Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Gendered labour market inequalities are a key area of feminist enquiry. Current approaches to theorising labour market inequalities usually conceive agentic social action and existing social structures as opposing forces, rather than as highly complex interwoven levels of social reality, which together constitute and reconstitute labour market inequalities over time. Further, these analyses tend to privilege either the social construction of gender or the different material circumstances of women’s lives in their accounts, inadequately addressing interfaces between ‘gender’ and the ‘material’. This study attempts to integrate these facets and levels of social reality more closely, offering an alternative account of how gendered labour market inequalities may be shored up or destablised over time. It builds on innovative work outside the field of labour market studies to do so. While the key existing accounts of labour market inequalities offer quite diverse explanations for these inequalities, gendered marital power relations and child-raising responsibilities, along with gendered patterns of participation in, and outcomes from, education and paid work are prominent features of them all. To acknowledge this prior research and some of its insights, analysis of the ‘transitions’ young women are currently making in these domains is a central feature of this study. In doing so, I acknowledge the wealth of research and debate on the late modern fracturing of youth to ‘adult’ transitions, and the future social changes these imply. I further suggest that disruptions and continuities in the forms of education, work, parenting and relationships that young Australian women aspire to, along with shifts in the timing and form of these transitions, have important potential implications for the maintenance or destabilisation of existing broader labour market inequalities over time. The alternative account offered here is developed by drawing on data gathered through a mixed methods study design, incorporating qualitative interviews and survey responses from groups of high SES and low SES young Australian women. Young women’s accounts of their aspirations for parenting, partnering, education and work, are treated using discursive analysis of the interview texts and comparison of these findings with descriptive statistics generated from the survey results. Theoretically, this analysis is guided by feminist poststructuralist notions of discourse, subject positioning and subjectivity. However, these poststructuralist concepts are reconciled with a notion of socio-cultural capital as a resource, developed to allow a ‘materialist’ edge in the empirical analyses. Additionally, insights from complexity thought provide a means for this study to conceive of the relationships between macro social structures and micro social processes as co-producing the labour market inequalities that the study addresses. The thesis of this study is that the social construction of gender, the material circumstances of women’s lives, and their agentic negotiations with these, are critical and interactive features of an adequate account of the processes through which labour market inequalities are shored up or destabilised over time. I suggest that the synthesised theoretical framework developed and presented here may be highly effective for this task. The contribution of the study is therefore fourfold. Firstly, it provides a snapshot of the transitions young Australian women with different material circumstances are making into relationships and parenting, education and work. Secondly, it offers novel insights into the processes through which labour market inequalities may be maintained or not. Thirdly, it offers an integrated account of the interplay between discursive/cultural and material/economic social forces in producing these inequalities. Finally, it augments existing scholarship by introducing an innovative theoretical synthesis to the study of labour market inequalities.

Objective: To study the psychometric properties and construct validity of a multidimensional instrument to measure employment precariousness; to assess the association between employment precariousness and poor mental health; to estimate the prevalence and distribution of employment precariousness in the Spanish workforce; and to estimate the population attributable fraction of poor mental health due to employment precariousness. Methods: Cross-sectional study using data from the Psychosocial Work Environment Survey conducted in 2004-2005 in Spain. Representative sample of 6968 temporary and permanent workers with a formal work contract. Main results: The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) proved to be an acceptable and psychometrically sound measurement instrument. A high score of employment precariousness was associated with more than double the prevalence of poor mental health than a low score, both in women and men and after adjustments for relevant indicators of social position. More than 45% of the sample was exposed to some degree of precariousness, over 6.5% to high precariousness, with a highly unequal distribution across groups of workers. With due caution, it was estimated that if the observed association were causal, between 11% and 23% of poor mental health in the working population in Spain could be attributable to employment precariousness. Conclusions: Results highlight the relevance of employment precariousness for the mental health of the Spanish workforce. The EPRES is a promising tool for future research. / Objetivo: Estudiar las propiedades psicométricas y la validez de constructor de un instrumento multidimensional para medir la precariedad laboral; estudiar la asociación entre precariedad laboral y mala salud mental; estimar la prevalencia y distribución de la precariedad laboral en la fuerza de trabajo Española; y calcular la fracción atribuible poblacional de mala salud mental debida a la precariedad laboral. Métodos: Estudio transversal con datos de la Encuesta de Factores de Riesgo Psicosociales realizada entre 2004 y 2005 en España. Muestra representativa de 6.968 trabajadores temporales y permanentes con contrato formal de trabajo. Resultados principales: La Escala de Precariedad Laboral (EPRES) demostró tener buenas propiedades psicométricas. Una puntuación alta en la escala se asoció con una prevalencia dos veces más elevada de mala salud mental que una puntuación baja, tanto en mujeres como en hombres y aun después de varios ajustes por indicadores de posición social. Más del 45% de la muestra estaba expuesta a algún grado de precariedad laboral, más del 6,5% a precariedad laboral alta, con una distribución muy desigual entre distintos grupos de trabajadores. Con la debida precaución, se estimó que si la asociación observada es causal, entre el 11% y 23% de la mala salud mental de la población trabajadora española podría ser atribuible a la precariedad laboral. Conclusiones: Los resultados destacan la importancia que la precariedad laboral puede tener para la salud mental de la población trabajadora Española. La EPRES es un instrumento útil para investigaciones futuras