Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
This project focused on the consequences of the parallel reshaping of gender relations and employment, as women enter the world of paid work in ever-greater numbers. The outline research objectives may be summarised as follows : to investigate the impact of different state policies on gender relations and employment; to investigate the consequences of the entry of women into higher-level occupations for (a) occupational structuring within management and the professions, and (b) the 'equality agenda'; to establish the impact of national policies on gendered occupational structuring; to investigate the consequences of women's entry into higher-level occupations for individual identities, domestic and personal relationships; and to contribute to theoretical debates relating to these issues. These and other topics were explored through the comparison and analysis of a variety of evidence drawn from Norway, Britain, France and Russia and the Czech Republic. The project was designed on three levels : the national or 'macro' level which incorporated, as well as institutional comparisons, an analysis of survey data on family and gender roles for Norway, France and the Czech Republic, gathered by the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) - some of these ISSP data are held at the Data Archive under SN:3584; the 'meso' level, which incorporated for each country, case studies of two 'feminising' occupations (medicine and management in retail banking); and the 'micro' level, which included biographical work-life interviews with 15 women, in each occupation, in the UK, Norway, France, the Czech Republic and Russia (154 interviews in all). Only the information gathered from the 'micro' level is included in this dataset. Further details of how the ISSP data was used for this project may be found in the User Manual.
Main Topics:
The data included here is derived from biographical interviews carried out with women aged 30-55 years working in medicine and banking in each country surveyed (the 'micro' level of the project). All the respondents were in employment at the time of the interviews. All those who were doctors had completed their post-registration qualification and those who were bankers held managerial positions. Topics included demographic details, information on respondents' employment career and experiences and data on their family life experiences including relationships, the domestic division of labour and childcare.
Convenience sample
Face-to-face interview
Further details of the structure and conduct of the interviews may be found in the User Manual.
