Open AccessDie soziale Konstruktion von Qualifikation
Author(s) -
Jutta Schwarzkopd
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
prokla
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2700-0311
pISSN - 0342-8176
DOI - 10.32387/prokla.v23i93.1020
Subject(s) - ideology , weaving , hierarchy , wage , sociology , relation (database) , political science , labour economics , politics , engineering , economics , law , computer science , mechanical engineering , database
The consideration of skill highlights the social construction of job hierarchies. This investigation of the wage-levels as well as the level and distribution of skill in the Lancashire weaving industry between 1885 and the First World War corroborates the largely ideological character of »skill« as a measure for the classification of work. In the social construction of women-dominated weaving as »semiskilled «, the gender-specific dimension is shown to be of overriding importance. This study further suggesrs that the gender hierarchy in society at ]arge determines the relation of warnen and men at the working-place to such an extent as to obviate its being undermined from within the labour process. Yet experiences gained at work appear to carry the potential for warnen to pose a challenge to the existing hierarchy in a different social sphere.