ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between gender and the labour market, and, in particular, the notion that gender acts as a structuring principle in the labour market. It was, in part, prompted by the current view that some sectors of the labour market are being feminized (see for example Jenson, Hagen, and Reddy, 1988). The intended meaning of the term seems to us to be somewhat illdefmed, but its use is clearly more than simply an acknowledgment of the fact that women are increasingly active in the labour market. Rather, it refers to the set of processes which have led to an increase in the kinds of jobs which have traditionally been done by women - that is, rather than referring to the gender of the personnel employed, it is more usually used to refer to the gender of jobs in the labour market. The emergence of the term feminization is indicative of the increasing recognition accorded to this phenomenon, which in turn is related to the growth in the number of caring and servicing jobs, and their perceived signiflCance for an understanding of contemporary economies. However, we would suggest that the gendering of jobs has had a more long-term significance than the current emphasis on feminization would suggest. In other words, we would like to consider the possibility that feminization is the latest stage of the gendering of the labour market rather than a radically new phenomenon.
