Globalisation, the shift from manufacturing to services as a source of employment, and the spread of information-based systems and technologies have given birth to a new economy, which emphasises flexibility in the labour market and in employment relations. These changes have led to the erosion of the standard (industrial) employment relationship and an increase in precarious work - work which is poorly paid and insecure. Women perform a disproportionate amount of precarious work. This collection of original essays by leading scholars on labour law and women's work explores the relationship between precarious work and gender, and evaluates the extent to which the growth and spread of precarious work challenges traditional norms of labour law and conventional forms of legal regulation.The book provides a comparative perspective by furnishing case studies from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Quebec, Sweden, the UK, and the US, as well as the international and supranational context through essays that focus on the IMF, the ILO, and the EU. Common themes and concepts thread throughout the essays, which grapple with the legal and public policy challenges posed by women's precarious work.

About the Author
Judy Fudge is currently Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto, where she teaches employment and labour law. Beginning January 2007, she will be the Lansdowne Chair at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria.Rosemary Owens is a Reader in Law at the University of Adelaide, where she researches and teaches in the areas of labour and industrial relations law, Australian constitutional law, and feminist legal theory.

Table of Contents
Part One Introduction1 Precarious Work, Women, and The New Economy: The Challenge to LegalNorms Judy Fudge and Rosemary Owens Part Two Supranational Norms and Discourses about Precarious Work2 Rights, Risk, and Reward: Governance Norms in the International Order andthe Problem of Precarious Work Kerry Rittich3 Gender, Precarious Work, and the International Labour Code: The Ghost inthe ILO Closet Leah Vosko4 Promoting Precariousness? The Response of EU Employment Policies toPrecarious Work Diamond AshiagborPart Three Working Time and Precarious Work5 Time to Dream? Flexibility, Families, and the Regulation of Working TimeJoanne Conaghan6 The Need for a Reduced Workweek in the United States Vicki Schultz and Allison Hoffman7 Gender and the Legal Regulation of Employment Breaks Claire KilpatrickPart Four A Matter of Status? Protecting Precarious Workers8 Precarious Norms for Precarious Workers Sandra Fredman9 Self-Employment, Women, and Precarious Work: The Scope of LabourProtection Judy Fudge10 The Regulation of Paid Care Work in the Home in Quebec: From the Hearthto the Global Marketplace Stephanie BernsteinPart Five Old Laws/New Workers11 The New Face of Employment Discrimination Katherine Stone12 On the Gendered Norm of Standard Employment in a Changing LabourMarket Jenny Julen Votinius13The Legal Production of Precarious Work Rosemary HunterPart Six The Challenge of Flexibility 14 Flexibility and Security, Working Time, and Work-Family Policies Susanne Burri15 Engendering Flexibility in a World of Precarious Work Rosemary Owens