Exclusion and Inclusion: The Gender Composition of British and Dutch Work Forces

Greater European integration has indicated the need for comprehensive comparative social research. This text makes a contribution towards the understanding of European gendered labour markets. It does so by considering the socio-economic, political and cultural underpinnings of cross-national differences and similarities in the historical construction of women's employment in the Netherlands and Britain. As well as focusing on the aggregate, these issues are investigated through a case study of the banking sectors in each society. By tracing developments between 1940 and 1993, the author argues that the divergent trajectories in women's economic activity in the two societies are closely related to the divergent cultural formations which have historically characterized these societies. This is illustrated through the theoretical concern with exclusion and inclusion, in which phenomena such as marriage bars, part-time working and childcare facilities, are given due consideration.