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Friday 29 April 2016

WOMEN AND PUBLIC SECTOR PRECARITY CAUSES, CONDITIONS AND CONSEQUENCES

 http://www.criaw-icref.ca/en/page/women-and-public-sector-precarity


Executive Summary



The struggle for gender equity in the public sector has been underway for decades. Today, critical gains made are under threat as precarity spreads across the public sector; a spread that is partly a result of the widespread adoption of neoliberal ideas and practices, especially over the last thirty years. Research demonstrates the shift towards precarity, and highlights a number of serious consequences of this shift; however, we do not fully understand the look and consequences of public sector precarity for all women. This paper contributes to filling this gap by bringing together existing research on the conditions of job precarity and its impacts on women working in the public sector. The review demonstrates that precarious public sector work means decreased income, benefits, and job security. The consequences of job precarity include generally poor working conditions; increases in health and safety issues (including discrimination, violence and harassment); impacts on homes, families, and communities; and reductions in workers’ rights. These consequences are most often found in women-dominated sectors, such as healthcare and social services, though they have also been tracked in science and technology fields and elsewhere. The experiences of racialized women are sometimes considered in isolation, and research findings suggest that they often experience particular negative impacts because of their realities as racialized women. However, Indigenous women, women with disabilities, LGBTTQ women and others who are often marginalized, and whose experiences may be shaped differently by policies and social structures, are often invisible in the existing literature about the impacts of public sector precarity on women. This is a serious oversight that deserves attention, in part because these women may experience disproportionate impacts. The effects of job precarity also cascade down to citizens; end-users experience declines in the quality and availability of services, and increased concerns about the accountability and safety of services. When users are themselves precariously employed, more problems follow. Future work should focus on ways to resist, stem and reverse the trend towards precarity across all public sectors, and on more fully understanding the experiences of marginalized women as precarious public sector worker