ABSTRACT
Unemployment The term unemployment refers to the condition of those who are without paid w o r k . Traditionally, women’s unemployment merited little attention, as men were expected to provide for their household. As women’s labour-market participation increases, however, they are more likely to regis ter as unemployed if they are made redundant. In many societies, however, it is difficult to calculate rates of unemployment when paid work is often casual, interrupted or in the informal sector. JW
Universalism
Universalism is problematic for feminism: ideas that are at least potentially universal in scope are often useful but carry attendant dangers. This can be illustrated in relation to the idea that women have certain things in common. On the one hand it forms a basis for the development of a political movement of women: what brings women together to resist oppression based on experi ences common to women. But on the other hand, presumptions about what women are like homogenise diverse experiences and generate stereotypes that feminists have been keen to contest. Related to this, feminists have criti cised many conceptual claims about ‘people’ on the grounds that they refer implicitly to men or to masculine positions or experiences and are therefore false universalisms (Gilligan, 1982; Lloyd, 1984).
