Changing Occupational Structure and Gender
The latest claim about changes in the occupational structure of the UK economy seems to be that the caring professions traditionally staffed by women are to gain in importance. According to Ian Pearson there will continue to be a decline in traditionally ‘male’ manual jobs, but there will also be a decline in service economy jobs as they are increasingly computerised.
The argument of the article, which is based on Pearson’s theories, is that increasingly “soft skills” ie interpersonal, communication skills will become of key importance - something which the current education system in the UK is often criticised for not helping students to develop. Pearson argues that by 2020 “most of us will be working in the care economy”.
Pearson’s assumption seems to be that the increased importance of such soft skills will advantage women in the work place, however, this assumption raises several questions. Firstly, Pearson seems to take a socio-biological view of gender - similar to that of Parsons and Murdock, assuming that men and women have naturally different roles, meaning that women are better suited to caring roles. From a viewpoint that argues that socialisation is the cause of gender differences (eg. Oakley, 1984) it could be argued that over time the socialisation of boys and girls may change to develop greater caring capacities (for example, think of the emergence of ‘metrosexual man’).
Pearson also picks out jobs such as nursing, hairdressing and care-work (eg in nursing homes and children’s nurseries) as examples of areas which are female dominated and require such skills. He argues that these are areas which will therefore grow in importance and status. Currently such roles are typically low-status and are relatively poorly remunerated and Pearson actually states that he doubts that pay in such sectors will increase significantly. This brings into doubt the claim that women are likely to be economically and socially better off in a new economic order. In many ways Pearson seems to be confusing such roles with much more highly paid, high status roles in business which also require interpersonal skills.