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Showing papers on "Women's work published in 1991"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Work commitment is also found to be a powerful predictor of women's work decisions and job choices as discussed by the authors, with strong support from their husbands for this strategy, and a minority of women are committed to work as a central life goal, achieving higher levels of status and earnings.
Abstract: Although job segregation concentrates women in the lowest status and lowest paid jobs in the workforce, women are disproportionately satisfied with their jobs. This paper assesses the strength of women's work commitment in Western industrial societies, and finds it to be markedly lower than men's work commitment. Work commitment is also found to be a powerful predictor of women's work decisions and job choices. The majority of women aim for a homemaker career in which paid work is of secondary or peripheral importance, with strong support from their husbands for this strategy. A minority of women are committed to work as a central life goal, achieving jobs at higher levels of status and earnings. The existence of these two discrete groups within the female workforce explains the paradox of women's high satisfaction with poor jobs, and helps explain the persistence of job segregation. We conclude that more refined and sociological indicators of workforce participation must be developed to replace the standard measures used by labour economists.

379 citations


Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess the effects of women's work and family roles (both the occupancy and quality of these roles) on their mental health and find that mothers report more symptoms of distress than nonmothers.
Abstract: The aim of this chapter is to assess the effects of women’s work and family roles (both the occupancy and quality of these roles) on their mental health.1 Although there is general concern about the impact of multiple roles on women’s mental health, most of the available research examines the impact of individual roles such as that of mother (by itself) or paid employee (by itself). For example, we know that mothers report more symptoms of distress than nonmothers (Barnett & Baruch, 1985; Veroff, Douvan, & Kulka, 1981). Similarly, findings suggest that occupancy of the paid-employee role is associated with high subjective well-being and low psychological distress (Baruch, Biener, & Barnett, 1987; Brown & Harris, 1978; Thoits, 1983).

148 citations


Journal Article

123 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a Feminist Analysis of Public Relations Roles is presented, with a focus on women's work in public relations and women's role in women's media roles in general.
Abstract: (1991). Public Relations and 'Women's Work': Toward a Feminist Analysis of Public Relations Roles. Public Relations Research Annual: Vol. 3, No. 1-4, pp. 67-84.

96 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article reviews and interprets the major findings on the work-fertility relationship from the World Fertility Surveys and other published research on women's work and fertility, and assesses the data limitations.
Abstract: The World Fertility Surveys (WFS) have contributed little information about the association between womens work and fertility yet this limited information is not insignificant. 1st the WFS confirmed that the association between womens work and fertility differs greatly between and within developing countries. Before the WFS no 2 studies gauged womens productivity in the same way or used identical statistical techniques. The surveys also revealed that some aspects of social conditions e.g level of socioeconomic development only explain part of the difference in the relationship between developing countries. Further the WFS showed that the short term relationship between entry in the work force and exit and birth timing is different from the long term relationship between completed fertility and employment history. Earlier studies did not differentiate between the short run and long run thereby making interpretation of results confusing. The last substantial information uncovered by the WFS included that in almost all countries studied womens work status accounted for statistical differences in number of children ever born. Nevertheless the WFS did not reveal the causal determinants that underlie work fertility relationships. Results of such a survey can generate hypotheses however about relationships whereby researchers can analyze the data further. They then would need to design another study to collect and analyze more indepth qualitative or longitudinal data to test the hypotheses. Any future surveys that look at the relationship between womens work and fertility should include consistent definitions of work hourly earnings or wage rates for all those working for cash at least a household survey with information on household composition and data on other factors of the division of labor within the household e.g. child care arrangements.

68 citations





Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, women's work: The feminizing of composition is discussed and discussed in the context of Rhetoric Review: Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 201-229.
Abstract: (1991). Women's work: The feminizing of composition. Rhetoric Review: Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 201-229.

