ABSTRACT
Although the word is of ancient origin, the concept of 'proletarianisation' is invariably associated with Marx and Engels' account of the development of industrial capitalism. This chapter highlights male mobility and female participation in the non-manual labour force. In abstract terms, a manager may be said to be carrying out capital functions when he or she effectively controls either labour power or the material means of production. It is true that the vast majority of these managers did have a formal supervisory role. With the increasing recruitment of women into clerical work, it has been suggested that the non-manual labour force has been effectively structured into two tiers which broadly correspond to gender. Much of the expansion of female clerical employment has been 'in the most menial clerical tasks with limited opportunities for promotion'. Women's mobility chances are severely constrained by their domestic roles.
