For Work / Against Work
Debates on the centrality of work

"The Sexual Division of Labour Re-examined"

by Hirata, Helena; Kergoat, Danièle (2000)

Abstract

The notion of the division of labour between women and men, as both theory and a conceptual framework for sociological research, developed within the social sciences in the 1970s. Thirty years later, the expression is widely used to refer to a variety of lines of thinking. One idea stresses “sharing work.” Men and women are assumed to have equal social status, but with complementary and attuned roles with respect to work. Another is the idea that the division of labour reflects antagonistic social relations between the sexes. This approach, developed in the 1970s, received new impetus in the 1990s with the re-examination of the notion of work itself, and more precisely of the validity of the binary oppositions of work and unemployment, work and non-work. It was further stimulated by the recent occurrence of a major protest movement in France.

Keywords

Kergoat, Sociology, Gender, Gendered Labour, Division Of Labour, Female Work, Blue Collar Work, Care Work, Female Blue Collar Work

Themes

Kergoat

Links to Reference

Translator

Arnold, H.

Citation

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