Cutting at the Wrong Edge: Gender, Part-Time Work and the Irish Retail Sector

Abstract

Part-time work has often been championed as a mechanism for facilitating women's entry into the labour force. Research based on large scale surveys has theorised that employers and women employees can both benefit from part time work. Ethnographic research, on the other hand, has often focused more on the difficult working conditions for part time workers. This paper combines data from a quantitative survey carried out at national level and a locally based qualitative study to examine these issues. It shows that in the retail sector part time work does not just contribute to bringing women into the labour force. It also serves to marginalise them within the labour force. It also shows that forms of part time work being adopted are those most suitable to employers rather than those which might be of use to both employers and female employees. Finally, while women have often chosen to work part time, the conditions of part time workers studied are deteriorating.