Abstract
It is appropriate to begin an analysis of discrimination against women in employment by reference ab initio to the family and the female role within it. This follows from the fact that much of what passes for discrimination can be seen as stemming from the role differentiation implied by the organisational framework of the family. If indeed women are to achieve full equality in the labour force some reassessment of the traditional division of labour in the household would seem to be a necessary if not sufficient condition for the attainment of this objective. Despite the importance of the subject, however, concentration on market activities has at least until recently led to the neglect of non-market productive activities. This is perhaps exemplified in conventional measures of national income which exclude the value of housewives’ services on the grounds of estimation difficulties, although conceptually some account ought to be taken of them. Recently, however, a number of economists, particularly in the United States, have emphasised the need to distinguish and analyse (paid) market work, (unpaid) household work, and leisure within an environment in which the family operates as a utility-maximising entity under certain constraints. Thus marriage itself, family size, the value of housewives’ time, household production and even church attendance have been given an economic interpretation. Whilst much of this work is not directly related to the question of discrimination, such studies do provide some pointers to differences in behaviour patterns relating to labour force participation and hence indicate underlying factors germane to the practice of discrimination on the part of both employers and employees.
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Notes
M. Fisher, The Economic Analysis of Labour ( London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971 ), ch. 6, ‘Labour Supply and the Family’.
For a detailed analysis see S. Linder, The Harried Leisure Class (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970 ).
This is illustrated in Vernon’s product life cycle. See R. Vernon (ed.), The Technology Factor in International Trade ( New York: Columbia University Press, 1970 ).
M. P. Fogarty, Rhona Rapoport and Robert Rapoport, Sex, Career and Family ( London: Political and Economic Planning and Allen & Unwin, 1971 ).
See Alice Yohalem, ‘The Potential of Educated Women’, in Eli Ginsberg et al., Manpower Strategy for the Metropolis ( New York: Columbia University Press, 1968 ).
Arleen Leibowitz, ‘Education and Home Production’, American Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings (May 1974).
See for instance G. S. Becker, ‘On the Relevance of the New Economics of the Family’, American Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings (May 1974).
Glen G. Cain, Married Women in the Labour Force: An Economic Analysis ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966 ).
For a full discussion of this see K. Strand and T. Dernburg, ‘Cyclical Variations in Civilian Labour Force Participation’, Review of Economics and Statistics (1964).
In the latter case see for instance L. C. Hunter, ‘Cyclical Variations in the Labour Supply: British Experience 1951–1960’, Oxford Economic Papers (1963);
B. A. Corry and J. A. Roberts, ‘Activity Rates and Unemployment; the Experience of the United Kingdom 1951–1966’, Applied Economics, 2, 3 (1970); and ‘Activity Rates and Unemployment: The U.K. Experience 1951–1970: A Reappraisal’, Applied Economics, 6, 1 (1974).
William G. Bowen and T. Aldrich Finegan, The Economics of Labour Force Participation ( Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969 ).
D. Bailey, ‘Married Women in the Labour Force: A Cross-sectional Analysis’, Department of Economics, University of East Anglia, Discussion Paper no. 17 (Aug 1973).
Clarence D. Long, The Labour Force under Changing Income and Employment N.B.E.R. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958 ).
Norton T. Dodge, Women in the Soviet Economy ( Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1966 ).
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© 1976 Brian Chiplin and Peter J. Sloane
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Chiplin, B., Sloane, P.J. (1976). Non-Market Work and the Family. In: Sex Discrimination in the Labour Market. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02784-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02784-2_2
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