This chapter presents a broad outline of the public policy context in which the topic of gender and local labour markets addressed in this book needs to be understood. It lays out our claim that while public policy has engaged very actively with the labour market in recent decades, it has not done so in ways that offer most women – especially poor or disadvantaged women – opportunities for change, achievement of their potential, or equal access to the best rewarded and most influential labour market positions.

In the opening sections of the chapter we outline some of the major...

This chapter outlines a set of difficulties – conceptualised here as ‘myths, puzzles and problems’ – that need to be addressed if women’s position in their local labour markets is to be understood, explained and addressed in public policy. It draws on a reading of the now extensive literature on women and the labour market, and considers some of the ‘received wisdom’ about women and employment. The chapter identifies a number of themes to which we return in later chapters of the book. In it, we highlight some aspects of women’s employment and labour market situation that remain poorly understood,...

A primary aim of the GELLM research programme was to uncover, through secondary analysis of official statistics at the local level, a truer picture of women’s and men’s situations in the labour market in England. Earlier work in this field showed that central government often relied on national level analysis to assess men’s and women’s position in the labour market and to set the level of any employment targets, despite the fact that much implementation of labour market policy falls to local and regional agencies (Bruegel, 2000; DWP, 2007). The European Union had already set an overall employment target of...

This chapter considers the labour market situation and labour force participation of ethnic minority women, focusing on three topics: the local labour market situation, in two locations, of Indian women, numerically one of the most important minorities in the English labour market; the position of two much smaller ethnic minority groups (Pakistani and Bangladeshi women), again in two specific local labour markets; and the relationship between changing levels of qualification, different family circumstances and labour market participation among Black Caribbean women.

The evidence presented is drawn from several sources: statistical analysis of the local labour market situation of ethnic minority...

In this chapter, we argue that the difficulty some women face in accessing employment opportunities has been poorly understood by those designing and implementing employment policies. We examine why this is a problem and explore the position of women who are on the margins of the labour market. For this group of women, and for those women who are, in effect, excluded from the labour market, access to local employment is crucial. If labour market analysis and policy are to be effective, we need to understand why routes into the labour market work so inadequately for many women, and why,...

This chapter explores formal approaches to job design and more informal workplace decisions, processes and practices relating to the structure and content of part-time jobs. It shows that these factors increase the tendency for women to experience economic disadvantage and poor-quality working lives, and play an important role in sustaining and reinforcing gender inequalities in employment. The chapter demonstrates that in many workplaces employers approach the design of part-time jobs, in a range of aspects, in a distinct way; the chapter seeks to explain the reasons for this. It also shows that there are more informal workplace processes, practices and...

This chapter takes up the issues facing women with the skills and qualifications to progress to the most senior levels in the labour market. Research by employers and academics shows that women are very poorly represented in the boardroom and in senior management teams, despite over three decades of legislation and policy interventions on their behalf. Herein lies the puzzle. Do women themselves lack commitment to their jobs and to earning their own money, and are they uncomfortable wielding power, as some have suggested? Or are structural explanations, and the indirect discrimination found in workplace cultures and processes of advancement,...