Female employment in a monoindustrial city (1993)
This survey provided a basis for E.V.Mashkova’s thesis for a doctoral degree in economics.
The survey report consists of the following parts:
Part 1. Transition to a free-market economy and social protection of population
The social protection system in a new economic situation.
Characteristics of a monoindustrial city.
The program and methods of a sociological survey.
Part 2. Primary survey findings: present-day problems of female employment
The social portrait of city women.
Dynamics of socio-demographic characteristics of working women.
Women’s categories in need of social aid in the sphere of employment.
Women’s attitudes to unemployment and private business.
Part 3. A social protection program for women in a monoindustrial city
Factors affecting women.
Approaches to measuring effectiveness of social programs.
The major lines of a women’s social protection program in the sphere of employment.
«The salient features of using female labor in industry, revealed by the sociological survey, are not contradictory to the facts already known: women have a lower educational level and, as a result, lower wages than men. The budget-funded industries extensively using female labor show lower wage rising rates than industries (manufacture, construction, transport) employing primarily male labor. Almost in all the city industries women have to perform hard physical work, often in harmful conditions. Women occupy lower professional levels and are hardly ever represented at the decision-making level.
Contrary to the general state statistics, however, female labor has been increasingly employed in manufacturing industries of late. On the one hand, the current process is women replacing men who choose to shift to better-paid economy spheres; on the other hand, women value too much benefits and a less precarious employment provided by a major enterprise to run the risk of losing these on quitting. Nevertheless, the subject under investigation seems to be specific in that a comparatively high stability of female workers as such provides no proof of their favorable situation.
The survey findings show that women tend to underestimate their high educational potential, see no opportunities for professional development and are, by and large, worse prepared for work in market conditions than men...»
The key finding of this survey will be used in the paper «Content Analysis of Women’s Situation in the Area of Employment over a period from 1989 through 1999» which will be published in March of 2002.
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