ABSTRACT
Why do women work so hard and yet remain so much poorer than men? And why, at the end of the twentieth century, have the interventions of governments still not changed this basic fact? This book examines the ways in which women’s patterns of paid and unpaid work have been mediated by past and present social and economic policies, and whether these might conceivably change in the future. As the title, Working for Women?, implies, it is questionable whether most twentieth-century British governments have improved the position of working women relative to working men. Indeed, Working for Women? highlights a series of processes and strategies through which politicians of all major political parties (even when claiming to promote equality) have subverted feminist demands for improved economic rewards for women in paid employment and unpaid work. The evidence suggests that despite some feminist victories, patriarchal forces have combined to dominate government policy-making throughout the century.
