The continuing expansion of women's employment has increasingly focused attention on the question of how the caring work traditionally carried out by unpaid women will be accomplished. In particular, how can caring responsibilities be combined with a long-term career? In this paper, we assess...

Both Britain and the USA are described as market-oriented or ‘liberal’ welfare regimes. However, there are important variations within these two countries: although both have high rates of maternal employment, part-time work is much more common in the UK than in the USA, where...

Influential critics still argue that ‘class analysis’ is no longer relevant to the understandings required in ‘reflexive modernity’, while others argue for ‘new’, improved, approaches to the linked topics of class and employment. This article identifies and...

One of the most pressing issues contributing to the persistence of gender inequality is the gendered division of domestic labour. Despite their entry into paid employment, women still carry out more domestic work than men, limiting their ability to act on an equal footing within the workplace....

This article draws on a repeat of a 1994 survey, carried out in 2002, in three contrasting countries: Britain, Norway and the Czech Republic.The 1994 survey demonstrated that there was a significant association between more ‘liberal’ gender role attitudes and a less traditional...

This paper investigates aspects of the changes brought about by women's continuing entry into paid employment, particularly in higher-level occupations. We will argue that, despite recent criticisms, the occupational structure still remains a useful framework through which to examine processes...

Commentaries on `the professions' have long reflected a tension between two, apparently conflicting, perspectives. On the one hand, professions are viewed as uniquely ethical occupations; on the other, as powerful groups who have masked their pursuit of self-interest behind essentially spurious...

Employment relations in the major clearing banks have been the subject of sociological attention since the 1950s, when they presented the apparent epitome of the bureaucratic career. However, the banks have increasingly become major employers of female labour. Women in banks have not...