Gendering the knowledge economy

de Sylvia Walby, Heidi Gottfried, Karin Gottschall, Mari Osawa

Gendering the Knowledge Economy: Comparative Perspectives brings together an international team of scholars engaged in research on globalization, gender, flexibility and work transformation (GLOW). Comparisons between the UK, US, Germany and Japan reveal the ways in which gender transforms conventional understandings of the knowledge-based economy. Drawing on innovative concepts of varieties of gender regime as well as varieties of capitalism, this collection rethinks the processes of de-gendering and re-gendering of working practices in the context of both de-regulation and re-regulation of employment. Rich case studies examine new temporalities, new contractualities and new spatialities of employment forms (part-time, temporary and self-employment), new industries (new media), and new organizations (call centres) in comparative perspective. These comparisons revise previous understandings and result in a more accurate mapping of societies, but also provide a better framework for explaining the similarities and differences in the gendering of new employment forms and knowledge-based work within and between countries.