Executing Jobs in Telecommunications: Comparing France and Germany

Abstract

This comparative study between France and Germany handles with transformations and continuities of female employment in the two countries since the 1960s, based on an analysis of low-level jobs in the public sector. The social status of female employment is still different in these otherwise similar European countries: unlike in France, being married and having children in Germany continues to create a gap between women with continuous employment and those without. Starting from this general assessment, this article aims at analyzing the extent to which jobs in the public sector, as well as the practices of women in these jobs, influence this tendency. In this context, the social function of a particular type of employment, considered as a prototype of a poorly qualified female occupation - telephone inquiry services - will be analyzed more closely, based on a qualitative analysis of the relation to work and employment of these telephone operators.

Keywords

• trabalho de mulheres
• trabalho subalterno
• setor público
• comparação França- Alemanha