introduction
core components of the gwd
On of the common dangers in multi-method research on gender and work, especially where it draws on quantitative data, is the tendency to reduce gender to a variable, rather than examining gender as a set of social relations. To remedy this problem, the gwd encourages scholars to examine gender relations by integrating a library of materials organized around a range of themes and issues, a thesaurus, and multidimensional statistical tables that researchers may customize.
the library
Reflecting a multi- and interdisciplinary emphasis, the library contains papers, citations to papers, and links to relevant theoretical and empirical works.
As part of the library, for each module there is a conceptual guide for researchers and analytic paper(s) drawing on secondary and original library and statistical resources. Along with the thesaurus of core concepts, described below, these instruments provide both a conceptual and a technical map of the given module and the principles informing its design. To encourage critical engagement on the part of the researcher, the conceptual guide to each module identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each of the relevant survey instruments and their relationship to the literature on gender and work.
The gwd includes a tutorial on how to use the library.
the thesaurus
Serving as a bridge between the library and statistical components, the thesaurus identifies core concepts derived from scholarship on gender and work, with particular attention to their interrelationship. The thesaurus has three central functions: first, it provides a controlled vocabulary for searching the library, helping researchers link the statistical tables and the library of resources. Its second function is descriptive - that is, it describes the language of the field, and illustrates relationships between terms, concepts and ideas. Finally, its third function is prescriptive in that it seeks to communicate how creators of the gwd understand certain ideas, and the connections between them.
The gwd includes a tutorial on how to use the thesaurus.
the statistical tables
The design of the statistical tables allows for a relational analysis of gender and work in several ways. It enables researchers to focus in-depth on the level and form of women's and men's position in a given institution (such as migration), or in relation to a dominant concept or thesis (such as the feminization of employment hypothesis). Within each module, researchers are also able to examine the relationship between key variables that proxy, or stand-in for, social relationships.
The relationship between production and social reproduction is only beginning to be taken seriously by statisticians after years of interventions on the part of scholars studying gender and work; data are therefore not readily available in published sources. To fill these data gaps, each module in the gwd allows scholars to examine relationships between key variables that proxy gender relations inside and outside the labour force. For example, the precarious employment module allows researchers to examine how having children under six impacts upon engagement in temporary employment for women compared to men. The union module, in turn, allows researchers to examine how unions play a role in shaping the social wage and explores the "union advantage" through an equity lens.
Similarly, statistical data that allow researchers to examine the relationship between gender relations and 'race' and ethnicity are only beginning to be collected, and there is very little published material in this area. To address racialized sex/gender relations in the labour market, the relationship between gender relations and race-ethnic relations is fully integrated into modules on precarious employment and migration and integrated, where data sources permit, into modules on unions, technology, unpaid work, rural-urban and health care.
Each module also includes statistical tables that allow researchers to examine how women's and men's position or involvement in a given institution or set of social practices have changed over time and place. Researchers are also able to examine union status by various work contexts.
At a technical level, the statistical tables themselves have been constructed to help researchers navigate complex data- related questions and to illustrate how, and in what ways, the conceptualization process shapes, and is shaped by, data collection and organization. Just as the modules offer different paths into the data - through institutions, processes, industries, field-defining debates and leading hypotheses - there are also numerous ways that researchers may use the data in the statistical tables. For example, for the researcher conducting primary analysis, the gwd supports a variety of export formats (e.g., .xls, .csv, .ivt, .png, .bmp) that permit further manipulation with other applications.
The gwd aims to familiarize researchers with as many relevant survey instruments as possible. To this end, the statistical component draws either directly or indirectly from a number of Statistics Canada surveys, as well as the European Household Panel Survey (coordinated by EUROSTAT) and other international data sources.
Each of the surveys used to construct the gwd has strengths and limitations. Some surveys are one-time surveys while others are conducted periodically (e.g., monthly or annually). As much as possible, the modules include data tables that are easy to update. The modules focused on Canada draw from a range of surveys that include some of the following (please click on a given survey for a more detailed description and assessment):
- Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS)
- Absence from Work Survey (AWS)
- Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS)
- Census of Population (CNS)
- General Social Survey on Time Use (Cycles 2, 7 & 12)
- General Social Survey (GSS Cycle 9)
- General Social Survey (GSS Cycle 10)
- Health and Activity Limitation Survey (HALS)
- Labour Force Survey (LFS)
- Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB)
- National Apprenticed Trades Survey (NATS)
- National Population Health Survey (NPHS)
- Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS)
- Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID)
- Survey of Self-Employment (SSE)
- Survey of Work Arrangements (SWA)
- Workplace and Employee Survey (WES)
In addition, the gwd includes a tutorial on how to use the statistical tables.
