Accumulating social disadvantage through precarious employment: the case of midlife women

1. Accumulating social disadvantage through precarious employment: the case of midlife women Veronica Sheen Monash University Paper presented at Australian Social Policy Conference UNSW 6-8 July 2011 veronica.sheen@monash.edu vsheen@fastmail.com.au

2. Background to the study Long term trends in Australia and developed countries –the growth of precarious work, feminization and ageing of the workforce Research questions focus on intersection of these developments and emerging social risks

3. Growth in precarious work • Increase in precarious forms of work due to competition policy, labour market deregulation, globalisation.

4. Precarious work: • High level of uncertainty over the continuity of employment including work routines; • Low level of workers’ individual and collective control over work and exclusion from collective organisations of work regulation, such as unions;

5. Low pay and little prospect of career or salary progression; • Lack of legal, collective or customary protection against unfair dismissal, discrimination and unacceptable working practices (definition derived from Rodgers, 1989)

6. In Australia, precarious work most often measured by levels of casual work – defined by the ABS as without paid leave entitlements; • a casual job is essentially a job paid on an hourly basis enabling termination without notice (Job Watch, 2010).

7. Around 25 per cent of all jobs in Australia are casual (16 per cent in 1984) • 58 per cent of part-time jobs are casual (Preston and Barns, 2009, p. 11)

8. Feminisation of employment • Growth in ‘feminised’ occupational sectors and increase in women’s labour force participation (male employment decreasing) (England, 2006, p. 246; Jacobsen, 2007, pp. 108-116). • related to growth in service sector industries and occupations with high concentrations of women – but often precarious work – i.e. part-time, casual

9. Ageing workforce • Related to population ageing – demographic changes • Median age of workers increasing as proportion of workers over 45 increases • policy pressures to keep people working longer - eligibility for age pension to increase to 67 (to be phased in over next 12 years)

10. Group selected for study • Women in midlife – mid40s to mid50s in precarious jobs

11. 55 per cent of employed women 45-54 in full time work (32 or more hours per week). • 45 per cent in part time work (less than 32 hours per week). • For employed males 45-54: 88 per cent in full time, 12 per centin part time work. Source – Census, 2006

12. Yes casual work concentrated among young people but also a major form of employment for women

13. Research study • a qualitative research study in the critical research tradition of thirty-eight Australian women aged mid 40s to mid 50s • 32 extended, in-depth interviews and 1 focus groups

14. Characteristics of participants • working in ‘feminised’ occupational and industry sectors with high concentrations of part-time and casual work -call centres, retail, admin, cleaning, education, community services

15. high level of education (half with bachelor degree or higher), the rest with vocational qualifications – a little higher than average than for cohort as a whole

16. Single and married women represented both with and without dependent children • One third of sample consisted of single parents • Around half in the social welfare system and subject to welfare-to-work requirements

17. Socio-economic status • Most, but not all, living on a low, variable income, ‘near poverty’, but no capacity for savings, little or no superannuation accumulation and for some a high degree of vulnerability in the event of an emergency • A reasonable level of housing security in the sample (probably due to age)

18. Key findings Pathways into precarious work

19. Downward occupational mobility • Most women had experienced a loss of occupational status from an earlier period of secure jobs after losing or leaving a job over the age of 40

20. Losing a job or leaving a job associated most commonly with: • increasingly difficult work regimes, end of a contract, or organisational restructuring • having children

21. When re-entering the workforce: • Unable to find commensurate work or unable to take commensurate work due to caring responsibilities • Moving into precarious jobs due to lack of choice • Age discrimination reported as a factor by some

22. Education and experience was a diminishing source of protection for the women in the study as they aged • Examples: Margot, 55, single, with economics degrees and a lot of project management experience: last substantive job working on a production line in a factory

23. Maureen, 51, single parent, a former bank manager, reports that she cannot find even lower level jobs now and has been working on a casual basis for a community organisation driving a bus for the past 9 years. • In a very precarious situation financially – may have to sell her house.

24. Sharon, 52, married, science degree, works in casual administration at a university cannot get permanent work despite eight years at the university • These examples are important in showing the erosion of the value of education. A number of women spoke of not mentioning education and former experience in applying for jobs.

