Hope versus experience: career ambition and the labour market expectations of university educated women.

• Author: Murray, John

Abstract (1)

Studies that consider the position of women in the Australian labour market have consistently demonstrated evidence of unequal outcomes between men and women. A number of structural and behavioural explanations have been advanced for the continued existence of this gender inequality. This article contributes to the supply-side debate with a study of the labour market expectations of women. Questions about labour market expectations are pursued through the in-depth analysis of 29 interviews with women drawn from three purposively identified life situations: single undergraduates, single graduates and coupled parents. The findings demonstrate that undergraduate and graduate women in the sample expect to build and pursue successful careers, while also demonstrating an awareness of potential demand-side constraints to their participation in the labour market. The expectations of the undergraduate and graduate women accord with the lived experience of the mothers in the sample.

1. Introduction

   Labour market outcomes of men and women in Australia are consistently shown to be inequitable. Employed women have a lower rate of earnings, lower total earnings, fewer hours spent in employment and disproportionate representation in certain industries and occupational types. There continues to be considerable debate over the origin of this inequity. This debate can be broadly categorised into two streams, with one stream providing explanations reliant on demand-side factors and the structure of the labour market, while the second stream of debate is primarily concerned with the supply-side behaviour of women as the driver of their labour market outcomes. This article presents an alternative approach to the study of supply-side behaviour through an analysis of labour market expectations of women.

   In recent years the supply side of the debate over employment outcomes for women has been the focus of considerable attention. Hakim (1991) argued that, in Britain, structural impediments on the demand-side that had hitherto impaired the labour force participation of women had been removed, generating substantial subsequent supply-side debate about the extent to which labour market outcomes for women are driven by the preferences and choices of women themselves. Much of the subsequent debate has centred on the 'preference theory' advanced by Hakim (1991, 1995, 1996a, 1996b, 1998, 2000, 2003). Preference theory posits that the different rates of labour force participation among women reflect the different preferences of women themselves. In support of this argument Hakim (1998) presented a typology of three different types of women; 'home-centred' women, who represent approximately 20 per cent of the population and for whom children and family are the main priorities in life; 'work-centred' women, who also represent approximately 20 per cent of the population and are instead focussed on employment-related activity; and 'adaptive' women, who represent approximately 60 per cent of the population--a diverse group of women including those who want a family and a career, that are not totally committed to their employment careers as are the 'work-centred' women.

   The preference theory advanced by Hakim has received much attention, with an extensive demand-side critique based on the significance of structural constraints that limit the extent to which individual preferences can determine the labour makret outcomes of women (Bruegel 1996; Crompton and Harris 1998; Ginn et al 1996; McRae 2003a; McRae 2003b; Proctor and Padfield 1998). Structural explanations of unequal outcomes for women in the labour market emphasise 'gender order' effects on demand-side conditions, such as public policy settings and the availability of childcare, labour market conditions, labour market segmentation, employer and trade union behaviour and both overt and covert forms of discrimination.

   There has also been a supply-side critique of preference theory based on women's work orientations (Crompton and Harris 1998; James 2008; Proctor and Padfield 1998; Waiters 2005). These studies, based on the analysis of life and employment histories, have emphasised the contradictory nature of work orientations, the heterogenity of attitudes to employment among women from different socioeconomic groups and the transience of attitudes to employment over the life cycle. The critiques have challenged the emphasis on individual choice and the typology that Hakim advances, and have been used to recast the debate in terms of both opportunity and contraint.

   This article contributes to the supply-side debate through the study of labour market expectations of women. The labour market expectations of women, how they perceive and anticipate their labour market futures and the decisions they make offer an opportunity to observe any interaction between supply-side behavioural and demand-side constraints (Himmelweit and Sigala 2004). Mackay (1997) and Pocock (2005, 2006) have presented some of the few Australian studies of how young people perceive their working futures. Mackay (1997) finds that men and women aged 25-35 are 'keeping their options open' with regard to employment and family formation, with new attitudes to gender equality potentially presenting a flexible approach to the negotatiation of roles in the household and careers. In her focus groups with primary and high school students, Pocock (2006) found expectations centred on a shared approach to work and family responsibilities, with a default position of maternal care evident in the responses of the males. Pocock (2006) warns that flexible solutions in the household are also dependent on the ability of parents to find flexible solutions with employers, and without significant change in the way work is organised in Australia, the male respondents' default position of maternal care is likely to eventuate in future.

   This study of labour market expectations seeks to identify how women perceive and anticipate their working futures through the in-depth analysis of 29 interviews with women drawn from three purposively identified life situations: single undergraduate women studying in the field of economics, single women with degrees in the field of economics and mothers with children under the age of four who are also graduates.

   In the following section, the rationale for the method of data collection and sample construction is outlined, including details of the final sample. Section 3 is then divided into three separate sub-sections to present the results of the interviews with the women in accordance with their life situations. The results demonstrate the expectations that women in the samples of both undergraduates and graduates are ambitious in the pursuit of challenging and rewarding careers, and simultaneously aware of potentially inequitable outcomes for women as mothers in the labour market. The expectations of the undergraduate and graduate women are shown to be borne out in the experiences of the mothers in the sample. These results are then discussed in the fourth section as conclusions are drawn.

2. Method and Data

   Studies of individual perspectives of work, such as those undertaken by Mackay (1997) and Pocock (2005, 2006), typically involve qualitative analysis. Qualitative analysis allows for the perspectives of individuals to be assessed. Semi-structured interviews, in particular, allow individual perspectives on a range of discussion areas to be assessed within the appropriate context, while also encouraging the pursuit of tangents and further points of clarification. For the questions centred on the labour market expectations of women that are pursued in this study, semi-structured interviews are the ideal method for data collection.

   The semi-structured interview used in the study was structured to establish a consistent viewpoint from respondents by returning to key questions through a number of different topics of discussion. These topics of discussion covered areas such as 1) the important things in life, 2) university course selection and motivation, 3) experiences in paid work, 4) anticipated future careers in paid work, 5) life history of parents, and 6) balancing demands of work and family. Questions about labour market expectations were pursued through probe questions within these topics of discussion, allowing individuals to provide detailed rationalisations of behaviour and to build robust individual narratives for analysis.

   A purposive sample was targeted in order to magnify findings about...