Part‐time Employment among Women Factory Workers
| Published date | 01 January 1981 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb054962 |
| Date | 01 January 1981 |
| Pages | 17-21 |
| Author | Sonia Liff |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Part-time Employment
among Women Factory
Workers
by Sonia Liff
Department of Liberal Studies in Science, Manchester University*
Introduction
While there is a general awareness that the proportion of
women in the workforce is gradually rising, some of the
features of this increase in female employment are less well
understood. For example, between 1951 and 1971 the
proportion of women workers in the labour force rose
from 34.7 to 43.0 per cent. However, this increase masks
an important change in the composition of the female
workforce. In the same period the percentage of married
women in the female workforce rose from 38.2 to 63.1 per
cent [1]. This growth of married women within the
workforce has been paralleled by a growth in part-time
work. In fact, since the early 1960s most of the increase in
the number of women entering employment has been due
to a growth in part-time rather than full-time employees
[2].
Part-time work is not only an important feature of
women's employment, but is also a mainly female way of
working. In 1976 40.1 per cent of female employees
worked part-time compared with 5.3 per cent of male
workers [3], and around 78 per cent of all part-time
workers are married, women [4]. Of the few men who
work part-time, 67 per cent are over the age of 60 whereas
female part-time workers are most likely to be in the 25-54
age group [4].
In 1976 nearly 85 per cent of female part-time workers
were employed in the service industries. However, this
concentration does not preclude the importance of part-
time work in some other sectors. In the same year 34.9 per
cent of all women employed in the food, drink and tobacco
industries worked part-time representing around 14 per
cent of all employees in the industries [4].
Relatively little is known about employers' attitudes to
part-time working. A survey of management attitudes and
practices to women at work [5] found in 1973 (a time when
part-time work was increasing rapidly), that they were
generally negative. Those formulating employment policy
were asked what they saw as the advantages of part-time
workers. The most frequent answers were that one could
have them only when needed, they were useful if you could
not get full-timers and that they were useful if the job did
not require full-time
staff.
As the report says, "The first of
these pays little regard to the needs and desires of the part-
time workers themselves; the second implies that part-
timers are only a second best and the third makes their
employment conditional on the nature of the job," [5, p.
151].
These findings mirror those of a 1960 survey [6].
Analysis of changes in the numbers of full and part-time
workers in employment [7], suggests that fluctuations
(both up and down) in the numbers of female part-time
workers have been much more dramatic than parallel rises
and falls in both male and female full-time employees.
This would seem to support the finding that part-time
workers are seen as second best, to be utilised when full-
timers are unavailable or inappropriate.
Despite the growing importance of part-time working
and its links with female employment there is also
relatively little data and research on those employed.
Partly the difficulties arise from the lack of a consistent
definition and classification of part-time work, both
between surveys and over time [8]. Even in studies of
women workers, part-time work has tended to be treated
as a marginal activity which is only briefly considered,
(e.g. [9]). It is usually assumed that, in a given workplace,
part-time workers are likely to resemble full-time workers
except for their domestic commitments, especially those
relating to the care of young children. Some writers (e.g.
[10]) have suggested that part-time working is the best way
for women to combine home and work roles, at least while
the children are young, and yet have given little
consideration to its effects on women's position within the
workplace and the home.
Part-time work is not only an
important feature of women's
employment, but is also a mainly
female way of working
Blackburn and Beynon's research [11] is one of the few
studies to demonstrate that full and part-time workers
have distinctive orientations towards work. Even in this
study, part-time workers' wider situations and the
ramifications for part-time workers involved in different
working patterns, such as those on various shifts, are
ignored. An opportunity to examine the characteristics and
perspectives of women working on the morning, afternoon
and evening shifts of one factory occurred in the context of
a wider inquiry into the pressures on women factory
workers.
Outline of Investigation
The investigation was carried out at a food factory in the
North-West employing 965 women, of whom 71.5 per cent
are part-time employees. They work on three different
shifts;
mornings (7.30 am to 11.30 am), afternoons (1.15
pm to 5.15 pm) and evenings (5.40 pm to 9.40 pm). The
full-time employees work from 7.30 am to 4.15 pm. Most
of the women are engaged on packing operations. The
variety of products means, however, that there are
*The research described was carried out while the author was working on
a project financed by the Medical Research Council under the direction of
Professor Sylvia Shimmin, Department of Behaviour in Organisations,
Lancaster University. The author is now based at Manchester University
researching the effects of new technology on women workers in the
manufacturing sector.
Employee Relations 3,1 1981 | 17
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