Introduction
Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman elected to U.S Congress in 1968 (Freeman
2005), she pointed out that, 'The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of
females begins when the doctor says, 'It's a girl'.' (Walter 1973, p. 36). Let's fast forward to
the 21th century today, it is widely observed that a women's gender will indirectly shape her
lifestyle and career paths in the society. Hakim (2000) recognised this phenomenon and came
up with the "Preference Theory" which aims to predict women's choices between family and
employment. The issue that will be discussed is whether this theory is applicable to both
Singapore and Western countries in terms of work gender differentials.
While Singapore and Western countries have different cultures and societies, scenarios of
work gender differential had been similar in most career paths and therefore Hakim's
"Preference Theory" will be applicable and useful in predicting woman's choices in the two
regions.
Rich Modern Societies
Hakim (2000, p.286) states,'Preference theory is a new theory for explaining and predicting
women’s choices between market work and family work, a theory that is historically-
informed, empirically-based, multidisciplinary, prospective rather than retrospective in
orientation, and applicable in all rich modern societies'. One of the key points mentioned
above was that the Preference theory was applicable to all rich modern societies and therefore
it is essential to determine that both Singapore and Western countries fall into this category.
The Western countries that will be taken into consideration in this essay are United States of
America which is the most influential Western country today and Switzerland which is a
relatively successful country to present the Westerners in the Europe.
To prove that these countries are rich modern societies, the Gross domestic product (GDP) of
these countries will be examined. Goossens et al.(2007) defines that GDP is the market value
of all final goods and services produced within a country in a certain period and they also
observed that GDP per capita is often considered as an indicator of a country's standard of
living. Data and statistics from International Monetary Fund (2011) has shown that Singapore
has a purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita GDP of $56,522(International dollar) which
ranks 3rd in the world while United States at 7th with $47,284 and Switzerland at 8th place
with $41,663. Therefore, these countries are applicable to the Preference theory as they are
rich modern societies ranking highly above the total 183 countries tabulated by the IMF.
Five socio-economic conditions
The Preference theory further states five historical socio economic conditions which begun
in the late 20th century and these conditions may not occur in all modern societies or as a
whole and that their effects were cumulative (Hakim, 2000). The first change is the
contraceptive revolution in 1965 which gave women reliable control over their own fertility
for the first time in history (Hakim, 2000). This is confirmed by Henshaw and Singh (1986)
as they reported that the hormonal tablet entered into the U.S. market during the early 1960s
and is are used by approximately 12 million women in the U.S. and 70 million women
worldwide. The second change is the equal opportunities revolution which gave women entry
to all positions and occupations for the first time in history (Hakim 2000). The third change
being the expansion of white-collar occupations, which are more attractive to women
compared to blue-collar jobs (Hakim 2000). The fourth change is the creation of jobs for
secondary earners, such as part-time jobs whereby woman could work at home without the
expense of other life interest (Hakim 2000). The last change is explained by Hakim (2000)
as, 'The increasing importance of attitudes, values and personal preferences in the lifestyle
choices of affluent modern societies'. Majority of the changes suggested by the theory is
highly likely to have occurred in the three countries since they have been proven earlier to be
countries of rich modern societies through their GDP. Therefore, the Preference Theory still
remains useful to this point.
Three classification of women’s work-lifestyle preferences in the 21st century
According to the Preference theory, woman in modern societies struggle between the choice
of prioritising career and family as they are heterogeneous which creates conflicting interests
and this have resulted in three types of ideal preferences group which is home-centred,
adaptive and work centred woman. (Hakim, 2000). Adaptive and work-centred women will
be the focus towards investigating work gender differential, in particular the adaptive women
who seeks to combine work and family as according to Preference Theory, they represent an
estimated 60% of women in a rich modern country.
Lower participation rate of women in employment
Hakim (2000) indicated that, women often struggle on the decision to enter the workforce as
they would have lesser time to manage the burden of domestic work and child care. This is a
result of women perceiving themselves to be family caregivers as it was a traditional social
norm (Dominika 2008). Due to conflicting interest and responsibilities, there would be lower
participation rate of woman in the labour force.
The participation rate of employment reported by the Department of Statistics Singapore
(2010) showed that male participation rate was 76.5% while female stood at 56.5% in 2010.
Furthermore, according to the Manpower Research and Statistics Department of Singapore
(2010) it was reported that 56.2% of the workforce were males while the remaining 43.8%
were females in the same year. Similarly, the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics (2005) concluded a participation rate of 69.6% for males and 56.2% for females in
2005. The lower women participation rates as observed in both Singapore and U.S. supports
the Preference Theory as Hakim (1998, 2003a) suggested that majority of men were work-
centred whereas work-centred women were a minority. This explains the higher percentage in
participation rate in employment of men in both context.
