A Review of Women’s Paid Employment in Europe, Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The chapter considers a number of factors which account for the present position of women in paid employment. This chapter utilises occupational, rather than industrial, data from Census Economic Activity Reports in order to draw temporal comparisons between women's paid employment. It discusses women's paid employment in Britain and Northern Ireland. The chapter outlines the part that women themselves have played in attempting to remove gender inequalities from the labour market. It explores that feminist movements have altered cultural perceptions, values and expectations in favour of women's rights; any lasting impact on the subordinated position of women in paid employment appears slight. Women's transformative capacity has not transformed the system of gender relations in which women are subordinated to men in a post-Fordist society as a whole. The chapter also demonstrates how women, as capable individuals, have 'acted otherwise' and have succeeded in 'breaking routines' through their 'transformative capacity', to revert to Giddens' terminology.