Two-Track Training: Sex Inequalities and the YTS PDF
Preview Two-Track Training: Sex Inequalities and the YTS
Two-Track Training Sex Inequalities and the YTS YOUTH QUESTIONS Series Editors: PHILIP COHEN and ANGELA MCROBBIE This series sets out to question the ways in which youth has traditionally been defined by social scientists and policy-makers, by the caring profes sions and the mass media, as well as in 'common-sense' ideology. It explores some of the new directions in research and practice which are beginning to challenge existing patterns of knowledge and provision. Each book examines a particular aspect of the youth question in depth. All of them seek to connect their concerns to the major political and intellectual debates that are now taking place about the present crisis and future shape of our society. The series will be of interest to those who deal professionally with young people, especially those concerned with the development of socialist, feminist and anti-racist perspectives. But it is also aimed at students and general readers who want a lively and accessible introduction to some of the most awkward but important issues of our time. Published lnge Bates, John Clarke, Philip Cohen, Dan Finn, Robert Moore and Paul Willis SCHOOLING FOR THE DOLE? The New Vocationalism Cynthia Cockburn TWO-TRACK TRAINING Sex Inequalities and the YTS Andre Dewdney and Martin Lister YOUTH, CULTURE AND PHOTOGRAPHY Dann Finn TRAINING WITHOUT JOBS: NEW DEALS AND BROKEN PROMISES From Raising the School-Leaving Age to the Youth Training Scheme Angela McRobbie and Mica Nava (eds) GENDER AND GENERATION Forthcoming Philip Cohen and Harwant Bains (eds) MULTI-RACIST BRITAIN Philip Cohen and Graham Murdock (eds) THE MAKING OF THE YOUTH QUESTION Angela McRobbie (ed.) RECORD COLLECTIONS A Youth Reader Kevin Robins and Frank Webster NEW TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION Two-Track Training Sex Inequalities and the YTS Cynthia Cockburn M MACMILLAN EDUCATION Text and photographs © Cynthia Cockburn 1987 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 7 Ridgmount Street, London WClE 7AE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1987 Published by MACMILLAN EDUCATION LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Photoset in Times by CAS Typesetters, Southampton British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Cockburn, Cynthia Two-track training: sex inequalities and the YTS.-(Youth questions) 1. Sex discrimination in employment-Great Britain 2. Youth Training Scheme I. Title II. Series 306' .36 HD6276.G7 ISBN 978-0-333-43289-1 ISBN 978-1-349-18673-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-18673-0 Series Standing Order If you would like to receive future titles in this series as they are published, you can make use of our standing order facility. To place a standing order please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address and the name of the series. Please state with which title you wish to begin your standing order. (If you live outside the United Kingdom we may not have the rights to your area, in which case we will forward your order to the publisher concerned.) Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 2XS, England. To Claudi and Jess Also by Cynthia Cockburn The Local State, 1977 Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change, 1983 Machinery of Dominance: Women, Men and Technical Know- how, 1985. Contents List ofI llustrations viii Preface ix 1 Inequalities in the Making 1 2 Turned Sixteen 29 3 Settling for the Youth Training Scheme 46 4 The Manpower Services Commission and the Issue of Sex Equality 72 5 Typing: 'A Really Funny Bloke' 100 6 The Manly Trades: No Soft Touch 124 7 Computers: Hands On, Hands OtT 149 8 Caring Work: 'You Can't Make Friends with a Car' 169 9 Beyond Equal Opportunity 194 References 212 Index 223 Vll List of Illustrations 1. Understanding that it's a man's world 35 2. Wanting different things 42 3. Women's work - how genuine a choice? 50 4. 'Send me a lad.' 66 5. Secretarial skills, a safe option 103 6. Office trainee - hammering away on the oldest typewriter 120 7. Young women make good carpenters 135 8. Strength and skill, can that be a woman? 145 9. Nothing uni-sex about computers 155 10. You have not to care what people say 175 11. Men often climb to the top 190 12. Young women need their own space 205 All photographs by Cynthia Cockburn Vlll Preface When young people step out of school at sixteen the world they step into is deeply stereotyped by sex. Most women are expected to be working in typically feminine jobs or at horne looking after the household. Men are expected to be working in manly professions, crafts or labouring jobs when they are not queueing at the unemployment benefit office. In 1983 the British government instituted a new Youth Training Scheme that was intended as a 'permanent bridge between school and work'. Within a few years it would be providing for up to half a million young people. Here was an unprecedented opportunity to break down the sex-segregation that was producing such persistent inequalities in life experiences, in earnings and career prospects between adult women and men in Britain. Statistics on YTS in its first few years, however, have given rise to fears that the scheme is reinforcing rather than shattering the mould of sex inequality. This book looks at what has gone wrong and how YTS could change to serve young women better. The account that follows reports on a research project that was set up to look at this tendency for young people on the Manpower Services Commission's Youth Training Scheme to be found in training for sex-traditional occupations. It was to assess the progress being made by MSC in enabling young women (and young men) to cross into gender-contrary areas of training and work - young women into male manual trades, perhaps, and young men into such occupations as typing, hairdressing and nursery nursing. I was to look at the difficulties in the way of young people wishing to tryout such non-conforming occupations and to consider how the breaking down of occupational sex-segregation on the Scheme might be supported. ix
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