The Contradictions and Intersections of Class and Gender in a Global City: Placing Working Women's Lives on the Research Agenda

Linda McDowell, Diane Perrons, Colette Fagan, Kath Ray and Kevin Ward
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Linda McDowell: School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, England
Diane Perrons: Department of Geography, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, England
Colette Fagan: Department of Sociology, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, England
Kath Ray: Policy Studies Institute, 100 Park Village East, London NW1 3SR, England
Kevin Ward: School of Geography, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, England

Environment and Planning A, 2005, vol. 37, issue 3, 441-461

Abstract: In this paper we examine the relationships between class and gender in the context of current debates about economic change in Greater London. It is a common contention of the global city thesis that new patterns of inequality and class polarisation are apparent as the expansion of high-status employment brings in its wake rising employment in low-status, poorly paid ‘servicing’ occupations. Whereas urban theorists tend to ignore gender divisions, feminist scholars have argued that new class and income inequalities are opening up between women as growing numbers of highly credentialised women enter full-time, permanent employment and others are restricted to casualised, low-paid work. However, it is also argued that working women's interests coincide because of their continued responsibility for domestic obligations and still-evident gender discrimination in the labour market. In this paper we counterpose these debates, assessing the consequences for income inequality, for patterns of childcare and for work–life balance policies of rising rates of labour-market participation among women in Greater London. We conclude by outlining a new research agenda.

Date: 2005
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:37:y:2005:i:3:p:441-461

DOI: 10.1068/a3781

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