Academic publishing processes are notoriously slow. This article, the first version of which appeared in my thesis in 2016, and which I started to write in 2015 already, was finally included in an issue of Work, Employment and Society, after a wait of more than a year. It was first published online in 2017 but had to wait for its turn to be included in an issue. But never mind, here it is, in a thematic issue of WES on gender inequality at work! I’m so proud!
The article, called The Institutionalised Undervaluation of Women’s Work: The Case of Local Government Sector Collective Agreements, is co-authored with my brilliant collegues Maria Törnroos and Roosa Kohvakka.
Here’s the abstract:
This article analyses the role of collective agreements in institutionalising and legitimising the undervaluation of work conducted by women. The undervaluation of women’s work has been identified as one of the main causes of the gender pay gap. Despite this, it continues to escape many of the policy measures on gender pay equity that focus on establishing wage discrimination. The Finnish local government sector provides an interesting case for research on undervaluation, as it has several collective agreements and several wage determination systems for different employee groups. However, a local authority is a single employer, and is obliged by law to treat all employees equally. Although the processes of wage determination vary across different national contexts, institutionalised undervaluation is very likely among highly feminised jobs and occupations worldwide. This article sees wages as social practices that reflect and are shaped by institutional, societal and historical contexts.
If you would like to read the entire paper but don’t have access, feel free to contact me!
Paula Koskinen Sandberg 