Gender, power and postindustrialism (original) (raw)

Women and Wage Labour in a Period of Transition: Montreal, 1861-1881

Histoire Sociale Social History, 1984

Distinctions of gender and age were reinforced in the period of early industrial capitalism in Montreal as more and more children were drawn into wage labour. Working-class males sought work for wages for most of their lives. For women such work was transitory, undertaken as girls, seldom as wives, but required if their husband died or deserted them. Domestic labour was the usual task of both girls and women within the family economy. Gender-based wage differentials made it practical for families to send sons rather than daughters into the workforce, hardening the identification of the home as women's place. The female's economic dependence on a male and his wages was highlighted in the plight of the widow. Les debuts du capitalisme industriel a Montrealfurent marques, au fur eta mesure de /'entree des enfants dans Ia main-d' reuvre salariee, par une accentuation des ecarts de remuneration bases sur des criteres de sexe et d'iige. S'il allait de soi pour les travailleurs miiles de rechercher, sur une base permanente, un salaire pendant Ia plus grande panie de leur vie, Ia situation etait, dans /'ensemble, differente pour les femmes : leur travail etait transitoire, entrepris a I' iige nubile, rarement en tant qu' epouses sauf, par necessite, suite a Ia mort ou a I' abandon de leur mari. En fait, les travaux domestiques restaient, avant et apres le mariage, I' occupation jeminine habitue lie a I' interieur de I' economie familiale. Les differences salariales en fonction du sexe incitaient logiquement les families a envoyer leurs fils-et non leurs filles-sur le marche du travail, renfor~ant ainsi I' image de Ia femme cantonnee tout naturellement au foyer. Cet etat de dependance economique des femmes par rapport aux hommes ressortait dans toute son etendue dans les situations de veuvage.

Occupational gender composition and wages in Canada, 1987-1988

Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue Canadienne d`Economique, 2001

Ce document est publié dans l'intention de rendre accessibles les résultats préliminaires de la recherche effectuée au CIRANO, afin de susciter des échanges et des suggestions. Les idées et les opinions émises sont sous l'unique responsabilité des auteurs, et ne représentent pas nécessairement les positions du CIRANO ou de ses partenaires. This paper presents preliminary research carried out at CIRANO and aims at encouraging discussion and comment. The observations and viewpoints expressed are the sole responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily represent positions of CIRANO or its partners.

Production processes and the gendering of industrial work in Asia

Asian Studies Review, 2000

In diverse historical contexts, women's entry into factory work has always evoked much debate among scholars and policy-makers alike. Ever since policy-makers focused their attention on the flow of cheap female and child labour into factories during Britain's Industrial Revolution, debate has centred on the effect of long hours and hard labour on workers' health and well-being. Concern focused on women workers in particular because they were seen as conduits to the well-being of future generations. Protective labour legislation was formulated in many western countries at the beginning of the twentieth century as part of a social reform movement concerned with the character and quality of future generations. Debate among feminist scholars, on the other hand, focused on the effects of capitalist industrialisation and particularly the emergence of factory production, wage labour and the separation of home and workplace on the sexual division of labour and women's status in economic development. These developments, together with the discriminatory legislation enacted by liberal reform movements and male-dominated trade unions in western Europe, were considered to have laid the foundations for the decline in women's economic role in productive life. With the onset of colonialism, ideas of social reform were also introduced into the European colonies. Such attempts to "protect" women manifested themselves not so much in the struggle for the family wage, as in the West, but in the educational system, in the setting up of women's training schools, and in the introduction of protective legislation for women .

The Impact of Liberalization on Female Workers in Quebec: Four Case Studies

Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 2013

Cet article explore l'impact de la libéralisation des marchés sur la main-d'oeuvre féminine au Québec. Il chercheà valider une intuition formulée par Brunelle, Beaulieu and Minier (2004) en guise de conclusion d'un rapport de recherche mettant en relief l'essor et la prolifération des marchés périphériques du travail dans le capitalisme mondialisé. Parce qu'elles sont surreprésentées dans le travail atypique, les auteurs se demandaient alors si la restructuration des marchés du travail avait des impacts négatifs les femmes. En nous appuyant sur quatreétudes de cas dans différents secteurs de l'économie (habillement, commerce de détail, télécommunications, services d'aideà domicile), l'article valide l' hypothèse d'une rehiérarchisation genrée du marché du travail sur la base de statuts d'emploi dans le sillage du processus de libéralisation.

Occupational Gender Segregation in Canada, 1981-1996: Overall, Vertical and Horizontal Segregation*

Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 2008

Cet article examine les changements survenus entre 1981 et 1996 dans la segregation hommes-femmes. Le niveau de segregation dans son ensemble a faiblement baisse, suivant en cela la tendance observee depuis les annees soixante. La diminution se traduit par une decroissance de 41 % de la segregation verticale (equit6 salariale) mais par une augmentation de la segregation horizontale (differences autres que cette equite). Les femmes ont renforce leur point d'ancrage dans la main-d'aeuvre a plein temps et elargi l'etendue de leur participation alors que celle des hommes dans des secteurs a temps partiel et moins prises a augmente, et que les emplois traditionnellement * This research was supported by an . We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers from The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology for their helpful comments. This manuscript was

Gender and Working-Class Identity in Deindustrializing Sudbury, Ontario

The Journal of Working-Class Studies, 2019

In this article I explore the making of a gendered working-class identity among a sample of male nickel miners in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Through 26 oral history interviews conducted between January 2015 and July 2018 with current and retired miners (ages 26 to 74), I analyze how the industrial relations framework and social relations of the postwar period shaped-and continue to shape-a masculinized working-class identity. I then examine the ways in which economic restructuring and the partial deindustrialization of Sudbury's mines have affected workers' ideas about gender and class. I argue that, amid growing precarious employment in both the mining industry and the regional economy more broadly, the male workers in this study continue to gender their class identities, which limits attempts to build working-class solidarity in a labor market now largely characterized by feminized service sector employment.

The Sexual Division of Labour in Process Manufacturing: Economic Restructuring, Training andWomen's Work

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