ABSTRACT
The ‘conventional view’ is that the social class of women is determined by the occupational class of their fathers before marriage and their husbands after it: ‘the way in which women have been located in the class structure has reflected their general position of dependence’ (Goldthorpe, 1980, p. 282; 1983). This view is part of the separation in much of the sociological literature of the public and private spheres of work and home. It has led to a blinkered vision through which women were seen in terms of their domestic roles, while men were seen as breadwinners primarily located in the work place (the home was not by this definition a place of work). Although recent research on female employment, household endeavours, and intra-household inequalities in terms of class of partners, and differential access to goods and income has challenged this view (Pahl, R., 1984; Crompton and Sanderson in the previous chapter; Paul, J., 1983; Brannen and Wilson, 1987), there is still little acknowledgment that a man’s domestic circumstances are relevant to his labour market behaviour and class location.
