Full Description
The 1990s were heralded "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 question of whether, as the global economy increasingly depends on women, a growing but uneasy alliance between capitalism and feminism could be developing.
Contents
Introduction - women and work in the age of post-feminism; citizenship and flexible employment - homeworkers' and part-time workers' access to social rights in the UK; equal opportunities at work in France and Spain - theory and reality; vive la difference? - equal access to training at work for women in France and Britain; "it's no place for a lady" - an empirical study of the implementation of an equal opportunity policy within Northshire fire service; women choose low pay?; balancing acts - on the salience of sexuality and sexual identity for understanding the gendering of work and family-life opportunities; working life for Spanish women of the 1980s and its reflection in the novel "Amado Amo" by Rosa Montero; female labour migration to Japan - myth and reality; conclusion - that 2020 vision?
