Gender and Labour Feyza A Bhatti Todays class

Gender and Labour Feyza A. Bhatti

Today’s class • Work vs Labour, Paid vs Unpaid Work, and production vs reproduction • Snapshot of Position of Women in the Labour Market • What are the reasons for gender differences in the labour market? • What needs to be done?

Work versus Labour Work: outside the home, paid activities. Labour: Labour connotes all human efforts of body or mind which are undertaken in the production of a good or service. However labour in economics includes both physical and mental work undertaken for some monetary reward.

Work and labour For example, the work of a chief in the kitchen is called labour, because she/he gets income for it. But if the same work is done by her/him in her/his home kitchen, it will not be called labour, as she/he is not paid for that work. So, if a mother brings up her children, a teacher teaches his son and a doctor treats her husband, these activities are not considered ‘labour’ in economics. It is so because these are not done to earn income.

• What kind of problems do we have then? – Invisibility/Undervaluation of the domestic (unpaid) labour – Which is mostly done by the women. In both high and lower income countries, on average, women carry out at least two and a half times more unpaid household and care work than men. – Women do this as a part of the “family ideology”

Female Labour: domestic/unpaid There is a strong ‘family’ ideology that women is the one who is responsible for : • taking care and manage the house, • doing the house chores • bringing up the children, • organizing the family order According to this ideology, domestic works that women doing; as listed above; are not work but volunteer activities of women do with love, and responsibility. in fact it is the meaning or the part of being a woman.

Production/Reproduction and Places • REPRODUCTION • PRIVATE SPACES • PUBLIC SPACES • HOME • WORKING ENVIRONMENT

REPRODUCTION/PRODUCTION REPRODUCTION • Labour used for the reproduction of the labour- eating, sleeping, entertainment, reproduction of the human kind – bringing children up – caring children – house chores • Domestic (interior) • Private space • Unpaid • • PRODUCTION Labour used for the production of goods and services Exteriror (working areas) Public Space Paid

• Did we always have such strong divisions between production/reproduction activities, public/private spaces?

SEPERATION OF REPRODUCTION AND PRODUCTION & SPACES • • INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES AND CAPITALISM PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES Reproduction and production are • With industrialisation production move out of the house. Performed by mingled activities different social units Performed by the same social – Production—working places, labour unit (family-commune) relations, business connections There is no clear distinction – Reproduction- house, family between home and working relations, relative and neighbour place. connections There is no clear distinction • House and working place splited as between public and private different spaces performing different spaces. activities and having different responsibilities • There is a clear distinction between public and private spaces.

Seperation of production from home/family social unit Pre-industrial society Home/Family is the social unit (space) reproducing the human kind. But also it is a space producing the basic needs of the family • clothes • food • light • entertainment • furniture etc. Industrial society Home/Family continue to be the space of human kind reproduction but not the production of the basic needs but it turn to be the consumption unit (space) of all kind of goods and services.

Thus Family/home –work/working place turn to be different social units with different functions guess who is assigned to take care of the responsibility of family/home and working place/work Family/home unpaid work/working place paid work

Characteristics of Public and Private Space Public Private – Common life – Individual – Professional – Personal – Work relations – Social relations (family, neighbours) – Government – Family

Characteristics of Home/Working Place Home Working Place – Life – Earnings – Nourishment – Competition – Compassion, love – Power – Understanding/kindness – Assertiveness

OKAY SO WHAT?

PUBLIC SPACE PAID WORK • mass production • mass consumption • entrepreneurship • investment • market • productivity • profit/earnings • utility • public PRIVATE SPACE UNPAID WORK • reproduction • child • family • cleaning

Hierarchy between spaces Yes both is important and but if you rank which one comes first? Which one have a higher rank Work or Family Men or Women

Snapshot of position of women in the labour market

Snapshot of position of women in the labour market 1. Labour Force Participation Rate 2. Unemployment 3. Employment Status 4. Occupational segregation (vertical/hierarchal and horizontal) • 5. Wage gaps • •

1. Labour force participation rate • According to ILO Women and Work Report 2016: • Globally, only about half the world’s women are in the labour force (economically active), compared to nearly 80 per cent of men – a figure basically unchanged in the last 20 years.