45 citations



Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: In this article, the concept of productive activity was proposed as an alternative to conventional definitions of work, and the patterns of productive activities of men and women throughout the life course were compared to consider factors associated with those patterns as hypothetical causes or effects.
Abstract: This paper has four aims: (1) to propose the concept of productive activity as an alternative to conventional definitions of work, (2) to compare the patterns of productive activity of men and women throughout the life course, (3) to consider factors associated with those patterns as hypothetical causes or effects, (4) to discuss some implications of these findings for policy, especially with respect to national statistics.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors re-evaluated the female marginalisation thesis through an examination of the changing nature of work in Latin America and of women's incorporation into paid employment and found that women's and men's occupations are differentiated in terms of control over economic resources and control over the labour process and that this worsens over time.
Abstract: This research re‐evaluates the female marginalisation thesis through an examination of the changing nature of work in Latin America and of women's incorporation into paid employment. We combine labour market segementation theory, which explains the emergence of low level occupations in terms of capitalist restructuring, with feminist theory, which explains why women become concentrated in inferior positions. We operationalise this reconceptualisation through an empirical analysis of women's and men's relative occupational position across economic sectors and through time in Ecuador. A key finding is that women's and men's occupations are differentiated in terms of control over economic resources and control over the labour process and that this worsens over time.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the nature of the household and draw on the literature to highlight the unequal balance between male and female household members in terms of power and access to knowledge, resources and income.
Abstract: Women's work or household strategies considers some conceptual and methodological issues in seeking a better understanding of the position of women in urban areas. The author discusses the nature of the "household" and draws on the literature to highlight the unequal balance between male and female household members in terms of power and access to knowledge, resources and income.



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, the authors found that women of all races and classes confront systematic disadvantages as workers, and despite twenty years of equal opportunity legislation, women continue to be confined to female job ghettos.
Abstract: With the recent surge in public attention to the "feminization of poverty,"1 feminist policy analysts have tended to subsume the economic privations of women of color under the general rubric of "problems of working women."2 Indeed, recent economic trends provide some support for the argument that gender inequity at work has become the crossroads at which the interests of all women intersect. The rise in female employment rates, the decline in real earnings among male workers, and the increasing incidence of divorce and of female-headed households suggests a growing convergence in the economic circumstances of White women and women of color.3 Women of all races and classes confront systematic disadvantages as workers. Despite twenty years of equal opportunity legislation, women continue to be confined to female job ghettos. Today, two-thirds of all working women are employed in predominately female occupations.4 Largely because of this continuing occupational segregation, the discrepancy between men's and women's earnings has changed very little in the past half-century. Since the 1940s, women have earned between 58 and 65 percent of what men

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The study of African economic history has largely ignored women as mentioned in this paper, with only a single paragraph devoted to women, whom he briefly discussed in the context of the gender division of labor.
Abstract: The study of African economic history has largely ignored women. In his pivotal work, An Economic History of West Africa (1973), A. G. Hopkins devoted a single paragraph to women, whom he briefly discussed in the context of the gender division of labor.' In a more recent survey, African Economic History (1987), Ralph Austen mentions women only seven times, even though much more material on women has become available in recent years.2 Studies examining the economic contributions of women first tended to focus on those who had more visible roles as traders in the exchange system. Influenced by Marxists, scholars have more recently directed attention to the importance of production, but the

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Mar 1991


Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined ways of improving women's productivity and education and the consequences for development in Peru and found that women account for about 39 percent of family income in Peru.
Abstract: This report examines ways of improving women's productivity and education and the consequences for development in Peru. It finds that women account for about 39 percent of family income in Peru. They carry the main responsibilty for child care and heavily influence family decisions on children's education and family size. Improving opportunities for women can thus be a means to foster economic and social development as well as an end in itself. The main way to expand women's opportunities is through human capital investments, notably education beyond the primary level. This will increase women's earning capacity and broaden their labor force participation -- and thereby promote economic growth, family welfare, and slower population growth. The report's findings are based on econometric analysis of the household survey data from the Peruvian Living Standards Survey (PLSS) conducted in 1985-86. The PLSS is a national probability sample of 5,100 families and 26,000 individuals.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, women's forest work was studied by interviewing 120 rural women farmer/gatherers in eight villages in one province in central Laos and found that women with access to old-growth forest as well as second-growth areas use forest products mainly for subsistence purposes, whereas women with only access only to secondgrowth areas are more commercially oriented and are more likely to sell what they gather.
Abstract: Forest work is a significant part of the contribution of Lao rural women to the household economy. Women's forest work was studied by interviewing 120 rural women farmer/gatherers in eight villages in one province in central Laos. Women with access to old‐growth forest as well as second‐growth areas use forest products mainly for subsistence purposes, whereas women with access only to second‐growth areas are more commercially oriented and are more likely to sell what they gather. Women's forest work in all cases contributes to the household economy and becomes even more important during poor crop years. It is suggested that women's forest activities, along with women's other work activities, foster their informal influence in household and village.


