Women in low status part-time jobs: A class and gender analysis

Why, given all the problems associated with part-time employment in Britain , do women work part-time at all? Does the answer to this question lie in g ender-based explanations which focus on women's caring responsibilities? Th is paper addresses these issues by focusing on the relative experiences of the largest group of part-timers, women working in low status occupations. It is concluded that a gender-informed analysis of women's part-time employ ment is clearly vital, but an awareness of further dimensions of social ine quality is required if we are to understand diversity amongst part-timers. Relative to full-timers, part-timers are similar in their life-cycle positi ons, their marital status and motherhood status. However, incorporating a c lass analysis shows that part-timers in lower status jobs stand apart in th at they are disproportionately likely to have been brought up in working cl ass households and, as adults, they are more likely to be living in very lo w waged households with partners who are also in low paid manual occupation s. It is concluded that women go into the lowest status part-time jobs in s pecific social contexts and, as a result, we cannot lump together into one unified group, women working part-time in manual and higher status occupati ons, and then talk sensibly about part-time work and its impact on women. I t is essential to examine the interaction of gender and class inequalities to better understand these women's working lives.