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'You just had to get on with it': Exploring the persistence of gender inequality through women’s career histories

Ford, J.; Atkinson, C.; Harding, N.; Collinson, D.

'You just had to get on with it': Exploring the persistence of gender inequality through women’s career histories Thumbnail


Authors

C. Atkinson

N. Harding

D. Collinson



Abstract

This article examines the career histories of the first generation of UK women to enter professional employment in the 1970s and 1980s in comparatively large numbers. In so doing, it contributes to the sparse literature on older women’s working life histories. Presenting empirical research on women’s experiences in the legal and HR sectors, it reveals how women pioneers were often silenced by requirements to conform with male-dominated norms, values and practices governing masculine career pathways. They learned to speak a predominantly masculine language that in turn constituted a significant barrier to effective resistance and disallowed new ways of speaking about careers. The article argues that these earlier conditions of entry into careers continue to influence the barriers women face at work today. Through this analysis of older women’s working lives, the article also contributes to contemporary debates about intersectionality by illustrating how gender and age interact in ways that reinforce earlier patterns of career disadvantage.

Citation

Ford, J., Atkinson, C., Harding, N., & Collinson, D. (2021). 'You just had to get on with it': Exploring the persistence of gender inequality through women’s career histories. Work, Employment and Society, 35(1), 78-96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017020910354

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 10, 2020
Online Publication Date May 21, 2020
Publication Date Feb 1, 2021
Deposit Date Feb 11, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Work, Employment and Society
Print ISSN 0950-0170
Electronic ISSN 1469-8722
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 35
Issue 1
Pages 78-96
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017020910354
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1271578

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Published Journal Article (Advance online version) (182 Kb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).




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