Gender disparity in occupations
Hakim's (2000) Preference Theory also suggested that woman experience a great
disadvantage compared to their male counterparts as they face conflicting interests between
family and employment. This disadvantage mentioned meant that females are unable to
compete evenly with males in high paying jobs such as managerial and political positions for
they do not have as much time as man to commit to their career due to household burdens.
This has been seen in Singapore as the Manpower Research and Statistics Department
Singapore (2000) discovered that, women only occupied 27.0% in the corporate management
positions and 34.8% in the political sector which is a much lower figure compared to men.
However, women had a much larger share instead when it came to lower end jobs such as
office clerks with a higher percentage of 78.6% and customer service clerks at 85.0%
(Manpower Research and Statistics Department Singapore 2000). The same scenario had
occurred in Switzerland as majority of women took up lower end or part-time jobs. Statistics
from the Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA (2011) in Switzerland showed that
78.5% of part-time workers were women while the remaining smaller percent were men.
This difference arises because women often recognise that family responsibilities may force
them out of the job temporarily and therefore have a higher tendency to choose occupations
with lower salary and lower penalties due to potential withdrawal from her workplace as a
result of family commitments. This group of women is illustrated in the Preference Theory by
Hakim (2000) as the adaptive women who are mostly diverse and includes women who want
to combine career and family life, she also mentioned that they are normally drifters with
unplanned careers paths. Therefore, this disadvantage created gender inequality in
workplaces of the society which has been predicted by the Preference theory.
Gender wage gap
Hakim's (2000) Preference Theory claims that men have gained a huge advantage over
women as their interests are comparatively homogeneous and this resulted in patriarchy and
disproportionate success of women in employment. Due to this advantage, gender wage gap
begun to surface in several occupations whereby men were likely to be paid more than
women. Gender wage gap is defined by Donner et al.(2008) as the difference in wages
between women and men and is used to measure the income disparity between them. The
existence of gender wage gap meant that male and female employees in the same occupation
may not be paid the same despite having identical occupation, job scopes and job
performances. This has been observed by Robinson (1998) that many studies pointed out that
though in some situations women may earn more than men in narrowly defined jobs but
overall there is a general gap between the average pay of men and women in broad
occupational categories, with women earning lesser on average than men.
This is found to be true in Singapore as men have an average salary of SGD$8,604 compared
to SGD$5,634 of women's salary in the financial sector according to the Manpower Research
and Statistics Department (2010). Hakim (2000) suggested that majority of the women
belong to the adaptive women group whom seek to combine family and work. The
combination of both however, is found by Drolet (2001) that interruptions are inevitable in a
women's career due to household affairs and this would potentially reduce women’s
likelihood of promotion and eventually a lower wage. Therefore, employers perceive women
to be less reliable and committed to their work due to their family responsibilities. Men on
the other hand, are perceived to be more work-centred and productive thus gaining access to
promotions which lead to even wider gender wage gaps. The Preference Theory have been
useful in explaining the differential in wages by pointing out that women faces family and
work responsibilities which gave men a huge advantage over them.
Glass ceiling
The Preference Theory is also useful in providing an explanation on the disadvantages faced
by women in employment due to "glass ceiling". Glass ceiling has been defined by the
Federal Glass Ceiling Commission (1995) as an unseen barrier that keeps minorities and
women from climbing the corporate ladder and this occurs regardless of their qualifications
or experience. Hakim (2006) reported that recent research showed that high levels of
maternity and childcare benefits would worsen gender inequality in the workforce as this
produces "glass ceiling". On top of that, Reskin (1988) found that men who held power had
the natural desire to preserve their advantaged position and do so by establishing rules that
puts them in favour instead of women thus denying women access to higher end jobs and
pay. This disadvantage amplifies further as adaptive women forms the majority of women in
employment and they demonstrated to men their reliance on polices that aided their families
and household. Hence, male superiors losing faith in female subordinates as they were seen
as potential trouble at work and were subsequently suppressed from promoting.
Other considerations
Hakim's Preference theory was set up to predict women's choices and preferences in a
generalized rich modern society and hence was not specific enough to indicate its country or
region of focus. Furthermore, she did not mention any findings from Asian countries, and
hence it is assumed by her westernise background that her theory was built more towards
western societies. Therefore, percentage of women from the 3 different types of groups may
not be accurate especially Singapore which is based on an Asian values society.
Conclusion
Hakim's Preference Theory has provided valuable explanations and predictions to help better
understand the employment situation in societies by highlighting the difficulties faced by
women and her choices which resulted in an advantage leaning towards men. The Preference
Theory is also found to be useful in explaining work differential occurrence such as gender
wage gap, gender disparity and "glass ceiling" in both Singapore and Western countries as
facts and figures gathered from reputable government and non-profitable organisations have
confirmed and supported her assumptions and ideas. Due to revolutions such as equal
education between the genders and anti feminist laws passed by governments, it is only a
matter of time before both genders will be equal in all aspects of the society.
-2000 Words-
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