Gender inequality

• Separate gender roles are helpful to society according to Parsons.
• Women are more suited for 'expressive roles' such as caring and emotional jobs.
• Men are suited for 'instrumental roles' such as competitive and aggressive jobs.
• Women will be less motivated or suited to the labour market, so they are paid less due to role allocation theory.
• The pay gap is justified as men have a greater orientation to paid work according to C- Sommerville, a Liberal Feminist.
• Human Capital Theory states that Human capital is knowledge, competency, attitude, and behaviour embedded in an individual, as per Rastogi.
• Women earn less as they are less likely to invest in their training because they are expected to be less committed to paid employment due to career breaks for children, according to feminists.
• Women choose roles that are less functionally unique so are not rewarded highly, and they choose to work part-time (40%) so are allocated less pay, according to feminists.
• Mothering isn’t functionally unique as most women do it, so it doesn’t need high rewards, according to feminists.
• Women cluster in lower-paid jobs (horizontal segregation) and fewer of them are in higher-paid jobs (vertical segregation), according to Marxists feminists.
• Meritocracy is an ideal society where positions are based off skills and merit, but if we live in a meritocracy, women must have less merit than men since they are rewarded less, according to feminists.
• Marxist explanations include the reserve army of labour, where the reserve army is used to suppress demands for higher wages, and women fill the reserve army of labour.
• Friedman argues that women fill the reserve army of labour due to married women being 'secondary workers' whose main responsibility is children and are dependent on their husband’s wages, making them more willing to leave employment if demand drops.
• Racism, capitalism, and patriarchy are interacting systems that need analysis.
• Radical feminists fail to prioritise women’s issues.
• Small sample and interpretivist methods are used by radical feminists, making their research subjective.
• Cultural capital is lower for women due to male culture including talking about sport or golf which may lead to business opportunities.
• Women working in London sued for discrimination as they were excluded from after-work parties that included strip clubs.
• Cultural capital is difficult to define, with Bourdieu being accused of suggesting one culture is superior, to which he stated that neither was better, one is just more powerful.
• Wilkinson argues there has been a feminisation of the workplace.
• Weber explains inequality can be explained through examining social class, status, and power between groups.
• Marxists see class, status, and party as matched dimensions, with women having less power/status as their relationship to the means of production is weaker.
• Liberal Feminists campaign to get women more power, such as equal opportunities and pay.
• Dual labour market theory divides the labour market into a primary and secondary sector, with the primary sector being secure, well-paid jobs that are dominated by men and the secondary sector being poor pay, insecurity, no ladder of promotion- disproportionately made up of women.
• Parsons argues women choose their position on the labour market and favour ‘expressive’ roles.
• Hakim argues women exclude themselves from the primary market as their preference is for caring roles and part-time work that fits around domestic duties.
• Parkin argues women are blocked through social closure/exclusion strategy which aim to maintain privilege for certain groups- such as men-only private member clubs.
• Coussins argues the sex discrimination act is ‘feeble’ as it does not apply to all areas of employment.
• Hutton argues Britain is dividing into a 40/30/30 society, with the top 40% of the working population being privileged, the next 30% being insecure or marginalised, and the bottom 30% being disadvantaged.
• Adkins argues Hutton is descriptive rather than analytic, emphasising the sexualisation of women’s work as a feature of the labour market and jobs are seen as clearly gendered, like hospitality.
• Adkins studied hotels and pubs and found the patriarchy was demonstrated in the male being given the position and salary of a manager and women’s earning were 25% of that.
• Functionalists argue that people are lower paid as they don’t have the skills to be allocated the best roles, and they reject the idea that structural forces are to blame for an inferior position.
• The family props up the capitalist system, according to Feeley, as children of nuclear families are preconditioned to accept capitalist hierarchy, power, and control, as they were taught to submit to a parental authority that stems from patriarchy.
• Socialised into the idea that it is natural for men to be the breadwinners, which is passed down and reproduces capitalist hierarchy, according to Walby.
• Triple system feminists argue that there is a lack of investment that causes inequality, but this is not a choice, and women are exploited by men so they can maintain their positions of power.
• Men deliberately exclude women to their economic advantage, and the idea that women are natural ‘mothers’ means men get to keep senior roles, according to feminists.
• Role allocation theory suggests that men train longer, work longer, and have more people depending on them so they get more pay to keep them motivated, while women choose roles that are less functionally unique so are not rewarded highly, and they choose to work part-time (40%) so are allocated less pay.
• Mothering isn’t functionally unique as most women do it, so it doesn’t need high rewards, according to feminists.
• Women cluster in lower-paid jobs (horizontal segregation) and fewer of them are in higher-paid jobs (vertical segregation), according to Marxists feminists.
• Meritocracy is an ideal society where positions are based off skills and merit, but if we live in a meritocracy, women must have less merit than men since they are rewarded less, according to feminists.