ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some in-depth accounts of the reality of the lives of a number of different groups of women, all of whom work in the retail trade, and all of whom, although in different ways, are faced with the daily struggle of fitting together their obligations as employees with their obligations to their families. With the exception of that small minority who can aspire to middle-class professional careers, both British and German women are confronted by a highly gender-specific job market that discriminates against them in terms of the range of jobs open to them, the wages they receive and opportunities for promotion. One interesting difference between Britain and West Germany is the quite different attitude of the state to the family. In West Germany the family is seen as an important and specific area of concern for any Government, and this is reflected in the fact that there is a special ministry for ‘Youth, Family and Health’.
