Linking Class and Gender Inequality: the family and schooling.

Some feminists have argued that a woman's class position should be determined by her own employment and work history, whereas Goldthorpe has argued that the family is the basic unit in class analysis, with the husband's occupation determining the class position of all family members, including the wife's Goldthorpe denies that this position as an example of gender bias, claiming that class and gender inequality are separate issues This paper argues that gender and class inequality are strongly interconnected, by virtue of the importance of the work in child-rearing earned out by the wife-mother and its effects on the child's scholastic achievements and life chances It shows that within-family processes are more important than clew position in affecting children`s scholastic achievements It further argues that children `s family environments are affected by the biographies of both parents The institutional separation of the family, schooling and the work-place means that there will be great variability in the biographies of parents who are in the same `class position' by virtue of their occupations The notion of a single indicator of `class position' therefore seems inappropriate, and too static for the complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]