Men and Women's Labor Market Access and Difference between Paid and Unpaid Work

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Paid and Unpaid Work
Paid and unpaid work have contributed to gender gaps in today’s world. Globally, women are considerably less likely than men to access the labor market. They are also less likely to secure jobs than men once in the market. Their access to well-paying employment opportunities remains restricted. The issue of gender gaps has been there since old times and is still present in today’s job market despite efforts to empower women. Women are generally associated with less-paying or unpaid jobs, and this view has created a heated debate between women advocates and policymakers. Efforts to change this analogy are underway. This essay presents facts and arguments from the course readings by answering the three questions.
Why is labor market access different for men and women?
Labor market access is different for men and women due to gender stereotypes and segregation. Gender stereotypes and segregation in occupations are not new phenomena. For a long time, men and women have held distinct jobs because specific jobs are associated with masculinity and femininity. For instance, technical jobs like engineering, accounting, computing and related areas are believed to be masculine jobs and often attract men at a higher rate than women. That is the reason these occupations are male-dominated. On the other hand, women are believed to be associated with lighter jobs like clerical and secretarial work, sales, and social and community service tasks. Simply put, highly demanding and lucrative jobs attract men more than women.
Another reason is gender roles. Gender roles and the pressures to conform to these roles for women depend on region, religion and household. The conformity pressure manifests through marital status. It limits women's participation in the labor force by making them less likely to seek a paid job actively. This often rises from the economic stability of a husband's income that portrays the ''male breadwinner'' bias in most marital arrangements. In the same context, traditional values define women as being naturally suited to child-rearing and homemaking. This role limits their ability to balance work and family and reduces their attraction to the labor market. That is why most women seek self-employment, which gives them the flexibility they need to balance work with family life.
Dominant social values about femininity and masculinity have also been used to define job requirements. For example, social work, teaching, nursing and domestic work have been viewed as socially acceptable for women. Society believes that these occupations demand essentially female traits. However, exclusive male rights to lucrative jobs go unchallenged, and the role of wife and homemaker is preserved for women.
What are the relations between paid and unpaid work?
Paid and unpaid work are key to socio-economic development. They are both potential sources of a society's socio-economic development and ...