introduction

the modules: a rationale

The gwd is currently composed of six integrated and interactive modules on:

These modules are not intended to be comprehensive; rather, they represent different entry points into the study of gender and work.

The precarious employment module maps precariousness in the Canadian labour force. It explores linkages between a number of social locations (sex/gender, age, 'race', ethnicity and disability), changing employment relationships, and labour market insecurity. This module represents the 'root system' for the gwd since a relational approach to the study of precarious employment necessarily casts attention to dimensions of both insecurity and security in labour markets.

Complementing the mapping effort informing the design of the precarious employment module, the health care module takes this framework and applies it at a more focused industrial and occupational level. Ways of seeing health care - that is, the ways in which the health care industry and care-giving occupations are defined and categorized - not only affect the availability and quality of the statistical data, they are integrally related to the valuation of health care work itself. In this module, concepts related to health care work (paid and unpaid) are linked to those defining public and private care in the formal economy, the community, and the household.

From a different angle, the union module elevates a labour market institution central to any analysis of gender and work, with attention to various indicators of gender relations, dimensions affecting union status, and social processes often neglected in the scholarly literature and absent in most published statistics. The module is organized around the theme of unions as a social movement and explores important issues flowing from this theme (such as the "union advantage," militancy, and equity) in dynamic rather than static terms.

The migration module focuses attention on how policies and practices around migration (particularly those regulating temporary and permanent migration) organize gender and 'race', placing emphasis on how they shape, and are shaped by, household/ 'family' forms and employment norms. The module brings together two levels of analysis: at the level of migration policy, it considers factors affecting who enters Canada and under what conditions. At the level of the labour market, it covers topics such as labour force participation, schooling, precarious employment, and relations of distribution in households. The module addresses how gender, 'race', ethnicity and class intersect among those born in Canada, and the differences and similarities in patterns found among immigrants.

The unpaid work module probes more deeply into a subset of one of feminist political economy's central organizing concepts - social reproduction. Statistics Canada is at the forefront of data collection on unpaid work, and social scientists in Canada have been active in calling attention to the longstanding data gaps on this subject. Drawing together the large body of research on unpaid work and extensive Canadian data sources, this module allows researchers to probe how unpaid work is socially valued and organized, reveals the extent to which it is stratified by sex/gender, and highlights the social and economic consequences for women and men.

Finally, the technology module takes a relational approach to an important social practice tied to gender and work. Technology is often regarded as a neutral entity that operates outside of social relations, yet through its creation and application, technology enables particular types of work (paid and unpaid) and employment practices while inhibiting or eliminating others. This module provides researchers with the tools to examine how power relations mediate the role that technology plays in shifting norms of work and, more specifically, to expose processes of stratification and differentiation surrounding certain types of work.

Once again, these six modules are best understood as different entry points into the topic of gender and work. The gwd conceives of these themes, institutions, processes, practices, and critiques of dominant hypotheses as dynamic and overlapping.

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