Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T22:23:29.272Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Men's and Women's Incomes: Evidence from Survey Data*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Sandra Hutton
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article highlights the discordance between the reality and the perception of women's independence and equality. The changes in legislation and increased female participation in the labour market since the 1960s give the impression of considerable progress. Equal treatment of men and women has been proposed. Evidence from national survey data however, shows that women's income is still lower than men's with no matching increase with age and career. Social security policy has always been based on labour market participation but women's labour market participation is quite different from that of men. Because of childcare responsibilities many women work parttime at some time in their working lives. Equal pay legislation has had little influence on the incomes from part-time work. The failure of real income from part-time work to rise over time has been a major cause along with job segregation and the segmentation of the labour market in maintaining the difference between men's and women's incomes. Women's continued lack of personal income has consequences for the support for women and children, particularly evident in the case of lone mothers. The incomes available to a woman are unlikely to be high enough to provide an adequate independent living standard for herself and any dependent children.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , January 1994 , pp. 21 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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

REFERENCES

Atkinson, A. (1974), ‘Poverty and income, inequality in Britain’, in Wedderbarn, D. (ed.) Poverty, Inequality and Class Structure, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Berry-Laund, D. (1990), Work and the Family, Institute of Personnel Management.Google Scholar
Corr, H., Jamieson, L. and Jones, N. (1990), ‘The social context of “making up your own mind”: the decision to leave or stay on at school’, Paper 15 ESRC 16–19 Initiative, Social Statistics Research Unit, The City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V OHB.Google Scholar
Department of Employment (1988), New Earnings Survey 1988, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Department of Employment (1990), New Earnings Survey 1990, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Department of Social Security (1990), Children Come First.Google Scholar
Dex, S. (1986), ‘Women's work histories: an analysis of the Women and Employment survey’. Research Paper 46, Department of Employment.Google Scholar
Dex, S. (1987), Women's Occupational Mobility, Women's Occupational Mobility. London.Google Scholar
Ermisch, J. (1988), ‘Economic influences on birth rates’. National Institute Economic Review, 126: 71–81.Google Scholar
Ermisch, J. (1990), Fewer Babies, Longer Lives, Joseph Rowntree Fund, York.Google Scholar
Ermisch, J. and Wright, R.E. (1988), ‘Differential returns to human capital in full-time and part-time employment: the case of British women’. Discussion Paper in Economics 88/14, Birkbeck College. London.Google Scholar
Esam, P. and Berthoud, R. (1991), ‘Independent benefits for men and women’. Policy Studies Institute.Google Scholar
Gershuny, J., Miles, I., Jones, S., Mullings, C., Thomas, C. and Wyatt, S. (1986), ‘Time budgets: preliminary analysis of a national survey’, Quarterly journal of Social Affairs, 2, 13–39.Google Scholar
Glendinning, C. and Millar, J. (1987), Women in Poverty in Britain, Wheatsheaf Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Graham, H. (1984), Women, Health and Family, Brighton, Wheatshef Books.Google Scholar
Groves, D. (1987), ‘Occupational pension provision and women's poverty in old age’, in Glendinning, C. and Millar, J. (eds.), Women in Poverty in Britain, Wheatsheaf Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Hunt, A. (ed.) (1988), Women and Paid Work: Issues of Equality, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Hutton, S. (1991), ‘Measuring living standards using existing national data sets’, Journal of Social Policy, 20: 2, 237–57.Google Scholar
Hutton, S. and Hardman, G. (1990), ‘Descriptive analysis of a quasi-cohort of people in their late teens in 1963 until their early forties in 1988’, Working Paper 696, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York.Google Scholar
Joshi, H. (1984), ‘Women's participation in paid work: further analysis of the woman and employment. Research paper No 45, Department of Employment.Google Scholar
Joshi, H. (1989), ‘The changing form of women's economic dependency, in Joshi, H. (ed.) The Changing Population of Britain, Oxford.Google Scholar
Joshi, H. (1990), ‘The cash opportunity cost of childbearing, and approach to estimation using British data’, Population Studies, 44, 41–60.Google Scholar
Joshi, H. and Davies, H. (1992), ‘The pension consequences of divorce’, Discussion Paper Series, No. 530, Centre for Economic Policy Research.Google Scholar
Kiernan, K. and Wicks, M. (1990), Family Change and Future Policy, Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust and Family Policy Studies Centre, York.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. and Piachaud, D. (1987), ‘Women and poverty in the twentieth century’, in Glendinning, C. and Millar, J. (eds.) Women in Poverty in Britain, Wheatsheaf Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Lister, R. (1992), Women's Economic Dependency and Social Security, Equal Opportunities Commission, Manchester.Google Scholar
Lonsdale, S. (1987), ‘Patterns of paid work’, in Glendinning, C. and Millar, J. (eds.) Women in Poverty in Britain, Wheatsheaf Books Ltd.Google Scholar
McRae, S. (1991), ‘Occupational change over childbirth: evidence from a national survey’, Sociology, 25: 4, 589–607.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, H. (1990), Retaining Women Employees, Institute of Manpower Studies, London.Google Scholar
Micklewright, J., Pearson, M. and Smith, S. (1989), Has Britain an early school-leaving problem? Fiscal Studies, 10: 1 (Institute of Fiscal Studies).Google Scholar
Pahl, J. (1983), ‘The allocation of money and the structuring of inequality within marriage’. Sociological Review, 13: 2, 237–62.Google Scholar
Parker, G. (1987), ‘Making ends meet: women and credit and debt’, in Glendinning, C. and Millar, J. (eds.) Women in Poverty in Britain, Wheatsheaf Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Smith, S. (1991), with M. Pearson, G. Stark, S. Watson and S. Webb, Economic Policy and the Division of Income within the Family, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. (1979), Poverty in the United Kingdom, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Wright, R.E. and Ermisch, J. (1991), ‘Gender discrimination in the British labour market: a reassessment’, The Economic journal, 101, 508–22.Google Scholar