The Intra-family Distribution of Paid Work, 1968-81

Abstract

The changes that have taken place in women’s employment patterns, and the family changes with which they are associated, are at the heart of a number of contemporary issues of public policy. Public expenditure constraints and concern about the growing complexity of the social security systems have prompted a review of the social security system and have increased pressure for the integration of the tax and social security structures. The existing system derives from the Beveridge Report of 1942. Beveridge clearly related his social security system to interruptions from paid employment — both short-term interruptions in a person’s working life (sickness, unemployment) and longer-term withdrawal from the labour market (family formation, retirement). If calls for a new Beveridge Report are to be taken seriously, then the issues raised by the changes in women’s employment profiles should be at the very centre of the current political debate. Indeed, Beveridge’s assumptions about women’s employment and the economic dependence of married women have been under scrutiny over the last few years.