentiated along gender lines. Men's work in one region can be women's work in another, but in virtually all cases there is a clear distinction between 'men's work' and 'women's work'. 5 According to Phillips and Taylor, sexual demarcations were rigidly maintained, even when men and women worked in the same industry. 6 Although this is true, demarcation lines were not inflexible over time, and differences were often minute, as the studies in this book show. Bradley, for instance, describes how in hosiery women worked the smaller specialized machines, and men the larger ones. Rostgard shows that in the Danish textile industry there was hardly any difference between male tacklers and female twisters, except for the name.

It is well established that a significant amount of occupational gender segregation exists in all societies, though the extent varies. That is, to varying degrees women and men work in different occupations.

European Journal of Industrial …, 1998

It is widely assumed that the development of enhanced skills appropriate to advanced technologies is an important means of increasing the employability of the socially excluded. This article tests this assumption through case studies in the food industry in Austria, Germany and Britain. The findings indicate that organizational restructuring, technological change and redeployment of labour have very different consequences for women and for men. In all three countries the restructuring of work and skills increased the marginalization of women, reinforcing gender cleavage. Skills and qualifications have become important topics in both the literature and the political discussion on labour market issues. Skill enhancement is becoming the central focus of labour market concerns and is commonly perceived as a panacea for the social exclusion of disadvantaged groups. It is also stressed that the existence of a certain level of skills makes those forms of work Organization possible that are necessary for enhanced competition on the global marketplace. Research in this genre often examines training Systems as a manifestation of institutional arrangements in a particular country or region and then studies their effects on organizational form and economic success. A number of European comparisons have revealed differences in both organizational efficiency and levels of productivity and quality as a result of skill levels and categories (Maurice et al., 1986; Mason and Wagner, 1994). Recently both Soskice (1990) and Regini (1995) have found a relationship between patterns of human resource utilization and organizational strategies, or, as Regini calls them, product market strategies that predominate in various countries and regions. These approaches have had a pronounced influence on the current debate on the competitiveness of European industries and the future