Ideas@TheCentre
Women's work, or just another day in the office?
Are you back at work after the summer holidays but would rather be at home? According to British sociologist Catherine Hakim, if you're a woman and you answered yes, you're not alone.
In her new paper Feminist Myths and Magic Medicine, Hakim argues that for busy mothers tired of juggling both full-time parenting and full-time work, 'financial dependence on a man has lost none of its attractions.'
Hakim's provocative paper argues that contrary to what many feminists and equal pay advocates think, equal opportunity legislation has actually been quite successful. She believes that women now have more choices than men, having the opportunity to either work or parent, or some combination of both. For Hakim, this legal equality shows that the persistent gaps in average income and job status between the sexes exist not because of discrimination but because of the different choices men and women make.
Critics across the globe have been quick argue that many women are pushed (often unconsciously) into part-time work or full-time parenting by a culture that still sees home production as 'women's work.' Moreover, women often make the practical decision to leave the breadwinning to a husband who will be better placed to negotiate the male-dominated corporate world.
But Hakim has her supporters, too. Both ordinary women and columnists have pointed out that the she is only speaking an uncomfortable truth. For every woman enthusiastically smashing the glass ceiling, there is another longing to be home with her kids. For every woman driven by a passionate devotion to her work, there is another who simply shows up because the bills have to be paid.
Most responses to my unscientific straw poll agree that vestiges of (often subtle) discrimination against women in the workplace remain. So too does the expectation that mothers will take on the lion's share of parenting work regardless of their job commitments. All agree that choices about work and parenting are usually made in the context of constrained financial circumstances. But most also laugh off the suggestion that all differences come down to discrimination.
Public debate about women's role in the workplace and the home is often couched in terms of 'what women want.' But 'women' are not a homogenous group. Individual women want a multitude of different things. Our goal should be to allow them to realise these often very different aspirations.
Jessica Brown is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies.
