Women in the Labour Market

Abstract

This chapter considers where women are situated within the labour market today and the levels at which the gender-pay gap is felt — i.e., not simply as an average figure for all men and all women, or all male and female full-time and/or part-time workers respectively, and explained by men's and women's concentration in different jobs, different industries — but between men and women doing the same jobs, working in the same industries, working even for the same employers. It also explores a number of factors, among them public-sector employment and part-time working, which particularly affect women as workers, and it attempts to distinguish between groups of women on the basis of their varying experiences in the labour market. It shows that women in general, and ethnic minority women in particular, can be characterized as disadvantaged, at least in terms of pay. Women are also segregated into predominantly female jobs and industries, and ethnic minority women are further segregated by occupation and industry. While many differences are apparent between full-time and part-time women workers, white and ethnic minority women workers, professional and manual women workers, women are linked to some extent by their underpayment, relative to men.