25. Single parents were a very disadvantaged group experiencing downward occupational mobility • main consideration to find work to fit in with children’s needs including older children (over 16) needing supervision • very constrained in choice of work and hours of work so compelled to accept precarious work (part-time and casual)

26. Sarah, 46, with 1 child, formerly a well-paid area manager in sales has casual job in administration to fit in with school hours. Lives in rental accommodation and frequently needs to use emergency services to make ends meet. • Barbara, 49, has a 16 year old child with a disability, could not continue with her permanent job and works nights as a security attendant

27. Occupational prospects for disadvantaged women • For women without education and experience even greater barriers as they aged • Forced into work with the least entry requirements – cleaning work

28. Later life divorce • some women in the study had divorced in the last 5-10 years and this had meant that they had to return to work/retain work when they never expected to

29. Bernadette, 52, 3 children, had left husband, lives in rooming house and works as a cleaner • Eliza, 55, 2 children still at home, divorced 3 years ago, lost call centre work recently due to industry changes, looking for low semi-skilled work, competing in youth labour market

30. Janine, 52, had 5 children, recently divorced, works as a cleaner to keep mortgage going despite having wrist injury as a result of working in her former husband’s business

31. How social disadvantage was accumulating in the lives of the women in the study.

32. Experience of ‘near poverty’ in the present and risk of long term poverty/social exclusion into retirement • Many jobs not themselves sustainable into the future • Future job prospects only in more precarious jobs , unemployment – entrapment rather than stepping stone effect

33. Precarious jobs carried physical and mental health risks – in accordance with recent World Health Organisation findings (Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008) • Reported subjective well-being of women in the study was generally low due to insecurity of work

34. Mothers and especially single mothers in a double bind between work and caring responsibilities but this also crossed over to the situation of some mature age women caring for elderly parents

35. Insecuritywas the most corrosive element in the women’s lives.

36. You meet people and the thing is, you know by what they say that the place they are coming from is secure: money coming in the door, food on the table, a house to live in…so they can do those extra things… go to the gym once a week, go to the movies, hire a DVD… normal things. I just long for that security…just doing those simple things. It weighs on your health… then you become sick because you are in stress mode continuously, always fighting, it’s really stressful. (Sarah, 46, in precarious work)

37. And also stresses related to work took a large toll on the women - work intensification, monitoring and surveillance, onerous work also compounded social disadvantage

38. We were monitored on an hourly basis against performance benchmarks and if we did not reach them you would receive an email so there was a lot of pressure. They were always watching over you. There were productivity bonuses for the office, they called it team work, but it was a real pressure cooker. In 9 years the individual benchmarks were doubled. Most people really struggled on a daily basis to make it. (Laura, 55)

39. The women’s labour was highly commodified • You’re just a number, • You’re just a commodity, • You’re just a piece of meat

40. Explanatory frameworks • Manuel Castells (the Network Society) • Distinguishes between - self-programmeablelabour and - generic labour – commodified labour Between those able to quickly retrain and adapt and those who cannot eg due to caring, discriminatio

41. Guy Standing (2009) Growth of ‘the precariat’ class • casual workers, temporary workers, agency workers, outworkers etc. characterized by labour insecurity • Also draws attention to loss of ‘white collar’ employment and the jobs of the old ‘working class’

42. Strong focus in Standing’s latest work on the recommodificationof labour • Break down of post war industrial protections

43. Esping-Andersen (2009) • An emerging division in women’s employment between those able to pursue a ‘masculinised’ career path, most likely married women with supports • And other women esp. single parents who must prioritise caring • Division between work-rich and work-poor households

44. All three accounts have links to contemporary theory around the continuing gendered division of labour –occupational segregation

45. These draw attention to how the political economy of contemporary capitalism intersects with and give strength to embedded forms of ‘gender essentialism’ (deeply rooted notions of appropriate roles for men and women) (McCall and Orloff, 2005, p. 168). (Charles and Grusky, 2004, p. 298) (Charles, 2005, p. 307).

46. A paradox at the heart of the contemporary labour market: • Some women doing very well but the forces of labour market precarisation are stronger than egalitarian quests; labour market outcomes possibly have a class component. • (Mandel and Shalev, 2009, p. 172).

47. Three areas for further development in policy and research

48. 1. Resisting commodification - enhancing occupational mobility for midlife women - The least commodified women were in a precarious job while retraining for something else – qualifications date and need upgrading • Important eg pension age to 67

49. 2. Insecurity as a social indicator • needs to be recognised as a dimension of social disadvantage in its own right • perhaps also as an element of social exclusion • Important in terms of approaches to social disadvantage (GadreyJ and F Jany-Catrice, 2006)

50. 3. Re-visioning of social security Needs to recognise and take account of precarisation of the labour market Social security had a pernicious role in channelling midlife women into precarious, unsustainable jobs Entrapment rather than stepping stone for women in midlife