Welsh Journals

6. TAILOR-MADE OCCUPATIONS: A STUDY OF GENDER AND SKILL IN THE WELSH CLOTHING INDUSTRY1 Caroline Lloyd INTRODUCTION There continue to be persistent differences in the way that women and men are treated in the labour market. The demand for female labour is linked to rigid patterns of sex segregation (Rubery, 1988). Work that is considered to be 'women's work' is generally characterized by low pay, weak union organ- ization and lack of craft status, and is invariably defined as unskilled (Phillips and Taylor, 1986). Although the structure of segregation has largely persisted throughout the twentieth century (Bradley, 1989), during periods of change such as the introduction of new technology, opportunities exist to allow these patterns to be broken down and redefined (Bettio, 1988). Feminization, the process of replacing male workers with female workers, is considered as one strategy that firms may pursue in order to remain competitive. This article examines gender and skill in relation to the process of restructuring and technical change in the Welsh clothing industry.2 Over 85 per cent of the workforce are women, and jobs are very rigidly segregated. Women work mainly in low-paid, unskilled and semi-skilled areas of machining, and men work in higher management and the more 'craft' areas of pre-production work. However, the industry has faced a number of changes. The late 1970s and early 1980s was a period of considerable difficulty for the British clothing industry, as over 30 per cent of jobs were lost between 1978 and 1983 (Winterton and Winterton, 1990). A price war by high street retailers was followed by a number of retailers following competitive strategies based on design, quality and variety. This had a number of implications for manufacturers in the speed, quality and response rates that were being demanded, and led many firms to reconsider their organization of production in order to compete (Totterdill et al., 1989; Crewe, 1988). Computers were being suggested as an effective means to respond to these demands, and these were being introduced in an area of work traditionally occupied by 'skilled' men. Machining, where the majority of women work, has changed very little