ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to identify processes involved in the reproduction and transformation of occupational segregation in the telephonist and postal jobs, and the significance of gendered experience within these processes. The initial interest in this study of occupational segregation is the structuring of women's and men's employment before and after the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act in 1975. The chapter discusses the social changes that occurred in the postal jobs during the decade of the 1970s, and begins with a description of the two areas of employment at the end of the decade. One might think this premise would be confirmed by a case study of employment in the Post Office, where gender-segregated grades were official employment policy for many years and where overt sex discrimination severely limited women's access to equal conditions and opportunities of employment. The discomfort and hardship postwomen experienced as a consequence of the sex discrimination operating in their working environment cannot be minimized.
