Feminization of the labour force : paradoxes and promises

This book is an international analysis of the lives of women in paid work. The authors' starting point is the post-war increase in the numbers of women in the paid labour force. They examine how this process took place in Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden, Italy, Canada and the United States, and the reactions it provoked from the state, trade unions and employers. Throughout the book, the writers emphasize women's ability to create and maintain their paid jobs despite many obstacles, and the new possibilities for role-changing which a wide variety of women have brought to their work and their lives in general. This book should be of interest to students and researchers in political science, sociology, womens' studies, economics and political economy.

• 1. Elisabeth Hagen and Jane Jenson, "Paradoxes and Promises: Work and Politics in the Post-War Years" 2. Isabella Bakker, "Women's Employment in Comparative Perspective" 3. Veronica Beechey, "Rethinking the Definition of Work: Gender and Work"
• Part I: A Changing Labour Force: Paradoxes of Feminization
• 4. Pat Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong, "Taking Women into Account: Redefining and Intensifying Employment in Canada" 5. Jane Humphries and Jill Rubery, "Recession and Exploitation: British Women in a Changing Workplace 1979-1985" 6. Elisabeth Vogelheim, "Women in a Changing Workplace: The Case of the Federal Republic of Germany" 7. Daniela del Boca, "Women in a Changing Place: The Case in Italy" 8. Peter Albin and Eileen Appelbaum, "The Computer Rationalization of Work: Implications for Women Workers"
• Part II: The Policy Process: Promises Broken or Renewed?
• 9. Jane Jenson, "The Limits of And The' Discourses: French Women as Marginal Workers" 10. Mary Ruggie, "Gender, Work, and Social Progess: Some Consequences of Interest Aggregation in Sweden" 11. Ronnie Steinberg, "The Unsubtle Revolution: Women, the State and Equal Employment" 12. Harold Brackman, Steven P. Erie, and Martin Rein, "Wedded to the Welfare State: Women Against Reaganite Retrenchment" 13. Gisela Erler, "The German Paradox: Non-Feminization of the Labour Force and Post-Industrial Social Policies"
• Part III: Women's Identities: Into the Future
• 14. Anni Borzeix and Margaret Maruani, "When A Strike Comes Marching Home" 15. Anne-Marie Daune-Richard, "Gender Relations and Female Labour: A Consideration of Sociological Categories" 16. Barbara Sichtermann, "The Conflict Between Housework and Employment: Some Notes on Women's Identity"
• List of Contributors