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
