In this innovative book, a well-known feminist and sociologist-who is also the founding editor of Gender & Society-challenges our most basic assumptions about gender. Judith Lorber argues that gender is wholly a product of socialization, subject to human agency, organization, and interpretation, and that it is a social institution comparable to the economy, the family, and religion in its significance and consequences. Calling into question the inevitability and necessity of gender, she envisions a society structured for equality, where no gender, racial ethnic, or social class group is allowed to monopolize positions of power.

Paradoxes of gender

The present study examines global employee perceptions regarding the extent their work organization is family-supportive (FSOP). Data gathered from 522 participants employed in a variety of occupations and organizations indicated that FSOP responses related significantly to the number of family-friendly benefits offered by the organization, benefit usage, and perceived family support from supervisors. FSOP responses also explained a significant amount of unique variance associated with work–family conflict, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions above and beyond the variance explained by the number of family-friendly benefits available by the organization and supervisor support. Results indicated that FSOP mediates the relationship between family-friendly benefits available and the dependent variables of work–family conflict, affective commitment, and job satisfaction. FSOP also mediated the relationship between supervisor support and work–family conflict. The results underscore the important role that perceptions of the overall work environment play in determining employee reactions to family-friendly benefit policies.

Family-Supportive Work Environments: The Role of Organizational Perceptions

Family-Supportive Work Evnironments: The Role of Organizational Perceptions.

The prevalence of nonstandard jobs is a matter of concern if, as many assume, such jobs are bad. We examine the relationship between nonstandard employment (on-call work and day labor, temporary-help agency employment, employment with contract companies, independent contracting, other self-employment, and part-time employment in "conventional" jobs) and exposure to "bad" job characteristics, using data from the 1995 Current Population Survey. Of workers age 18 and over, 31 percent are in some type of nonstandard employment. To assess the link between type of employment and bad jobs, we conceptualize "bad jobs" as those with low pay and without access to health insurance and pension benefits. About one in seven jobs in the United States is bad on these three dimensions. Nonstandard employment strongly increases workers' exposure to bad job characteristics, net of controls for workers' personal characteristics, family status, occupation, and industry. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2657440.pdf

Bad jobs in America: standard and nonstandard employment relations and job quality in the United States

When computer networks link people as well as machines, they become social networks. Such computer-supported social networks (CSSNs) are becoming important bases of virtual communities, computer-supported cooperative work, and telework. Computer-mediated communication such as electronic mail and computerized conferencing is usually text-based and asynchronous. It has limited social presence, and on-line communications are often more uninhibited, creative, and blunt than in-person communication. Nevertheless, CSSNs sustain strong, intermediate, and weak ties that provide information and social support in both specialized and broadly based relationships. CSSNs foster virtual communities that are usually partial and narrowly focused, although some do become encompassing and broadly based. CSSNs accomplish a wide variety of cooperative work, connecting workers within and between organizations who are often physically dispersed. CSSNs also link teleworkers from their homes or remote work centers to main organi...

/pdf/computer-networks-as-social-networks-collaborative-work-2kxvqengjv.pdf

Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community

Contingent work : American employment relations in transition

Flextime, a work schedule that permits flexible starting and quitting times, has gained wide currency as a partial solution to conflicts between work and family life. This article aims to review the existing research regarding the advantages and disadvantages of flextime to both employers and employees; to evaluate the effects of flextime on resolving work/family conflicts; and to establish future programmatic, research, and policy directions regarding flextime. Research indicates that no compelling case can be made for flextime solely on the grounds of employers' conventional concerns with organizational effectiveness, organizational membership, or job attitudes. Research reveals, further, that flextime is beneficial in resolving work/family conflicts, but not as beneficial as often hoped. Future research should include the following: (a) greater sensitivity than is currently available regarding the use of, not just access to, flextime; (b) more attention to the needs of different subgroups as defined by...

Flextime A Viable Solution to Work/Family Conflict?

The New Era Of Home-based Work: Directions And Policies

Women and Home-Based Work: The Unspoken Contract

The major conclusions of this study of professional and clerical women who work at home are as follows. Women who work at home as a way of balancing child care and paid employment typically live in traditional two‐parent households, where the father is the major breadwinner. These women work part‐time, primarily for “bonus” money and the psychological benefits of doing something other than being a full‐time home‐maker and mother. Second, they do not work and care for their children simultaneously. They most often work when their partners can care for the children, or when their children are at school or asleep. When a professional woman has dependable, steady work, she is apt to employ paid child care. Third, corporations that hire home‐based workers as independent contractors run the risk of creating second‐class corporate citizens.

Kathleen Christensen

Papers

Contingent work : American employment relations in transition

Flextime A Viable Solution to Work/Family Conflict?

The New Era Of Home-based Work: Directions And Policies

Women and Home-Based Work: The Unspoken Contract

Impacts of computer‐mediated home‐based work on women and their families