Showing papers on "Women's work published in 1982"

Women's Work and Academic Culture: Adaptations and Confrontations.

Abstract: This study presents a model of lifestyles based on the form of women's acculturation to academic life. The model rests on the assumptions of patterned behavior and values which can be termed “women's culture” and “academic culture” respectively. Since becoming academics requires women to mediate the boundary between behaviors expected of women and those expected by the overwhelmingly male academic profession, an acculturation rather than socialization model was employed. The in-depth study of the acculturative modes of professional behavior is both an exploratory and a qualitative effort to derive issues and categories from women's own perceptions. Forty-two women from diverse disciplines and institutions were interviewed. Interviewees were either advanced PhD candidates or had recently entered professional work. Three modal categories emerged from content analysis of intensive interviews. Reorientation reflected the effort of women to exemplify the norms of male academic culture. Reaffirmation required the command of both professional norms and traditional feminine roles and values. Reconstitution was an effort to reformulate professional participation into a lifestyle more compatible with women's cultural norms.

Constraints to Women and Development in Africa

Abstract: Although women produce more than 60% of the food crop in much of Africa less than 1 in 5 has found employment in wage earning occupations. The authors examine the hypothesis that there are 2 primary constraints to the improvement of the economic status of women (in addition to tradition and culture): lack of access to education and capital. Access to land and information is seen as secondary. Examination of available data indicates there is sufficient evidence that a pattern of discrimination exists against females in both formal and informal (as in agricultural training) education in Africa. In regard to financial credit commercial banks have allocated less than 5% of their lending portfolios to the agricultural sector while government sponsored development banks lend primarily to men. In the informal sector a variety of savings mechanisms have been involved that generate mutual support and other social benefits offering credit to women and men--although with higher losses and lower earnings than formal institutions. The need for government interventions to improve educational facilities and opportunities for women and to help informal groups mobilize traditional savings and more credit for women is emphasized.

The Elderly, Women's Work and Social Security Costs

Abstract: The article intends to demonstrate the continuing importance of informal care, especially of the elderly, and for social security costs The author argues that social security costs depend on the availability of informal care, not solely on economic level and the proportion of elderly in a country's population (as maintained by Wilensky) Eight countries are studied. The indicator of availability of informal care is number of women 45-59 years per 1000 elderly Rates of co-residence between generations are assumed to measure actual care exchanged Changes 1955-1975 are analysed The author concludes that a consideration of alternative informal care is a fruitful addition to 'harder' variables in research on the welfare state.

Documentation of women's work in Nigeria problems and solutions

Abstract: ILO pub-WEP pub. Working paper on data collecting problems regarding the income generating activities and economic role of Hausa Islamic women in Katsina, Nigeria - finds homemaker tasks and family household production to have been ignored or submerged in historical and current censuses, due to biases in sample surveys and men-dominant ideology on research method, etc.; includes a case study. Bibliography and references.

Sex Segregation of the Finnish Occupational Structure: Its Implications for the Psychosocial Aspects of Women's Work

Abstract: This paper examines the implications of the sex-segregated character of the Finnish occupational structure. The results of a nationwide survey (N= 12,854) on the working life of Finnish men and women are reported. The results show that there was little difference between the job satisfaction reported by men and women. Nevertheless, women experienced more than men a lack of opportunity to advance and develop in their present job.