Publisher's Synopsis
This book has four main aims: to establish that there is a real absence of an empirical understanding of men in British gender-based sociological research; to explore menÆs recent experiences of the British labour market; to explore how masculinity and work are linked and maintained by critically examining existing accounts of gender theory and feminism; and finally to provide an empirical account of men's work and male lives via an analysis of existing data. The male workers were identified in the National Child Development Study 1991 and compared with male full-time workers and similar groups of women in the same study. Five areas of these men's lives were explored empirically: characteristics of male workers in NCDS5; menÆs attitudes to work; men and training experiences; men and household work; and finally men and mental ill health. The book concludes that the nature of menÆs work needs to be reconsidered and that the nature of gender research, particularly that relating to men, needs to be expanded and made more explicit.
