This incisive Handbook offers a timely and critical analysis of the gendered nature of public sector employment. Bringing together key theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research from around the world, Hazel Conley and Paula Koskinen Sandberg examine the ways in which female public sector workers experience intersectional discrimination in the workplace.
Covering key sites of employment for women across the globe, the Handbook considers a comprehensive range of gendered public sector occupations. Chapters investigate how women's employment in public services is influenced by complex political and economic tensions, exploring core issues such as the relationship between gender, ethnicity, occupational segregation and work-life balance, flexible working, and workplace bullying; gendered pay and pension inequality; the sources of feminist activism in public sector employment; and the impact of the pandemic on feminised public sector occupations. Ultimately, the Handbook highlights that while change is possible, it will require a radical rethinking of how public services are valued and funded in society.
Providing cutting-edge analysis and empirical data on gender and public sector employment, this Handbook will be an essential resource for academics and researchers interested in the role of the State as Employer. Its thought-provoking yet accessible insights into gendered employment will further benefit students of social policy, gender politics, employment relations, and the sociology of work.
This incisive Handbook offers a timely and critical analysis of the gendered nature of public sector employment. Bringing together key theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research from around the world, Hazel Conley and Paula Koskinen Sandberg examine the ways in which female public sector workers experience intersectional discrimination in the workplace.
Covering key sites of employment for women across the globe, the Handbook considers a comprehensive range of gendered public sector occupations. Chapters investigate how women's employment in public services is influenced by complex political and economic tensions, exploring core issues such as the relationship between gender, ethnicity, occupational segregation and work-life balance, flexible working, and workplace bullying; gendered pay and pension inequality; the sources of feminist activism in public sector employment; and the impact of the pandemic on feminised public sector occupations. Ultimately, the Handbook highlights that while change is possible, it will require a radical rethinking of how public services are valued and funded in society.
Providing cutting-edge analysis and empirical data on gender and public sector employment, this Handbook will be an essential resource for academics and researchers interested in the role of the State as Employer. Its thought-provoking yet accessible insights into gendered employment will further benefit students of social policy, gender politics, employment relations, and the sociology of work.
Contents:
1 Introduction to the Handbook on Gender and Public Sector
Employment 1
Hazel Conley and Paula Koskinen Sandberg
PART I GENDER AND THE NEO-LIBERAL STATE AS EMPLOYER
2 The state as employer (and regulator) of care services in Germany
10
Karin Gottschall and Ruth Abramowski
3 Real utopias at work. Conflicts and dreams among nurses in the
public sector 22
Paula Mulinari and Rebecca Selberg
4 Tensions between welfare services and competitiveness: public
sector
wages in competitive corporatism and the social democratic gender
regime 36
Miikaeli Kylä-Laaso
5 The role of the state in promoting gender equality in public
transport
employment: evidence from the Global South 50
Tessa Wright
6 Gender, class and the meritocratic ideal. The case of the life
sciences in
Italian academia 64
Camilla Gaiaschi
7 Gendered employment in public universities: the influence of
neo-liberal reforms and union policies in the case of Iceland
78
fiorger›ur Einarsdóttir and Finnborg S. Steinflórsdóttir
PART II GENDER AND WORKING CONDITIONS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
8 Overcoming ‘administrative man’? Redoing gender in Australian
public
services 94
Sue Williamson and Linda Colley
9 Empowering or depleting women’s work? Public sector reform
and
small-scale entrepreneurship in Swedish eldercare 108
Helene Brodin and Elin Peterson
10 The dynamics influencing women to become teachers in the
public
sector of Pakistan 122
Mahwish Khan
11 Lean management and hybrid masculinization – a case study from
the
Finnish healthcare 136
Timo Aho and Laura Mankki
12 Gender differences among city managers in the United States
150
Beth M. Rauhaus, Kathryn E. Webb Farley and Robert D. Eskridge
13 The brass cliff? Women police chiefs and police reform 163
Cara E. Rabe-Hemp, Amie M. Schuck and John C. Navarro
PART III WOMEN’S PAY, REWARD AND PENSIONS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
14 Evidencing women’s progress in Aotearoa New Zealand’s public
service 176
Jane Parker, Noelle Donnelly, Janet Sayers, Amanda Young-Hauser,
Patricia
Loga, Selu Paea and Shirley Barnett
15 The devil is in the detail: how neoliberal design limited the
successful
impact of pay equity policy in New Zealand 193
Katherine Ravenswood
16 Regulating women’s pay in Finland and the UK – the role of the
public sector 205
Hazel Conley and Paula Koskinen Sandberg
17 Limits of accountability: gender pay audits in Swedish
municipalities 219
Minna Salminen-Karlsson and Anna Fogelberg Eriksson
18 Examining gender-based inequalities in US public sector
administrative
positions over time 234
Valerie H Hunt, Larra Rucker, Melissa A Taylor and Brinck Kerr
PART IV WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION AND VOICE IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
19 Trade union campaigns for early childcare and school secretarial
work
in Ireland 250
Pauline Cullen
20 Representation and voice in two feminised health professions
264
Cécile Guillaume and Gill Kirton
21 Rethinking exit and voice in the crisis of care – collective
repertoires
among welfare workers in Sweden 278
Anna Ryan Bengtsson
22 The state monetary deficit is carried on women’s backs barriers
to
union action in the neo-liberalised employment of teachers and
social
workers in Israel 292
Orly Benjamin
PART V GENDER, PANDEMIC AND PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENT
23 An exploration into Black and Asian healthcare workers in the
United
Kingdom’s National Health Service being disproportionally affected
by
Covid-19 307
Beverley Brathwaite
24 Underfunding of nursing education and the precarious
employment
conditions of nurses: an exploration of contributing factors,
COVID-19
pandemic implications, and structural solutions 320
Virginia Gunn, Michael Villeneuve, Patricia O’Campo and Carles
Muntaner
25 Examining the experiences of Canadian women police during
Covid-19: a liminal space for cultural change 335
Debra Langan, Carrie Sanders and Danielle Thompson
26 Public institutions and home-based teleworking in times of
pandemic:
a case study at the University of Valencia 348
Isabel Pla-Julián
Index
Edited by Hazel Conley, Professor of Human Resource Management, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, UK and Paula Koskinen Sandberg, Assistant Professor in Organizational Communication, Aalto University School of Business, Department of Management Studies, Finland
‘Conley and Sandberg have brought together an impressive group of
authors to uncover the reality of work in the public sector from
multiple national contexts. This international collection provides
insight into the dominant driving forces shaping public sector
employment and the differential impact on a diversity of workers in
different national settings.’
*Geraldine Healy, Queen Mary University of London, UK*
‘This Handbook speaks to some of the most pressing issues impacting
the pursuit of gender equity in public service. The authors provide
compelling contributions that illustrate the enduring
undervaluation and underutilization of women’s talents. The
qualitative and quantitative analyses offer snapshots of persistent
gender inequity from around the globe. Together, they present a
powerful call for change.’
*Heather Getha-Taylor, University of Kansas, US*
‘While advancements have been made, more work needs to be done to
fully include women in governance. This Handbook brings together an
impressive roster of international and interdisciplinary scholars
to examine gender in public sector employment, including continuing
issues and new challenges for our changing world. This is an
amazing, up-to-date resource for scholars of gender and public
administration.’
*Jessica Sowa, University of Delaware, US*
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