Locating Gender

Book excerpt: First published in 1994, Locating Gender combines a case-study approach with significant theoretical development to challenge explanations of occupational segregation. It examines the diversity of women’s employment experience, gender segregation within employment establishments, employment and domestic relations, and the place of gender in perceptions of inequality. The book develops the concepts of component-wage and full-wage jobs in the context of work histories and employment relations, and establishes their usefulness in the study of the social adequacy of wages. In doing so, it provides a close and critical examination of the power of gender as an explanatory concept in employment and domestic relations, including an in-depth analysis of the circumstances prior to, and following, changes to eliminate sex discrimination from official practices in a particular workplace. It will be of interest to students and researchers of gender studies, the sociology of work and social stratification, social policy, business studies, and labour economics.