Department of Social Policy and Intervention and Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Br J Sociol. 2017 Sep;68(3):512-532. doi: 10.1111/1468-4446.12274. Epub 2017 Jul 12.
In a previous paper it has been shown that across three cohorts of men and women born in Britain in 1946, 1958 and 1970 a gender difference exists in regard to relative rates of class mobility. For men these rates display an essential stability but for women they become more equal. The aim of the present paper is to shed light on the causes of this trend-or, that is, of increasing social fluidity-among women. We begin by considering a refined version of the perverse fluidity hypothesis: that is, one that proposes that part-time work leads to increasing downward worklife mobility among women that also entails downward intergenerational mobility and thus promotes greater fluidity. We do in fact find that the increase in fluidity is very largely, if not entirely, confined to women who have had at least one period of part-time work. However, a more direct test of the hypothesis is not supportive. We are then led to investigate whether it is not that part-time working itself is the crucial factor but rather that women who subsequently work part-time already differ from those who do not at entry into employment. We find that eventual full- and part-timers do not differ in their class origins nor, in any systematic way, in their educational qualifications. But there is a marked and increasing difference in the levels of employment at which they make their labour market entry. Eventual part-timers are more likely than eventual full-timers to enter in working-class positions, regardless of their class origins and qualifications. Insofar as these women are from more advantaged origins, they would appear not to seek to exploit their advantages to the same extent as do full-timers in order to advance their own work careers. And it is, then, in the downward mobility accepted by these women-who increase in number across the cohorts-that we would locate the main source of the weakening association between class origins and destinations that is revealed among women at large.
在之前的一篇论文中，已经表明，在出生于英国的三个队列的男性和女性中（1946 年、1958 年和 1970 年），在职业流动的相对比例方面存在性别差异。对于男性来说，这些比例显示出基本的稳定性，而对于女性来说，它们变得更加平等。本论文的目的是阐明导致这种趋势的原因——或者说，导致女性社会流动性增强的原因。我们首先考虑了一种修正后的反常流动性假说：即，部分时间工作制导致女性的工作生活流动性增加，这种流动性也会导致代际间的流动性下降，从而促进更大的流动性。我们实际上发现，流动性的增加在很大程度上（如果不是完全的话）仅限于那些至少有一段时间从事兼职工作的女性。然而，对该假说的更直接检验并不支持这一假说。我们随后研究的是，是否不是兼职工作本身是关键因素，而是随后从事兼职工作的女性在进入就业市场时就已经与不从事兼职工作的女性有所不同。我们发现，最终的全职和兼职人员在其职业起点上没有区别，也没有在任何系统的方面在教育资格上有区别。但是，他们进入劳动力市场的就业水平存在明显且不断增加的差异。最终的兼职人员比最终的全职人员更有可能从事工人阶级的工作，而不管他们的职业起点和资格如何。如果这些女性来自更有利的职业背景，那么她们似乎不会像全职人员那样，为了提升自己的职业生涯而寻求最大限度地利用自己的优势。那么，正是这些女性接受的向下流动——在各队列中，这类女性的数量都在增加——构成了女性职业起点和终点之间关联弱化的主要原因。
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