‘Girls Need Jobs Too You Know!’: Unemployment,Sex Roles and Female Identity

While much has been written in Australia about unemployment there has been relatively little research or interest shown in the growing number of young girls seeking work. Using data derived from a survey of 100 unemployed young girls in an industrial town, some of the problems experienced are delineated and the importance to young females of a work based social identity is indicated. It is demonstrated that for the majority the future is defined, not in terms of the traditional female role of housewife and mother, but rather that work and its importance is a recurring theme. A general belief in equality of opportunity was found and it appears that attempts to ‘solve’ the present unemployment problem by persuading women to take up or return to their ‘rightful place’ in the home will meet with only limited success.