Fabricage van verschillen: Mannenwerk, vrouwenwerk in de Nederlandse industrie (1850-1940)

Abstract

In 1960 the industrial psychologist Johannes Heskes carried out a survey among 87 senior managers at the Philips Light Bulb Company to ascertain why certain work was carried out by men, while other work was performed by women. Heskes constructed the following typology, based on this survey: men’s work was responsible and skilled; women’s work was precise, monotonous, routine and caring. The replies given in Heskes’ survey demonstrated clearly that the work of men and women was defined in antithetical terms at Philips: men’s work was tough rather than light, responsible rather than routine, skilled rather than caring. The characteristics required for this work were largely gender-related. Men were technologically competent; women were more caring, and so on. In other words, work was classified in gender terms. Fabricage van verschillen examines gender segregation in Dutch industry during the process of industrialisation. In the transitional stage, from pre-industrial to manufacturing production, the production process and labour process underwent continual change. This offered opportunities to regender the existing division of labour. Changes in the production process and the introduction of new technology created opportunities for a different division of labour between men and women. This book presents the findings of my research into how gender-based divisions of labour were actually established in industrial companies. The sex-typing of certain jobs cannot be explained at the macro level in terms of the general operation of the “industrial” labour market. The present study assumes that the explanatory value of such an approach increases though the more one descends from the macro to the micro level of investigation. I have opted for a comparative approach, comprising a general description of gender divisions in four different branches of industry and a detailed study of four companies. Research into gender divisions at the level of industry and individual companies is preferable since it provides detailed information on the origin of the sex-typing of jobs and the form that process took. For this research four markedly different types of industry were selected: the cigar-making, clothing, shoemaking, and textile industries. Selecting such very different sectors makes it possible to get a clearer picture of how gender-based divisions of labour developed in the labour process. Before factory-based production became dominant, these four industries were characterised by a wide variety of forms of production. For four companies – the Sphinx pottery factory in Maastricht, the Koninklijke Nederlandse Papierfabriek [KNP, Royal Dutch Paper Mill], also in Maastricht, the Nederlandse Katoenspinnerij [NKS, Dutch Cotton Spinning Mill] in Hengelo, and the Philips gloeilampen- en radiofabrieken [Philips Light Bulb and Radio Company] in Eindhoven – gender segregation was studied in detail. For these four companies, which were among the most important of their type, data were available on the occupations and gender of employees, allowing one to study the difference between men’s work and women’s work in great detail. Gender segregation was and is the rule in Dutch industry. My research into gender segregation in these four industries and four companies demonstrates clearly that a distinction was almost always made between men’s work and women’s work. It was exceptional for there to be no gender division of labour, that is for men and women to carry out the same work, for the same pay. One way or another, a distinction was almost always made between men’s work and women’s work. Characteristically, the differences between “men’s work” and “women’s work” tended to be defined in terms of polarities. There is a certain logic to these polarities, and at the time workers and employers would have accepted them unquestioningly.