tin La Male Female n pe 28 ia As As ia ia As ic cif ro Eu Un io er n rth No an pe rn ra l nt Ce ut he So n Pa es at St er st e th Ea d b n ea ric a Af ld or W ib b Ca r ra n Ar a th e ha an ro Eu ia d an As ica er Am Sa b- Su LFPR, 2016 90, 0 80, 0 70, 0 60, 0 50, 0 40, 0 30, 0 20, 0 10, 0

2. Unemployment • Women are more likely to be unemployed than men, with global unemployment rates of 5. 5 per cent for men and 6. 2 per cent for women.

3. Employment status • As compared to men: Women are more likely to be contributing family workers and less likely to be own account workers or employers.

Employee Employer World Male Female Sub-Saharan Africa Male Female Latin America and the Male Caribbean Female Arab States Male Female Asia and the Pacific Male Female Southern Asia Male Female European Union 28 Male Female 54. 2 55. 4 36. 3 22. 6 65. 4 79. 3 77. 1 47. 4 49. 3 26. 1 17. 7 80. 5 88. 0 3. 2 1. 3 2. 8 1. 0 5. 6 2. 6 3. 6 1. 1 2. 2 0. 9 1. 5 0. 6 5. 7 2. 4 Own Contributing account Family worker Worker 36. 9 5. 7 28. 0 15. 3 46. 9 14. 1 45. 9 30. 5 28. 7 3. 1 25. 3 6. 7 15. 1 1. 9 14. 8 7. 1 44. 3 6. 1 31. 9 17. 8 63. 6 8. 8 49. 2 32. 5 13. 0 0. 8 8. 0 1. 6

4. Occupational gender segregation The division of labour, in the context of paid employment, as a result of which men and women (or members of different ethnic or religious groupings) are channeled into different types of occupational roles and tasks, such that there are two (or more) separate labour forces (Bergmann, 1981).

Types of occupational segregation 1. Horizontal segregation refers to differences in the amount of people of each gender present across occupations 2. Vertical/hierarchal segregation The term vertical segregation describes one group’s domination of the highest status jobs. In case of occupational gender segregation the term describes men's domination of the highest status jobs in both traditionally male and traditionally female occupations. (Glass ceiling)

Horizontal Segregation in the World • Women in employment are overrepresented in a narrow range of sectors and occupations. • In high-income countries- health and education sector (30. 6%). • Upper-middle-income countries- wholesale and retail trade services (33. 9%) and in the manufacturing sector (12. 4%). • Low and lower-middle income- agriculture (60%)

Horizontal Occupational Segregation in the World • An analysis of 142 countries shows that women remain overrepresented as “Clerical, service and sales workers” and in “Elementary occupations”. • In developed countries, there is a slight relative overrepresentation of women in the highest paid occupational group “Managers, professionals and technicians” as well.

Vertical occupational segregation in the world • The percentage of women in top management is very low: women head up only 5 per cent of Fortune 500 companies. (Glass Ceiling) • Can you see this around you?

Consequences of occupational gender segregation 1. Gender wage gap Women in female-dominated jobs pay two penalties: a. the average wage of their jobs is lower than that in comparable male-dominated jobs, and b. they earn less relative to men in the same jobs(Cohen& Bianchi, 1999) 2. Decrease female participation by limiting job opportunities and low wages (lower return on labour) (Kalmaz &Guven Lisaniler, 2012) 3. Decrease human capital investment by decreasing women’s labour return (wages) (Kalmaz &Guven Lisaniler, 2012)

Wage Gap • There exists a large gender pay gap. Women still earn on average 77 per cent of what men earn. It will take more than 70 years to close the gender wage gap.

Women’s position in TRNC Labour Market • Women’s LFPR is as low as 35%, and have declined significantly over the last decade. Labour force participation rates of men, on the other hand, is around 70%. • Female unemployment rates high and persistent at around 12%, and it is twice higher than the unemployement rates of men. • The number of discouraged female workers, in other words those women who stopped looking for work, are also twice as large as that of male.

