IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v35y2021i1p78-96.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘You Just Had to Get on with It’: Exploring the Persistence of Gender Inequality through Women’s Career Histories

Author

Listed:
  • Jackie Ford

    (Durham University, UK)

  • Carol Atkinson

    (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)

  • Nancy Harding

    (University of Bath, UK)

  • David Collinson

    (Lancaster University Management School, UK)

Abstract

This article examines the career histories of the first generation of UK women to enter professional employment in the 1970s and 1980s in comparatively large numbers. In so doing, it contributes to the sparse literature on older women’s working life histories. Presenting empirical research on women’s experiences in the legal and HR sectors, it reveals how women pioneers were often silenced by requirements to conform with male-dominated norms, values and practices governing masculine career pathways. They learned to speak a predominantly masculine language that in turn constituted a significant barrier to effective resistance and disallowed new ways of speaking about careers. The article argues that these earlier conditions of entry into careers continue to influence the barriers women face at work today. Through this analysis of older women’s working lives, the article also contributes to contemporary debates about intersectionality by illustrating how gender and age interact in ways that reinforce earlier patterns of career disadvantage.

Suggested Citation

  • Jackie Ford & Carol Atkinson & Nancy Harding & David Collinson, 2021. "‘You Just Had to Get on with It’: Exploring the Persistence of Gender Inequality through Women’s Career Histories," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(1), pages 78-96, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:1:p:78-96
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017020910354
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017020910354
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017020910354?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:1:p:78-96. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.