Serving the Service Sector: Gendering Regional (Un)Employment in Geelong,Australia1

This paper will briefly examine employment trends in regional Australia before focusing on one manufacturing, coastal region ‐ Geelong, Victoria –over the 1990s. It will consider the experience of a differentiated sample of women as they enter (and re‐enter) the one sphere of economic activity seen by many as the economic future of cities and regions ‐the service sector. Interviews detailed women's employment histories and experiences but despite the complexity of their multiple locations, this paper will argue that it is their disadvantaged positions as women workers that is fundamental in shaping that experience, regardless of how it is complicated by age, ethnicity or disability.