Gender inequalities in unpaid public work: retention, stratification and segmentation in the volunteer leadership of charities in England and Wales
Gender inequalities in unpaid public work: retention, stratification and segmentation in the volunteer leadership of charities in England and Wales
While gender inequalities in employment (paid public work) and domestic and reproductive labour (unpaid private work) are a prominent focus within the sociological literature, gender inequalities in volunteering (unpaid public work) have received much less scholarly attention. We analyse a unique longitudinal dataset of volunteer leaders, that follows through time every individual to have served as a board member (trustee) for a charity in England and Wales between 2010 and 2023, to make three foundational contributions to our understanding of gender inequalities in unpaid public work. First, the salience of vertical gender stratification and horizontal gender segmentation in trusteeship shows that gendered inequalities in work extend to public work in general—encompassing unpaid public work, and not only paid public work. In terms of gender segmentation, we find that women are over-represented as trustees in a small number of fields of charitable activity but under-represented across the majority of fields. In terms of gender stratification, we find that women are under-represented on the boards of the largest charities; under-represented as chairs of trustee boards; and particularly under-represented as chairs of the largest charities. Second, the dynamics underlying gendered differences in unpaid public work, which show higher rates of resignation for women trustees, resonate with research on paid employment which emphasises the importance of attrition to an understanding of how gendered inequalities in work are reproduced. This means that increasing the retention of women, not only the recruitment of women, becomes central to the policy agenda. Third, we show that there has been a decline in gender stratification and gender segmentation in trusteeship since 2010. This decline over time in gendered inequalities in unpaid public work provides an interesting counterpoint to influential research documenting a ‘stall’ in the reduction of gendered inequalities in paid employment.
gender, longitudinal, segmentation, stratification, unpaid public work, volunteering
Clifford, David
9686f96b-3d0c-48d2-a694-00c87b536fde
Clifford, David
9686f96b-3d0c-48d2-a694-00c87b536fde
Clifford, David
(2023)
Gender inequalities in unpaid public work: retention, stratification and segmentation in the volunteer leadership of charities in England and Wales.
British Journal of Sociology.
(doi:10.1111/1468-4446.13070).
Abstract
While gender inequalities in employment (paid public work) and domestic and reproductive labour (unpaid private work) are a prominent focus within the sociological literature, gender inequalities in volunteering (unpaid public work) have received much less scholarly attention. We analyse a unique longitudinal dataset of volunteer leaders, that follows through time every individual to have served as a board member (trustee) for a charity in England and Wales between 2010 and 2023, to make three foundational contributions to our understanding of gender inequalities in unpaid public work. First, the salience of vertical gender stratification and horizontal gender segmentation in trusteeship shows that gendered inequalities in work extend to public work in general—encompassing unpaid public work, and not only paid public work. In terms of gender segmentation, we find that women are over-represented as trustees in a small number of fields of charitable activity but under-represented across the majority of fields. In terms of gender stratification, we find that women are under-represented on the boards of the largest charities; under-represented as chairs of trustee boards; and particularly under-represented as chairs of the largest charities. Second, the dynamics underlying gendered differences in unpaid public work, which show higher rates of resignation for women trustees, resonate with research on paid employment which emphasises the importance of attrition to an understanding of how gendered inequalities in work are reproduced. This means that increasing the retention of women, not only the recruitment of women, becomes central to the policy agenda. Third, we show that there has been a decline in gender stratification and gender segmentation in trusteeship since 2010. This decline over time in gendered inequalities in unpaid public work provides an interesting counterpoint to influential research documenting a ‘stall’ in the reduction of gendered inequalities in paid employment.
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British Journal of Sociology - 2023 - Clifford - Gender inequalities in unpaid public work Retention stratification and
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Accepted/In Press date: 7 December 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 23 December 2023
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© 2023 The Authors. The British Journal of Sociology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of London School of Economics and Political Science.
Keywords:
gender, longitudinal, segmentation, stratification, unpaid public work, volunteering
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Local EPrints ID: 485524
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/485524
ISSN: 0007-1315
PURE UUID: b20bca93-f8dc-47d4-a640-b7987ed83ee0
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Date deposited: 08 Dec 2023 17:31
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:04
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