“Unemployed Women Have Got It Heaps Worse”: Exploring the Implications of Female Youth Unemployment*
| Author | Christine Alder |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486588601900403 |
| Date | 01 December 1986 |
| Published date | 01 December 1986 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
210 (1986) 19
ANZJ
Crim
"UNEMPLOYED WOMEN HAVE GOT IT HEAPS WORSE":
EXPLORING THE IMPLICATIONS OF FEMALE YOUTH
UNEMPLOYMENT*
Christine
Aldert
Introduction
Traditionally explanations
of
female delinquency have concerned themselves
predominantly with factors such as sexuality, dependency, family relationships and
relationships with boys; that is, they have focused on the very personal. Sociological
discussions have
not
moved far beyond
the
descriptive
and
unsatisfactory level of
sex role analyses.
The
objective of this research is to explore
the
meaning
and
implications of unemployment for young women as a tentative step in the direction
of understanding
the
experiences of young women in their
broader
social context.
The
purpose is
not
to search for a conclusive and simple relationship between
unemployment
and
delinquency for young women.
Rather
the objective is to begin
to consider young women
and
the
dilemmas facing them in a social context beyond
the family and their developing sexuality in the anticipation
that
this will facilitate
the development of more sociological theories of female delinquency.
As
Hagan,
Gillis and Simpson (1985) have recently noted,
the
correlation
between
gender
and delinquency is one of
the
strongest and most consistent findings
in delinquency research.
And
yet it has also been argued
that
the conceptual neglect
of gender has
been
the
major
failing of deviance theorizing (Harris, 1977; Smart,
1976;
Leonard,
1982). Some recent research has included consideration of factors
such as class and
power
(Hagan et al, 1985),
peer
relationships
(Giordano,
1978;
Campbell, 1981; McRobbie and
Garber,
1982), school performance, and
occupational aspirations and changing opportunity structures (for example,
Figueira-McDonough, 1984; Steffensmeier, 1983; Cernkovich and
Giordano,
1979). However, such work is relatively rare.
Other
more traditional explanations
have
been
criticized for their preoccupation with psychological and physiological
characteristics,
and
the familial and sexual relationships of young women.
The
result has
been
aconfusion of sex and
gender
and a general disregard of the
broader
social-structural context of young women's lives (Klein, 1973; Heidensohn, 1968;
Naffin, 1981;
Leonard,
1982; Alder, 1985). This neglect has occurred despite the
scattered evidence which suggests that consideration of
the
adolescent girl's social
world, including school, peers and occupational opportunities, is important for an
understanding
of
female delinquency (Alder, 1985).
For
many young women today, unemployment is a
major
feature of their lives
and
it is conceivable
that
it may
playa
part
in structuring the circumstances in which
some of them become involved in crime. However, the relevance of unemployment
to female delinquency has
not
been
examined. Braithwaite (1978: 54) has observed
that "in constrast with the vast volumes of research on male unemployment
and
crime, the relationship of female crime and unemployment has
been
ignored by
criminology".
He
suggests this is evidence of
"the
accumulated sexism of
criminology as a discipline" (Braithwaite, 1978:54). In this regard, two factors in
particular deserve special consideration: the belief that employment is only
*Earlier versions of this article were delivered at the Australian Institute of Criminology (Canberra) in
February and December 1985.
+PhD, Lecturer, Criminology Department, University of Melbourne.
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