Welsh Journals

7. WOMEN AND THE ORGANIZATION ÓF THE LABOUR FORCE IN THE ABERYSTWYTH HOTEL TRADE Anna Walher INTRODUCTION I took part-time work because of Patrick. I work from 9 to 3 and then I take him from school. 1*11 never take a full-time job while he's at school. Not until he's 16. The trouble begins when you're not at home children can get into trouble. (Mary, aged 41, a cleaner and single mother) I'm doing teachers' training in Liverpool. My parents live here. I usually come here in the summer and work. I've been doing that for a few years. I work mornings in the hotel and afternoons in the chippy. Then I'm going on holiday and then back to college. (Eileen, aged 24, a chambermaid) I worked for 12 years at the University [as a catering assistant and chambermaid], but I had to retire at 65. 1 didn't want to give up working. only paid half stamp so I didn't get my pension.The offìce told me I only had to pay half stamp. My husband works part-time behind the bar at the 'Crossroads' but it's not enough to keep us. He earns less than £ 30 a week. (Liz, aged 65, a chambermaid) During the summer of 1985 interviewed 30 women and 13 men working in 12 Aberystwyth hotels. The words quoted above came from some of the women employed in the hotels and give an indication of the diversity of their labour market experiences. In this article I want to suggest that this diversity is the main feature of the Aberystwyth hotel labour market: women were very differently placed in that labour market, and therefore did not constitute one homogeneous group of employees. Similar patterns emerged amongst the male employees. Thus I discovered that in the specific context of the Aberystwyth hotels gender divisions were cross-cut by other social factors, especially age and recognized skills. In addition, there were few definite and discrete social groups of women which would fit neatly into the explanatory frameworks of dual/segmented