The past decade has witnessed a debate in the literature over the best way to explain patterns of gender inequality. The central objective of contributions has been to understand the processes which underlie differences in the experiences of men and women. Particular concern is directed at processes which lead to women's unpaid labour in the home and to their position, vis-a-vis men, in paid employment where they are found in segregated and low paid occupations. Theoretical developments range from dual systems approaches, which try to explain gender by combining a theory of patriarchy with a marxist theory of capitalism, to approaches which argue for a single, integrated explanation of production and reproduction. This thesis assesses these developments and finds current understandings lacking in two respects. Firstly, although there is a recognition of the inadequacy of marxist categories in accounting for gender they are, nonetheless, given a central place in explanations. Similarly, variation in the experience of men and women are often discussed but are rarely incorporated into theoretical explanations where they appear as significant categories. A large part of the problem stems from the abstract level at which the development of explanations has been carried out. The argument presented here is that advances in theoretical explanation require that the processes underlying patterns of gendered experience are properly identified, and that this can only be achieved by a thorough empirical examination of the wider context in which women labour. Those contributing to the debate have focused on a few symbolic occurrences in the nineteenth century such as protective legislation, male trade union exclusivism and the family wage.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:645161 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Crockett, Nicole J. |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26419 |
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