The British Household Panel Survey also shows that not only sex differences but class differences in the

The British Household Panel Survey also shows that not only sex differences but class differences in the conditions of work are alive and well.
The 1990s has seen little change in how husbands and wives divide up their jobs. The data released at the beginning of the British Association of Science Week found that around 28 per cent of couples have two full- time jobs with the old standard breadwinner/housewife pattern where a husband works full time and the wife part time has fallen from 18 per cent to 15 per cent.However, even these households were where both spouses have full time work have rather less gender equality than might be expected, with researchers describing any resemblance between husbands’ and wives’ work lives as “only superficial”.”Full time employed women continue to carry a `dual burden’: the husbands have in effect one job where they have two,” said Jonathan Gershuny of the Economic and Social Research Council. When both men and women are employed full time women do on average nine hours more work.When women have longer working hours than men they still do at least six more hours of housework a week. And when both are unemployed the wife will do as many as 14 hours more housework per week.”The role that most women play as mother/housekeeper still significantly affects their career opportunities,” said Professor Gershuny. “Although the absolute number of women in the work force has increased in recent years they still bear the greatest burden for family care so their promotion prospects, job security and earnings potential are still much more restricted than are men.”The survey, which has interviewed 5,000 households (10,000 adults) annually since 1991 also suggests that in any one full year 73 per cent of men and 63 per cent of women are in stable employment or are self employed, 12 per cent of men and a quarter of women are out of the work force and 15 per cent of men and 24 per cent of women experience short-term movements in and out of work.But when considering the differences between the burdens of husbands and wives, it also notes that despite the number of wives in full time work, in fact fewer than one quarter of all wives spend as much time in paid work as their husbands do, while around one half of all husbands spend “substantially longer” working for money than their wives do.If gender differences are still alive in the late 20th century, then the class divide also still exists.

The research shows that half of all male technical and clerical workers will experience some time out of work over a four-year period, whereas less than a third of professional and managerial workers will have the same experience during the same period.Only 23 per cent of professional and managerial men will have some time out of the labour force during the four-year period, compared with 53 per cent of male technicians and clerical workers.There is an apparent overall stability in the level of secure employment (around 78 per cent) in any one year. But the study noted an apparent trend, through the 1990s, of a substantial rise in annual job insecurity of male manual workers.Leading article, page 14. The penalty suffered by the English – because they are not Northern Irish, Scottish or Welsh – was dramatically illustrated by figures showing that England receives a disproportionately small share of millennium money. Answering a question from Roseanna Cunningham, a Scottish Nationalist MP, the Millennium Commission revealed that out of almost pounds 1bn paid out in capital grants for prize projects, two-thirds had gone to England.
The revelation has added weight to the Government’s plans to devolve power, which are under way in some regions.England accounts for 83.5 per cent of the population of the United Kingdom. Yet it gets only 66 per cent, pounds 656m, of the money.Northern Ireland has 2.8 per cent of the UK population, but it got 7.7 per cent of the cash; Wales has 5 per cent of the people and 10.5 per cent of the money; while Scotland has 8.7 per cent of the people and 15.8 per cent of the money.And the English penalty is, as always, aggravated by the fact that London tends to do quite well – with 11.6 per cent of the population and 10.6 per cent of the millennium grants.The Celtic fringe, and London, do so well because they have developed a political identity – and clout.

Because they make a noise, they get the sweeteners.It would make sense for Scotland and Wales to get more money from Whitehall; if they were significantly worse off than the English regions.But as Richard Caborn, minister for the regions, said yesterday that most of the English regions are now running well behind European average per capita income – while Scotland and Wales have caught up with that average since they were given their own regional development authorities in 1974.The July unemployment rate for Scotland and Wales was 6.3 per cent – but that was less than the rate for Merseyside, the North-east and London. Yorkshire and Humberside had a rate of 6.2 per cent.The point is also made by the Treasury analysis of its own regional expenditure that while the English regions fare badly, some – such as East Anglia and the East Midlands – do worse than all the others.The people in the most generously treated region, the North-west, get almost a fifth more money, per person than the least-favoured East Midlands.The political and economic imperative that sees cash flowing to where the power is will ensure the eventual public endorsement of the Government plans.Scotland votes next week, Wales the week after, and London follows with a referendum of its own for the creation of an elected strategic authority, and mayor, to take responsibility for economic regeneration, planning, transport, environmental protection, and policing.As Michael Heseltine set up the existing framework for English devolution, the Government Regional Offices, which currently spend about pounds 4.6bn of taxpayers’ money in the English regions, and as the Tories are now defending an English rural laager, they might yet find it difficult to oppose something that will be in the interests of their constituents.But there is a resistance from Whitehall, with some ministers trying to defend their empires. Because devolution increases local power, it necessarily reduces the power of the centre and that arouses political rivalries.Some ministers are less committed to the policy than Tony Blair, but Scotland and Wales are only the beginning of a process that will see a fundamental change in the way England, too, is governed.. The flag of St Piran flies from churchtowers over Cornwall but the county which was once Britain’s fourth ancient kingdom still remains firmly tied to London. Just three months ago, thousands of Cornish people took part in a march on the capital to re-enact the An Gof rebellion of 1497 when up to 2,000 rebels were slain by Henry VII’s army.
The march stirred a wave of nationalistic fervour to accompany a cultural revival which has seen the compilation of the first Cornish dictionary and translation of the Bible into the Cornish language.Yet the poor showing of the nationalist Mebyon Kernow (Sons of Cornwall) party at the general election, showed that the feeling was more one of misty-eyed sentimentalism than a true desire for separatism.John Mills, chief executive of Cornwall County Council, said that such passions had to give way to the realpolitik of modern life.”Whilst appreciating and applauding Cornwall’s distinctive geography, culture and history, it is utter folly and totally unrealistic to contemplate `independence’,” he said. “From a purely economic point of view we are utterly integrated with England.”And so, last month, the county council chose pragmatism and decided to co-operate with plans by Richard Caborn, minister for the regions, to set up a regional development agency (RDA) for seven counties in the South- west.Nevertheless, the council pointed out that its preferred option would have been a Cornwall Development Agency, and it noted that “every effort should be made to ensure that the RDA’s headquarters should be located in Cornwall and not in Bristol, which seems to the people of Cornwall as remote as London.”Indeed, the northern end of Gloucestershire, which will form part of this huge and disparate economic region, is as near to Carlisle as it is to Penzance.Loveday Jenkin, spokeswoman for Mebyon Kernow, said Cornwall’s chances of attracting European development funds would be greatly harmed by being lumped with the wealthier counties of Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and the former Avon.”Parts of Avon and Somerset are extremely rich while Cornwall is depressed, with low wages and high levels of homelessness.