Women's Work in Britain and France - (Practice, Theory and Policy) by Abigail Gregory & Jan Windebank (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Women's Work in Britain and France is a ground-breaking retheorization of what constitutes 'progress' in gender relations. The book shows that French women, although having more full-time and continuous careers and greater social policy support, retain as great a responsibility for unpaid domestic and caring work as their British counterparts. It replaces the conventional focus upon encouraging women's increased insertion into employment as the principal strategy for achieving progress in gender relations with a new focus on changing men's work patterns.

Review Quotes

'This is a brilliant example of how research can move on. Whilst covering the same ground as some of my own earlier work, it not only updates, but broadens the terrain and addresses new and highly topical policy issues. There is appropriate but gentle chastisement for earlier authors (including me) for omitting the consideration of unpaid work. This volume offers new perspectives and theory from the incorporation of unpaid work into Franco- British comparisons of women's work. The recognition that policy comparisons are often linked to a focus on paid work alone, and that liberation is often equated with women's take up of paid jobs, are insights which we need to consider and digest. This is a book which helps theorising on women's work and gender relations to move forward. I strongly recommend it.' - Professor Shirley Dex, Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University

About the Author

ABIGAIL GREGORY is Lecturer in French at the University of Salford. Her research has concentrated on Anglo-French comparisons of women's employment both at national level and in retailing. She has published book chapters and articles on these themes and is currently co-editing Women in Contemporary France (with Ursula Tidd).

JAN WINDEBANK is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Sheffield. Her previous books include with Colin C. Williams, Informal Employment in the Advanced Economies: Implications for Work and Welfare and The Informal Economy in France.