Working women, women's work and the occupational sociology of being a woman

Abstract

The relationship between women's conflicting roles of mother-wives and members of the labour force is frequently used to account for the high incidence of part-time work done by women and their low investment in career development and the acquisition of skills. It is also taken to justify employers' unwillingness to take on women and develop their potential when they do. This paper asks two questions which have rarely been separated: Firstly, do women themselves see their main job as childrearing and homemaking? Secondly, do they choose to give the role of mother-wife priority and see work outside the home as an optional extra? It is suggested that the answer to the first question is yes, since being a woman is itself seen in career terms, this imagery having been fostered throughout the socialization of both women and men. However, the distinction between the relationships and jobs involved in the mother-wife package are examined and it is suggested that women accommodate their employment arrangements to parenthood in a way that men do not simply because there are no practical alternatives. Their behaviour has little to do with the intrinsic characteristics of the jobs of mother-wife.