Explaining Women's Employment Patterns: 'Orientations to Work' Revisited

Explanations of the persisting differences in the structure of men's and women's employment have long been debated in the social sciences. Sociological explanations have tended to stress the continuing significance of structural constraints on women's employment opportunities, which p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The British journal of sociology 1998-03, Vol.49 (1), p.118-136
Main Authors: Crompton, Rosemary, Harris, Fiona
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bankers
Career Choice
Career Patterns
Children
Cross-national analysis
Division of labor
Empirical evidence
Employment
Employment - statistics & numerical data
Employment - trends
Employment Discrimination
Employment Opportunities
Europe
Family relations
Female
Feminism
Gender differentiation
Hakim, Catherine
Humans
International
Labour market structure
Literary criticism
Manycountries
Men
Nuclear Family - psychology
Occupational Choice
Occupational Segregation
Patterns
Segregation
Sex Differences
Sexual Inequality
Social Change
Social conditions & trends
Social Environment
Social sciences
Sociological perspectives
Sociology
Sociology of work
Sociology of work and sociology of organizations
Studies
Women
Women's employment
Women, Working - psychology
Women, Working - statistics & numerical data
Womens employment
Work Orientations
Working population. Employment. Women's work
Working Women
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Summary:Explanations of the persisting differences in the structure of men's and women's employment have long been debated in the social sciences. Sociological explanations have tended to stress the continuing significance of structural constraints on women's employment opportunities, which persist despite the removal of formal barriers. Neo-classical economists, in contrast, have emphasized the significance of individual choice, an argument which has been recently endorsed by Hakim who suggests that patterns of occupational segregation reflect the outcome of the choices made by different 'types' of women. In this paper, a previous debate relating to the explanatory utility of men's 'orientations to work' is used to argue that employment structures are the outcome of both choice and constraint, and that this is the case for women, as well as men. The argument is illustrated with evidence from cross-nationally comparative biographical interviews carried out in five countries.
ISSN:0007-1315
1468-4446
1468-4446
DOI:10.2307/591266