The Paula Principle

Paula at work

I’m aiming to build up examples of the PP in operation at the workplace – at all levels.

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
Read More

‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
Read More

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
Read More

‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
Read More

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
Read More

‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
Read More

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
Read More

‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
Read More

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
Read More

‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
Read More

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
Read More

‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
Read More

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
Read More

‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
Read More

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
Read More

‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
Read More

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
Read More

‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
Read More

The Double X Economy and measuring things

Professor Linda Scott from Oxford University has coined the term the Double X economy to refer to the need to look at global economic issues through different eyes.   Now the competition is strong for catchy concepts which might waft their author to fame and fortune.  But this one has a very down-to-earth application.  I'd urge you to listen to the part in Scott's inaugural lecture where she talks about what it means for girls in many Afircan countries to have to use cloth rags as sanitary towels. Scott is an economist who has plenty to say about the failings of neo-liberal approaches, but also about the irrelevance of some radical critiques.  She reminds…
Read More

Working hours: do Brits work the longest?

It's a fairly common belief that the British are the long hours 'champions' of Europe (the commas are deliberately ironic - see below).  This is usually seen to be partly the result of our opt-out from the European Working Time Directive.   Some of those working very long hours are right at the bottom end of the wage hierarchy, and have to work massive overtime to make a living wage.  At the other end are those who have committed themselves to the corporation body and perhaps soul, working all hours but for very high  rewards. Certainly in my field of adult education when people are asked about what stops them taking part in education or training,…
Read More

Segregation complications

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.)  Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high.  I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…
Read More

Culture and change: last session of Women and Skills Commission

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson.  Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport;  she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents  the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills .  (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture  - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work.  She stressed the need…
Read More

part-time pathways

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening  Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap.  I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time.  I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source.  It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether.   The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…
Read More

Clean sweeps and clear-outs

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before:  "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions."  Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success.  It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title).  Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the  novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner.    Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all?  Add that to…
Read More

Women and work in literature

Examples from fiction to illustrate the Paula Principle in relation  to  female success (or lack of it) in education are quite easy to find;  Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is particularly well-known, as bright and bookish Maggie is denied access to school, whilst cloddish brother Tom is sent, at great cost, to a useless tutor.  But the other side of the PP equation is more problematic -  I've had more difficulty finding my way to illustrations from novels of how women don't make it to positions at work which exercise their full competence.  I have the data, but need the colour. At the foot of this blog is one example which I've…
Read More

older women

Jackie Ashley's piece in today's Guardian  is subtitled 'the nation's great untapped resource' and makes a strong case for paying attention to the competences of older women.  This generation of 50+ women is the first to have a high level of qualifications, and far fewer of them have no qualifications at all.  So we need to think much more about how they can play a full part in paid as well as unpaid work.  She makes a powerful argument that this affects us all, for fairness and efficiency reasons. Ashley quotes some significant changes in attitude compared to 30 years ago.  In 1984 65% of women agreed that a husband's…
Read More

Aspirations and ambitions

In Winifred Holtby's South Riding, published in 1936,  Lydia Holly is the eldest daughter of a large and poor family living in a converted railway carriage.  She is 'an untidy fat loutish girl in a torn overall' - but she shows evident signs of cleverness, and her mother sees this.  "Her mother  was a fighter; her mother had insisted  that she take the second chance of a scholarship to Kiplington High School.  When she was eleven she had  won a place at Kiplington, but her parents had needed her to escort her small sisters to the village school, so she had missed her chance.  Now Daisy was old enough to…
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‘Part-time’ working again, and inequality

Two strong further prompts that rethinking how we use 'part-time' is an urgent and important task.  I visited Emma Stewart, co-founder of WomenLikeUs, and she told me about their work in developing a better match between supply and demand in higher quality part-time jobs.  Only a tiny proportion of job vacancies - around 3% - are available on a part-time basis and at a salary level over £20K.  This contrasts with the 55% that are available full-time at this level.  So for every 'good' part-time position, there are 18 full-time positions.  This fits  very poorly with the large numbers of people - mostly women - who are well qualified and capable…
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