• Occupational segregation, both horizontal and vertical, is high and is rising. In 2014 only two of the 9 broad occupational categories were mixed occupations. Female dominated occupations included professionals, clerks and elementary occupations. • Only 20% of the managers are women, and this decreases significantly as we move towards top manager positions.

Turkey, 2016 Male LFPR Unemployment Rate Employment Status Employee Employer Own account worker Contributing family worker Female 71. 4 30. 4 9. 5 12. 1 69. 8 5. 8 20. 1 4. 3 63. 1 1. 2 9. 0 26. 7

Reasons for these outcomes There is no single-factor explanation • • • comparative advantages; underinvestment; entry barriers and organisational practices; differential income roles; socialisation and stereotypes

Comparative advantages • Biology - physical differences like muscular power • As technological progress evened out the role of physical characteristics, attention shifted to the brain or how the mind works. • Women show a high degree of verbal competence, men are better at solving abstract mathematical and visuo-spatial problems (Maccoby and Jacking, 1974) – can biology explain it alone? role of stereotypes? • Across countries, the ability score in mathematics for women is negatively correlated with measures of gender gap in status and other indices of gender inequality (Guiso et al. 2008)

Underinvestment • Human Capital Theory- Women underinvest in their education and skills training and therefore are more likely to be in poorlyskilled and poorly-paid areas of employment (Mincer, 1974; Heckman, 1979). • Even if gets tertiary level of education – there is segregation in the field of study- women prefer “soft” subjects – role of stereotypes here?

Barriers to entry and organisational practices • Formal barriers to entry to higher education or certain occupations • Biased entry and promotion of women • Predominantly male jobs have longer ladders. In female-dominated jobs, by contrast, the steps on ladders are closer together and therefore yield less advancement at each promotion (Peterson and Saporta, 2004; Barnett, Barron and Stuart, 2000).

Income and care roles • Women’s bargaining position tends to be lower – unequal distribution of care work and – Stereotypes about unequal commitment to securing monetary income for the family. • Women tend to do less hours of paid work/flexible hours in order to combine their roles as mother and wage earner • Women are often assumed not to ‘need’ as much (the ‘pin money’ stereotype).

Gender Socialisation and stereotypes

Social construction of gender • It refers to the many different processes by which the expectations associated with being a boy (and later a man) or being a girl (later a woman) are passed on through society. • Through – Families, peers – Schools – Mass media

These ideas deeply influence who we become, what others think of us, and the opportunities and choices available to us. Gender affects the opportunities and constraints we have throughout our lives. – Leads to gender stratification i. e. unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women

• Our preferences/perceptions related to labour market are also socially constructed via the labour market, as well as via the family and other social institutions • Women’s jobs vs Men’s jobs

Care taking roles Fathers of the Aka tribe in West Africa spend more time in close contact with their infant children than in any other society, indicating that society can play a role in influencing sex differences

Stereotypes an its impact Stereotypes: Beliefs about group that are often untrue or exaggerated as a description of the group • Research findings reveal that what people hear from others about whether their sex is better at something affects their confidence and even their actual performance - Women’s assessment of their math skills and differences in math test performance were influenced by disclosures of male superiority on tests

HOW TO OVERCOME GENDER INEQUALITY? • Increasing gender awareness • Transforming traditional gender roles • Breaking gender streotypes

Gender studies • REFUSE GENDER BASED DIVISION OF SPACES • OBJECT HIERARCHY BETWEEN SPACES • STIPULATE TRANSFORMATION OF TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES • PROVIDE THE ABOVE THREE AS THE BASE FOR GENDER EQUALITY

What and How to do? • Equality in opportunities • Equality in conditions • Transforming traditional gender roles • Breaking stereotypes

Equality in opportunities • • Education job promotion access to productive resources

Equality in conditions Providing equal conditions to women and men by considering differences

Equality in outcomes • Short term: Transforming (eliminating) inequalities in opportunities and conditions Toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliği

Medium run • Legal and institutional framework (constitution, equality mechanisms, eqaulity ombudsman etc. )

Long run • Transformation of traditional gender roles • gender awareness traınıng • gender focused policies • gender focused education curricula and institutions

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