Andrea Wigfield - Post-Fordism, Gender and Work

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POST-FORDISM, GENDER AND WORK

For Grandma and Grandad

Post-Fordism, Gender and Work

ANDREA WIGFIELD
Sheffield Hallam University

First published 2001 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informs business

Copyright Andrea Wigfield 2001

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 2001088796

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-72571-3 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-19175-l (ebk)

Contents

I am indebted to many people, without whom this book could not have been completed. I am particularly grateful to all the managers and employees who spared time to complete questionnaires and participate in interviews. I would also like to thank Juliet for her assistance in the preparation of the final version, and all those who have read and commented upon various drafts of chapters.

PART 1
THE THEORY

Since the 1980s there has been extensive debate concerning the extent to which advanced industrialised nations have experienced economic restructuring. Much of this discussion focuses upon the pattern of economic development, in the western world, during the last two centuries. Particular attention is paid to the shift away from craft production towards the end of the nineteenth century, the dominance of Fordism during the twentieth century and the emergence of a more flexible mode of production from the 1970s onwards.

The classification of this restructuring, following the Fordist era, has provoked most academic discussion, drawing in commentators from various political and ideological backgrounds, incorporating Monetarists, Neo-Classicists, Keynesians, Regulationists and Neo-Marxists. These commentators can be divided into two principal schools of restructuring: the French Regulationist School, as exemplified by scholars such as Aglietta (1979), Boyer (1988a) and Leborgne and Lipietz (1988, 1990) who refer to the replacement of Fordism as Neo or Post-Fordism; and the Institutionalist School, advanced by commentators such as Piore and Sabel (1984), who refer to the Fordist successor as Flexible Specialisation.

Extensive differences exist between the underlying assumptions of these two theories, but there are also some similarities. Both indicate that in recent years there has been a search for a new form of economic development based on production and labour flexibility. Further, and perhaps more importantly in the context of this book, both largely fail to incorporate a gender dimension into their analysis. Neither adequately address changing gender relations as part of their account of the search for flexibility. A factor which is surprising given that womens participation in the labour force has continued to increase (McDougall, 1998; Central Statistical Office, 1999b). It is therefore crucial that these inadequacies are redressed and that the restructuring debate is genderised.

This book attempts to do just that. It incorporates a gender dimension into the economic restructuring debate, thus challenging and developing existing knowledge in this field. attempts to answer these questions by drawing upon an empirical study of 33 clothing companies, half of which have adopted Post-Fordist production techniques based on team working.

The book is divided into six main chapters. is to examine the Institutionalist and Regulationist theories of economic restructuring. It explores the stages of economic development which preceded the new mode of production, paying particular attention to the Fordist phase and explanations for its rise and decline. The conflicts, contradictions and similarities between the two accounts of the Fordist successor are then explored and attempts are made to outline a preliminary model of economic restructuring within which a gender informed analysis can be inserted.

draws upon existing feminist theoretical knowledge, particularly that concerned with gender relations and the labour market, to develop a series of theoretical arguments concerning the implications of economic restructuring for gender relations. The discussion centres around three main issues: numerical flexibility; functional flexibility; and technological change. Examples are drawn from the implementation of team working in the manufacturing sector.

In order to test accurately the theoretical arguments arising out of provides an introduction to this part of the book, explaining the nature of and rationale for the empirical investigation. It outlines the key characteristics of the clothing sector in Nottinghamshire, and explains the choice of the sector and locality. The research methods utilised are also briefly outlined.

The empirical investigation explores a number of questions which fall into two categories: 1. numerical flexibility - does team working lead to an expansion of numerical flexibility which has damaging effects for female labour? How does this affect women who have caring responsibilities? Does team working facilitate flexible working arrangements and the provision of childcare facilities, thereby mediating the constraints faced by working women?; 2. functional flexibility and technological change - are models of team working which lead to job enlargement and which utilise technology in a way which deskills more likely to be implemented than those which lead to job enrichment and which utilise technology in a way which upskills when the workforce is predominantly female?

focuses upon the former. The extent to which team working encourages an expansion of numerical flexibility is examined, particular attention being paid to the level of redundancies and part-time work. The implications of these findings for female team members, especially those who have caring responsibilities, are then analysed and the extent to which team working can mediate the constraints faced by working women is explored.

explores the latter. The extent to which team working leads to functional flexibility, in terms of job enlargement and job enrichment is examined, and the role that technological change plays in this process is explored, particularly the way in which new technology can upskill or deskill. The resulting implications for the female workforce are analysed and the validity of the various dichotomies (job enlargement versus job enrichment and upskilling versus deskilling) are assessed. The way in which the method of work reorganisation and gender relations play a part in this process are then examined.

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