1st Edition

Women and Work The Age of Post-Feminism?

By Liz Sperling, Mairead Owen Copyright 2000

    This title was first published in 2000:  The 1990s have been heralded as the 'age of women' based on the facts that, globally, more women are benefiting from formal education and are in paid employment in greater numbers than ever. As such, the possibility that an age of post-feminism has been reached, in which battles for women’s basic rights have largely been won, is implied. This book, based on research across academic disciplines, challenges such claims. Using women and work as the basis analysis, the authors consider whether such things as flexible working, equal opportunities initiatives and even contemporary conceptions of citizenship are universally beneficial to women. The book presents research ranging from issues of immigrant sex-workers in Japan to the implementation of EU equality policies and raises the ironic question that, as the global economy increasingly depends on women, could a growing but uneasy alliance be developing between capitalism and feminism?

    Contents: Introduction: women and work in the age of post-feminism, Liz Sperling; Citizenship and flexible employment: homeworkers’ and part-time workers’ access to social rights in the UK, Joanne Cook; Equal opportunities at work in France and Spain: theory and reality, Hilary Rollin and Jean Burrell; Vive la différence?: equal opportunities and access to training at work for women in France and Britain, Catherine Fletcher; Its no place for a lady: an empirical study of the implementation of an equal opportunity policy within Northshire fire service, Andrea Lee; Women choose low pay?, Linda Walsh and Liz James; Balancing acts: on the salience of sexuality and sexual identity for understanding the gendering of work and family-life opportunities, Gillian A. Dunne; Working life for Spanish women of the 1980s and its reflection in the novel Amado Amo by Rosa Montero, Lesley Twomey; Female labour migration to Japan: myth and reality, Nicola Piper; Conclusion: that 2020 vision?, Mairead Owen; Index.

    Biography

    Liz Sperling, Mairead Owen