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The Restructuring of the Gendered Political Economy: Transformations in Women’s Employment

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Towards a Gendered Political Economy

Abstract

Both gender relations and politics are crucial parts of the understanding of the changes in the gendered political economy. Gender relations in the economy are undergoing complex transformations, creating divergent dynamics in different sectors. The development of flexibility using women’s part-time work has been central to the creation of a low-wage low-skill strategy in key parts of the British economy. Yet not only are women entering employment as never before, but they are also gaining more higherlevel jobs. These two quite distinct patterns, women entering top jobs and women as core to the flexible part-time sector, are bound up with wider changes in the gender regime from domestic to public form (Walby, 1990, 1997). A crucial element in these transformations has been the political level, and the long-run consequences of both women’s and men’s collective political agency.

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© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Walby, S. (2000). The Restructuring of the Gendered Political Economy: Transformations in Women’s Employment. In: Cook, J., Roberts, J., Waylen, G. (eds) Towards a Gendered Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230373150_9

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