Gender (In)equality and the Future of Work

In June 2003, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) launched an investigation into gender segregation. The focus of the investigation, which is being funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), is on Modern Apprenticeships (MAs), which are currently the main training route into work for young people in Britain. It also concentrates on five occupational sectors where there are skill shortages: construction, plumbing, engineering, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and childcare. This study was commissioned in December 2003 and is the fifth in a series of research studies that the EOC has set up to support the investigation. This study aims to: understand the obstacles women have encountered in entering non-traditional training/employment; explore how they negotiated and managed those experiences; identify the factors that enabled them to succeed and what else would have helped; identify how more women can be enabled to enter non-traditional occupations and succeed; highlight good practice for women in non-traditional skills training/employment; and provide recommendations, which can be fed into the EOC investigation into occupational segregation.