IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v7y2002i3p3-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Young Women, Work and Inequality: Is it What They Want or What They Get? An Australian Contribution to Research on Women and Workforce Participation

Author

Listed:
  • Deidre Wicks
  • Gita Mishra
  • Lisa Milne

Abstract

The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health was established to track the health of three age cohorts of Australian women - 40,000 in total - over a twenty year period. It provides opportunities for research into health and related issues for women. In this paper, we investigate (1) baseline data from the young cohort of 1400 survey participants and (2) follow up in-depth interview data from a small sample of 57 of the original respondents. The focus of the paper is on the aspirations of young women (aged 18-23) for work, their ideal job, relationships (including children) and further education, particularly in the context of gender inequality in labour markets.Through an analysis of the data, we look at the extent to which gender inequalities are the result of free choices and preferences and to what extent they are conditioned by socio-economic structures and processes that reproduce inequalities over time. This issue is further explored through a classification of women by socio- economic status. In this way, we can analyse the gender dimension of labour market inequality in general as well as the relationship of gender inequality to class inequality in the areas of work, work choice and the ability to combine work and family responsibilities. Analysis of the two data sets sheds light on debates about women's workforce participation as well as establishing baseline data for future research on the options chosen and available for this group of young women. The results will have significance for policy debates in several areas, including those concerned with worker entitlements, childcare, access to higher education and workforce planning. More particularly, it makes a significant contribution to the current debate, initiated by Catherine Hakim, about women's supposed preference for part-time rather than full-time work.

Suggested Citation

  • Deidre Wicks & Gita Mishra & Lisa Milne, 2002. "Young Women, Work and Inequality: Is it What They Want or What They Get? An Australian Contribution to Research on Women and Workforce Participation," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 7(3), pages 3-18, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:7:y:2002:i:3:p:3-18
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.737
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.737
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.737?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Catherine Hakim, 1993. "The Myth of Rising Female Employment," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 7(1), pages 97-120, March.
    2. Gregory, R.G. & Hunter, B., 1995. "The Macro Economy and the Growth of Ghettos and Urban Poverty in Australia," CEPR Discussion Papers 325, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bob Gregory, 1999. "Children and the Changing Labour Market: Joblessness in Families with Dependent Children," CEPR Discussion Papers 406, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    2. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Disaggregated Models of Unemployment in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2000n16, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    3. Boyd Hunter, 1996. "Explaining Changes in the Social Structure of Employment: The Importance of Geography," Discussion Papers 0067, University of New South Wales, Social Policy Research Centre.
    4. Bernd Fitzenberger & Gaby Wunderlich, 2004. "The Changing Life Cycle Pattern In Female Employment: A Comparison Of Germany And The Uk," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(3), pages 302-328, August.
    5. Peter Dawkins & Paul Gregg & Rosanna Scutella, 2002. "The Growth of Jobless Households in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 35(2), pages 133-154, June.
    6. Ann Harding & Sue Richardson, 1998. "Unemployment and Income Distribution," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Guy Debelle & Jeff Borland (ed.),Unemployment and the Australian Labour Market, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    7. Mike Shields & Mark Wooden, 2003. "Investigating the Role of Neighbourhood Characteristics in Determining Life Satisfaction," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2003n24, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    8. Anh T. Le & Paul W. Miller, 2000. "Australia's Unemployment Problem," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 76(232), pages 74-104, March.
    9. Steffen Hillmert, 2002. "Deregulation of the labor market and chances of employment in Great Britain," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, February.
    10. Scott Baum & Michelle Haynes & Yolanda van Gellecum & Jung Hoon Han, 2006. "Advantage and Disadvantage across Australia's Extended Metropolitan Regions: A Typology of Socioeconomic Outcomes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(9), pages 1549-1579, August.
    11. Jeff Borland & Ian McDonald, 2000. "Labour Market Models of Unemployment in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2000n15, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    12. Christina Jonung & Inga Persson, 1993. "Women and Market Work: The Misleading Tale of Participation Rates in International Comparisons," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 7(2), pages 259-274, June.
    13. Robert Gregory & Boyd Hunter, "undated". "The Macro Economy and the Growth of Income and Employment Inequality in Australian Cities," Canadian International Labour Network Working Papers 03, McMaster University.
    14. Paul W. Miller, 1997. "The Burden of Unemployment on Family Units: An Overview," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 30(1), pages 16-30, March.
    15. Jay Ginn & Sara Arber, 2002. "Degrees of Freedom: Do Graduate Women escape the Motherhood Gap in Pensions?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 7(2), pages 1-17, May.
    16. Ilan Wiesel, 2014. "Mobilities of Disadvantage: The Housing Pathways of Low-income Australians," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(2), pages 319-334, February.
    17. Alexandra Heath, 1999. "Job-search Methods, Neighbourhood Effects and the Youth Labour Market," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp1999-07, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    18. Bernd Fitzenberger & Reinhold Schnabel & Gaby Wunderlich, 2004. "The gender gap in labor market participation and employment: A cohort analysis for West Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 17(1), pages 83-116, February.
    19. Gordon Waitt, 1999. "Playing Games with Sydney: Marketing Sydney for the 2000 Olympics," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 36(7), pages 1055-1077, June.
    20. Fabio B. LOSA & Pau ORIGONI, 2005. "The socio-cultural dimension of women's labour force participation choices in Switzerland," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 144(4), pages 473-494, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:7:y:2002:i:3:p:3-18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.