Is class analysis obsolete or misguided? In "Divisions and Solidarities", Alison MacEwen Scott defends the concept of class by expanding it to encompass power, status, mobility and consumption. She does this through a critique of theories of urban employment and class structure, using case study material from Peru to examine and test theories of interest to social scientists. The book stresses the importance of class and gender in analyzing the situation of the urban poor in Latin America. The author argues that gender is deeply embedded in the "labouring class", not only via gender segregation at work but through the role of the family in forging solidarity across internal class division. She believes that in the past class analysis has placed too much emphasis on labour market divisions and not enough on broader solidarities created by mobility, consumption patterns and kinship. In fact, Scott shows that gender is an important dimension of inequality, strongly linked to class, and that class cannot be understood without reference to gender and the family.

Is class analysis obsolete or misguided? In "Divisions and Solidarities", Alison MacEwen Scott defends the concept of class by expanding it to encompass power, status, mobility and consumption. She does this through a critique of theories of urban employment and class structure, using case study material from Peru to examine and test theories of interest to social scientists. The book stresses the importance of class and gender in analyzing the situation of the urban poor in Latin America. The author argues that gender is deeply embedded in the "labouring class", not only via gender segregation at work but through the role of the family in forging solidarity across internal class division. She believes that in the past class analysis has placed too much emphasis on labour market divisions and not enough on broader solidarities created by mobility, consumption patterns and kinship. In fact, Scott shows that gender is an important dimension of inequality, strongly linked to class, and that class cannot be understood without reference to gender and the family.

Despite profound economic and social changes in Britain during the 1980s, men and women remain highly segregated at work - a segregation strongly related to inequalities in pay, career prospects, and employment protection. This book analyzes the nature and significance of gender segregation within the context of labour market change. The analysis has many novel features. These include a combination of economic and sociological approaches; the integration of demand and supply explanations; systematic comparisons between "male" and "female" jobs; the incorporation of work history and life cycle variables; and the investigation of "sexist attitudes" and the sex-labelling of jobs. The effects of social change are analyzed through employer, industry, and locality case studies. The results show that the sex ratio of a job is an important aspect of labour market structure, whether or not gender is the focus of the study, and that desegregation is still a long way off.