She coordinated the European Commission's expert group on gender and social inclusion and employment for fourteen years.
In the article she seeks to explain the continued presence of low paid sectors in developed capitalist economies.
She argues that the model doesn't make sense outside of the US because the lack of attention paid to role of trade unions in process of labour market development.
[6] Rubery argues for the need to see the role of workers and work organisations as central to the development of the labour market structure.
She sees the developments occurring in the context of a continuous struggle between capitalists and workers over wages and means of production.
Rubery uses the dual labour market and radical theories to assess the emergence of low paid sectors in successful economies.
[6] She argues that the main progression both theories need to make is to recognise that segmentation has its roots in the development in the capitalist system.
She argues that monopoly capitalism is not conducive to industrial organisation and that the process of its development destroys jobs and makes certain skills redundant.
The structure is dominated by low skilled jobs and the proportion of labour in high productivity industries decline over time.
She argues that the growth trade union organisation increases primary sector employment, job security and wages.
[10] In this book edited by Rubery, she brought together eight essays that examine patterns of women's participation in the labour market in Britain, Italy, France and the US since World War II, and the impact of the 1980s recession.
[11] The second section exams the ways that the supply side of the economy relates to demand in the labour market and creates patterns of gendered employment.
These outcomes combined meant that increased female participation led a restructuring of the labour market and of the working class.
These jobs remain low paid, perceived as unskilled and unprotected even though women were increasing their training, education and workforce participation.
[15] In Britain and the US, state policies had sought to exploit and increase female unpaid labour in the face of a recession and debt crisis.
[18] Overall, the book illuminates the process of women's integration into the labour force in the four countries and shows the significant role that gender has played in the economies of post war France, Italy, Britain and US.
The last finding was an increase in the dependency ratio as a result of fertility decline and rising life expectancy.
Longer part-time hours in the service sector would likely be worked by women and see a growth in the gender gap.
The authors found the 1997 Part Time Workers Directive as one of the few indicators that the position of women in the labour market would be protected by the EU.
[28] The authors also found that women were committed to becoming permanent members of the workforce and avoided acting as a part of flexible labour supply, calling themselves unemployed rather than inactive.
The emergence of the business case for female employment, however, has helped to commit women to the workforce and remain participants in the face of recessions.
[28] They concluded that this development would affect the UK government's plans to reduce unemployment figures by encouraging women to leave the labour force after the financial and debt crises.
She recognised that gender equality policies justified by efficiency have had long lasting upsides, but have the danger of legitimising flexible labour markets, which can exploit female employment.
[32] Rubery classified the motivations behind gender equality policies in three ways: adaptive, social justice and instrumental.
Its support of lowering the minimum wage of its member states, cuts to public sector pay and neoliberal approaches to labour market policy.
[30] Rubery called feminists to come together and work against neoliberal and austerity policies to bring about a new type of labour market that will combine efficiency, equity and productivity.