Personnel Management and Working Women in the 1990s: Beyond Paternalism

Abstract

The importance to the personnel profession of the management of working women is discussed with reference to the position of women at work in Britain today, how gender inequalities arose, and how the position needs to change through this decade. The issue of child care is addressed, and women’s stress, coping and health reviewed. Women’s economic value as producers and consumers is cast in a European‐wide framework. An analysis of the effects of their historic position on Britain’s working women today is made with particular reference to the powerful influence of Victorian domestic ideology. A personnel management policy that accommodates women’s needs and capacity for exercising choice is advocated, as a potential mutual benefit to the woman and her employer.

Citation

Shipley, P. (1990), "Personnel Management and Working Women in the 1990s: Beyond Paternalism", Personnel Review, Vol. 19 No. 6, pp. 3-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000000781