Men competing with women for ‘traditionally female’ jobs

New research from Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Dundee has suggested that, due to a decline in jobs in traditionally male roles in industrial areas, there has been an increase in men applying for roles that have previously been considered to entail ‘womens’ work’ . The research shows that this may have led to an increase in the number of women claiming benefits.

The research involved the study of one million women of working age who claim incapacity benefit and found that, in areas where large numbers of men were claiming benefits (particularly in former industrial regions) the numbers of female claimants were also more concentrated.

Many industrials workers such as miners and steelworkers were made redundant in the 1980s and 1990s and subsequently struggled to find new roles. Younger generations of males have generally not been presented with the opportunity to work in industrial environments and have been competing with women for similar job roles. The research suggests that this has pushed women out of the labour market and onto benefits.

However, the research also demonstrated that 60 per cent of the incapacity benefit claimants in question had no formal qualifications. It may therefore be the case that geographical imbalances, when areas have high concentrations of claimants, may be due to entirely separate socio-economic factors.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel that men are displacing women from employment by competing with them for non-traditionally male roles? Are other factors to blame for rising levels of benefits claimants?