Can This Be the Promised Land?

Work and welfare for the modern woman

By Bob Gregory

What has been happening to women's economic well-being and economic independence?

Gregory focuses on the increasing educational achievements of women, the changing nature of women's full-time labour market involvement and the changing use of full-time income support from the welfare state within a general approach of analysing the changing economic circumstances of women since the mid 1960s.

From 1966 to 2001 the employed proportion of women increased from 35.3% to 51.5%. Aggregate data seems to point to good labour market outcomes for women, whose educational attainments have also shown large improvements in that time. However the proportion of women working full-time is much the same today as it was 35 years ago. Gregory looks a various reasons why this might be the case. He links this to data on full-time income support. The welfare ratio has increased form 5% to 20% in the same period. How is this welfare being spread? At an aggregate level it would mean that all women between 15-59 years of age spend 9 years on welfare. However if half of all women never access welfare then those who do would spend 18 years on it. Overall he says that women in the last 35 years have received lots more education, no more full time jobs, many more part-time jobs and a large increase in welfare. He advocates adjustments in welfare policy to better link welfare systems to one another and to labour market policies. This would also involve much more commitment from governments to active labour market policies, not the punishment approach that seems to dominate now (my views not his). Part-time employment is clearly popular (as seen from work and family studies) so thinking about them and the adequacy of pay and conditions for all workers might have more impact on welfare systems than arbitrary time limits and punitive measures aimed at so-called welfare fraud.

(Dissent; no. 9, Spring 2002)