SEX SEGREGATION IN THE LABOUR MARKET

The women present introduced themselves. The Japanese women from the Committee for the Protection of Women in "the Computer World presented a paper called "Sexism in the Labour Market and the Decline of Skilled Work and Craftmanship", describing the general situation in Japan. Women with technical training do enter the computing industry but a readmitted only to jobs in software sections because by law they are not permitted to work night shifts, which excludes them from hardware sections. This does not apply, however, to other industries. The picture regarding wages and status is similar to that in other countries, where women are trained less, and in specific areas such as word processing and so, are paid less than men.

Also in Japan, full- time women workers are allowed but not encouraged to join trade unions whereas part-time workers are not even allowed to join, nor are they included in the statistics. Management practice tends to encourage " feminine" extra-mural activities such as cooking, and the attitudes of peer groups and management alike, strengthened by government policy, encourage women to leave the labour force when they get married or become pregnant. Older women workers especially find new technology causes a loss of job satisfaction and pride in their work. Younger women, however, are more amenable. If women do not adjust to changing job content, they are moved aside, for example, in toun skilled work. To return to work afterchild-rearing is extremely difficult, mainly due to the belief that women's work i s "only to assist the economy of the family".

As a consequence of this presentation, women asked what measures were being taken by women in Japan to combat these problems. The Committee is trying to stop the dehumanisation of work resulting from the introduction of new technology by forcing the government to change regulations on health, etc. It was seen as important that women organise to influence both management and unions so that women's issues are considered. It was also recognised that trade unions are controlled by men, even when there is a high proportion of female membership, because of a reluctance of women to participate in traditionally run unions. It was suggested that women need to organise themselves and then pressure unions with specific demands and strategies. In Canada, in some cities, this approach has been tried with a degree of success . In Germany, problems arose when this strategy was tried when male unionist agreed in principle to the idea of jobs with both word processing and administrative skills for secretarial staff, but backed down when they realised that the women's jobs would be upgraded and they would be paid more.

Other problems arise from this strategy. Women find it difficult to attend union meetings due to responsibilities in the home,i.e. lack of creche facilities, timing of meetings, etc. Job sharing and reduction in the hours in the working week could be acceptable to management but workers would find it difficult to achieve these aims without a cut in wages. There is also a structural problem in that one group of workers in a trade union may make gains which are then not applied to other workers. For example, in France the typists in one union made some progress in benefits, but these were not applicable to VDU operators . In India, all the textile worker.

who are women, are in trade unions and this has led to higher wages in that sector. However, the unions don't protect women's rights specifically. For example, in one mill where women were being treated inequitably and went on strike, male trade union members as well as management forced them to return to work.

Sex segregation is linked to the hierarchical division of labour and women find themselves relegated to low-paid, dispensible jobs and, therefore, have diminished bargaining power with in unions and more generally. In Norway, the union branches which have made the most gains consist mainly of men.

The discussion turned to one on "skill". We as women tend to accept male definitions of skill. Word processing was assumed by management to be less skilled than typing and when they discoverd otherwise, it was still in their interest to treat it as such. In France, nursing used to be regarded as a "women' s job" and had low status accordingly; but now, as men enter the profession, the status is rising and pay differentials between men and women are increasing. In programming, too, the first programmers were women, but then the potential in software development was recognised, men became dominant and are now in all the senior programming and analyst jobs.

Skills which women acquire in the home train them for vital jobs which are then not recognised as such because these skills are considered to be inherent in women' s character,e.g. dressmaking skills in the textile industry.