Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:50:29.229Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Challenging Boundaries to ‘Employability’: Women Apprentices in a Non-Traditional Occupation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

Alison Andrew
Alison Andrew*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article is based on a case study of women apprentices and workers in a ‘non-traditional’ occupation for women, engineering construction. The article argues that the concept of ‘employability’ is not gender neutral, and that gendered assumptions about who is and is not ‘employable’ for particular work can disadvantage women seeking training and work in non-traditional industries or dissuade them from applying to do so. Approaches to employability which emphasise individual attributes underplay the significance of gender inequalities and wider discourses of gender.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 347 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bagilhole, B. (2002), Women in Non-Traditional Occupations: Challenging Men, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, V., Fuller, A. and Unwin, L. (2006a), ‘Increasing risk in the “scary” world of work? Male and female resistance to crossing gender lines in apprenticeships in England and Wales’, Journal of Education and Work, 19, 3, 271–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, V., Fuller, A. and Unwin, L. (2006b), ‘Safety in stereotypes? The impact of gender and “race” on young people's perceptions of their post-compulsory education and labour market opportunities’, British Educational Research Journal, 32, 5, 667–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berner, B. and Mellstrom, U. (2000), ‘Looking for mister engineer: understanding masculinity and technology at two Fin de Siecles’, in Berner, B. (ed.), Gendered Practices: Feminist Studies of Technology and Society, Linkoping, Sweden: Department of Technology and Social Change, Linkoping University, Distributed by Almquist and Wiksell International, pp. 32–68.Google Scholar
Britton, D. (2000), ‘The epistemology of the gendered organization’, Gender and Society, 14, 3, 418–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, R. and Kirkup, G. (1990), Women in Engineering: A Good Place to be?, Basingstoke: Macmillan Education.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, L., Pedersen, E.F., Michelsens, E., Susman, B. and Wall, C. (eds.) (2004), Women in Construction, Belgium: CLR/Reed Business Information.Google Scholar
Clarke, L., Pedersen, E.F., Michielsens, E. and Susman, B. (2005), ‘The European construction social partners: gender equality in theory and practice’, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 11, 2, 151–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cockburn, C. (1987), Two-Track Training: Sex Inequalities and the YTS, Basingstoke: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, A.P. (1985), The Symbolic Construction of Community, London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collinson, D.L., Knights, D. and Collinson, M. (1990), Managing to Discriminate, London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dale, A., Jackson, N. and Hill, N. (2005), Women in Non-Traditional Training and Employment, Working Paper Series, 26, Manchester: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
Dryburgh, H. (1999), ‘Work hard, play hard: women and professionalization in engineering – adapting to the culture’, Gender and Society, 13, 5, 664–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du, X.-Y. (2006), ‘Gendered practices of constructing an engineering identity in a problem-based learning environment’, European Journal of Engineering Education, 31, 1, 35–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Equal Opportunities Commission (2001), Sex Stereotyping: From School to Work, Manchester: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
Equal Opportunities Commission (2004), Plugging Britain's Skills Gap: Challenging Gender stereotyping in Training and Work, Manchester: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
Evetts, J. (1996), Gender and Career in Science and Engineering, London: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Faulkner, W. (2005a), ‘Belonging and becoming: gendered processes in engineering’, in Archibald, J., Emms, J., Brundy, F. and Turner, E. (eds.), The Gender Politics of ICT, Middlesex: Middlesex University Press, pp. 15–26.Google Scholar
Faulkner, W. (2005b), ‘Engineering workplace cultures: men's spaces and in/visible women’, Webcast lecture for the launch of ‘Science, engineering and technology: a course for women returners’, The Open University, 3 November 2005, http://stadium.open.ac.uk/berrill.Google Scholar
Halford, S. and Leonard, P. (2006), Negotiating Gendered Identities at Work, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henwood, F. (1998), ‘Engineering difference: discourses on gender, sexuality and work in a college of technology’, Gender and Education, 10, 1, 35–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvande, E. (1999), ‘In the belly of the beast: constructing femininities in engineering organizations’, European Journal of Women's Studies, 6, 305–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lave, J. and Wenger, E (1991), Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, L., Neathey, F., Pollard, E. and Hill, D. (2004), Occupational Segregation, Gender Gaps and Skill Gaps, Working Paper Series, 15, Manchester: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
Miller, L., Pollard, E., Neathey, F., Hill, D. and Ritchie, H. (2005), Gender Segregation in Apprenticeships, Working Paper Series, 25, Manchester: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
McDowell, L. (1997), Capital Culture: Gender at Work in the City, Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowell, L. (1999), Gender, Identity and Place, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
McQuaid, R., Green, A. and Danson, M. (2005), ‘Introducing employability’, Urban Studies, 42, 2, 191–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McQuaid, R. and Lindsay, C. (2005), ‘The concept of employability’, Urban Studies, 42, 2, 197–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreau, M.-P. and Leathwood, C. (2006), ‘Graduates’ employment and the discourse of employability: a critical analysis’, Journal of Education and Work, 19, 4, 305–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Priola, V. (2007), ‘Being female doing gender: narratives of women in education management’, Gender and Education, 19, 1, 21–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridgeway, C.L. and Correll, S.J. (2004), ‘Unpacking the gender system: a theoretical perspective on gender beliefs and social relations’, Gender and Society, 18, 4, 510–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodd, M. and Bartholomew, H. (2006), ‘Invisible and special: young women's experiences as undergraduate mathematics students’, Gender and Education, 18, 1, 35–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sagebiel, F. and Dahmen, J. (2006), ‘Masculinities in organizational cultures in engineering education in Europe: results of the European Union Project WomEng’, European Journal of Engineering Education, 31, 1, 5–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stonyer, H. (2002), ‘Making engineering students – making women: the discursive context of engineering education’, International Journal of Engineering Education, 18, 4, 392–9.Google Scholar
Wall, C. and Clarke, L. (1996), Staying Power: Women in Direct Labour Building Teams, London: London Women and Manual Trades.Google Scholar
Watts, J. (2006), ‘The outsider within: dilemmas of qualitative feminist research within a culture of resistance’, Qualitative Research, 6, 3, 385–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weller, S. (2007), ‘Discrimination, labour markets and the labour market prospects of older workers: what can a legal case teach us?’, Work, Employment and Society, 21, 3, 417–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenger, E. (1998), Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittock, M. (2000), Feminising the Masculine? Women in Non-Traditional Employment, Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Yandell, J. and Turvey, A. (2007), ‘Standards or communities of practice? Competing models of workplace learning and development’, British Educational Research Journal, 33, 4, 533–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar