Achieving Equality in the Knowledge Economy

Kate Purcell and Peter EliasOctober 2005

Paper prepared for the conference ‘Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Women and Employment

Survey: Changes in Women’s Employment 1980-2005’, Department of Trade and Industry, London,

5 December 2005

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005

Source: www.statistics.gov.uk/ downloads/ theme_labour/ LMS_FR_HS/ WebTable03.xls

Male employees full time

Male employees part time

Female employees full time

Female employees part time

Trends in employees in employment by hours worked and gender, GB, 1984 - 2005

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000

20,000

1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013

SOC2000 Major Groups 1, 2 and 3

SOC2000 Major Groups 4, 5, 6, 7, 8and 9

Changing structure of occupations, UK, 1984-2014

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

1984

1994

2004

2014

1984

1994

2004

2014

Mal

es

Fem

ales

Major Groups 1,2 and 3 (left hand side) and 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (right hand side)

Changing ratios of high and lower level occupations by gender, 1984 - 2014

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Source: Elias and Purcell (2004)

API (

%)

Participation by young people in Higher Education, Age Participation Index (API) Great Britain, 1961 to 2001

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Age

Hou

rly e

arni

ngs (

£/hr

)

Male, first degree

Female, first degree

Male, A levels

Female, A levels

Average hourly earnings of graduates (first degree only) and non-graduates (A-levels only), by age and gender

The data we use• Longitudinal survey of 50% of 1995 cohort:

surveyed 3.5 and 7 years after graduation, in 1998/9 and 2002/3, from 38 UK Higher Education Institutions, including full work histories

• Follow-up programme of telephone and face to face interviews with 200 1995 cohort

• Telephone interviews with a sample of 1995 ‘high fliers’ 10 years on

• Investigation of relevant secondary data sources

Average annual gross earnings of 1995 graduates by gender

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Almost exc. bymen

Mainly by men Fairly equal mix Mainly bywomen

Almost exc. bywomen

Male

Female

Occupational workplace context by gender

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Residual genderdifference

Adjusted for weeklyhours, sectors and

workplace segmentation

Adjusted for weeklyhours and sector

Adjusted for weeklyhours

Unadjusted genderdifference

% difference between female annual gross earnings and male annual gross earnings

The combined effects of various factors on the gender difference in annual earnings of 1995 graduates seven years after graduation

Why?

• The jobs they do?

• Reasons for taking jobs?

• Career orientations and values?

• Non-work variables?

A comparison of key career outcomes for three graduate categories

Subject studied

Humanities Law Engineering

MalesFemal

esMales

Females

MalesFemal

es

Gender ratios 44:56 50:50 90:10

Average earnings

£30,033

£24,114

£43,458

£33,824

£31,837

£28,789

Gender pay gap 20% 22 % 10%

Using degree subject knowledge in current job

31% 37% 85% 79% 75% 50%

Using degree skills 69% 74% 94% 89% 86% 75%Source: Seven Years On: a survey of the career paths of 1995 graduates

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Male Female

% r

espo

ndin

g aff

irm

ativ

ely

Does not live with partner

Lives with partner

Whether respondents expected to achieve a higher position within the next five years, by gender and whether or not

had a partner

Themes that emerged in the Seven Years On research

• The significance of life cycle stage

• Values and career orientations largely similar for women and men but some significant differences

• The significance of partnership

• Differences in explanations for different earnings and career outcomes from graduates in different sectors and occupations

Work-based issues that emerged in the Seven Years On interviews:

Gender stereotyping

The impact on earnings and career development of family-building on both career-committed women and men

Sex discrimination and sexual harassment

The 1995 ‘High Flyers’ 10 years on:

• mainly in their early 30s; • mainly living with a partner; • at an age when major life plans about

career and family development are on their agenda and many are beginning family formation;

• most of the women aspire to continue to their career development;

• several women have aspirations to move to more ‘generative’ careers.

Careers as a joint project

•Neo-traditional

•Compound

•Complex

NB: impact of life-cycle stage

'That's a hard question. I think they are equally important. Financially, obviously not! Maybe she doesn't see it the same way as I do. In terms of allowances that both of us make for each other's career and in terms of either of us saying - I need to work late on this… - they are equally important. She earns a lot more money than I do. We could survive if I lost my job, our lifestyle would continue in exactly the same way as it does now if I lost my job, but if she lost hers we would have to sell the house and do something else …… the mortgage dwarfs my salary. I would be able to cover about two-thirds of it simply on my take home pay. I couldn't pay it on my own, my wife can just about pay it on her own, but we want to have children in a couple of years time, so…That's the pressure in terms of future career development, so I have to move forward..' quickly, '.

(Male journalist married to HRM manager)

Non-traditional careers

• Part-time hours and compressed hours

• Self-employment and consultancy

• Temporary withdrawal from the labour market

• Change of career to more family-friendly sector

Conclusions

• Biology isn’t destiny, but it does present career and time-management problems, mainly impacting on women;

• Work/life balance and family-friendly policies are crucial, and the extent to which employers promote them is extremely diverse;

• Career development that includes non-traditional work patterns and short career breaks is available in ‘good practice’ employment;

• Informal constraints and pressures remain the most significant brakes on women’s access to equality

• Among this highly-qualified cohort, women and men expect that both sexes will have lifelong careers.