Book
18 Mar 1991
TL;DR: The view from the workplace: women's memories of work in Stirling c. 1910 - 1950, Jayne D Stephenson and Callum G Brown The wages of sin: women, work and sexuality in the 19th century, Linda Mahood women in the printing and paper trades in Edwardian Scotland, Sian Reynolds early Glasgow women medical graduates, Wendy Alexander "ye never get a spell to think aboot it" - young women and employment in the inter-war period, a case-study of a textile village, James J Smyth in bondage - the female farm worker in South
Abstract: The view from the workplace: women's memories of work in Stirling c. 1910 - 1950, Jayne D Stephenson and Callum G Brown The wages of sin: women, work and sexuality in the 19th century, Linda Mahood women in the printing and paper trades in Edwardian Scotland, Sian Reynolds early Glasgow women medical graduates, Wendy Alexander "ye never get a spell to think aboot it" - young women and employment in the inter-war period, a case-study of a textile village, James J Smyth in bondage - the female farm worker in South-east Scotland, Barbara W Robertson rural and urban women in domestic service, Lynn Jamieson fit work for women - sweated home-workers in Glasgow c. 1875 - 1914, Alice J Albert.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare women's work in food production, processing, marketing and preparation in developed and developing countries and explore the impact of the shift in food-related activities from household to market-place.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work reviews the international literature on the association between women's work, working conditions, and adverse pregnancy outcomes, and it makes recommendations for future research.
Abstract: This work reviews the international literature on the association between women's work, working conditions, and adverse pregnancy outcomes, and it makes recommendations for future research.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Fuchs, Koven, Tessie Liu, Sonya Michel, Sharon Salinger, Amy Stanley, Margaret Talbot, Chuck Wetherell, Cynthia Truant, and the Southern California French history group: Ed Berenson, Patricia O'Brien, Elinor Accampo, and Nina Gelbart as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: * The research and writing time for this article were supported by a University of California President's Fellowship in the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. I would like to thank those institutions as well as the friends and colleagues who read and commented on earlier versions of this article: Rachel Fuchs, Seth Koven, Tessie Liu, Sonya Michel, Sharon Salinger, Amy Stanley, Margaret Talbot, Chuck Wetherell, Cynthia Truant, and the Southern California French history group: Ed Berenson, Patricia O'Brien, Elinor Accampo, and Nina Gelbart. Thanks, above all, to Willy Forbath. 1 Working women had long offered an especially poignant image of exploitation-a metaphor for capitalism's "assault" on "nature" and the social turmoil of industrialization. Thus, female labor figured prominently in both radical and conservative critiques of the industrial order throughout the century. See Joan Scott, "L'ouvriere: Mot impie et sordide: Women Workers in the Discourse of French Political Economy, 1840-1860," in her Gender and the Politics of Women in History (New York, 1988), pp. 139-63; and Juliet Mitchell, Women's Estate (New York, 1971), on the metaphorical importance of "woman" in the writings of socialists and political economists. Related discussions may be found in Sally Alexander, "Women, Class and Sexual Differences in the 1830s and 40s," History Workshop 17 (Spring 1984): 125-49; Patrick Joyce, ed., The Historical Meanings of Work (Cambridge, 1987); Steven Kaplan and Cynthia Koepp, eds., Work in France: Representations, Meaning, Organization, and Practice (Ithaca, N.Y., 1986); and Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago, 1988). See also two special issues of Le mouvement social: "Travaux de femmes," vol. 105 (October-December 1978) and "Metiers de femmes," vol. 140 (July-September 1987); as well as Michelle Perrot, L'histoire sans qualites (Paris, 1979). On the symbolism surrounding the seamstress and sewing, see Terri Edelstein, "They Sang the Song of the Shirt," Victorian Studies 23, no. 2 (Winter 1980): 183-210; Christine Stansell, City of Women: Sex and Class in New York (New York, 1986), pp. 72-73; and Annette Weiner and Jane Schneider, eds., Cloth and Human Experience (Washington, D.C., and London, 1989).

01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: The authors examines the nature and significance of women's work in rural Egypt and explores its implications for women's status, concluding that women do engage in productive as well as reproductive activities, and their work has important implications for their overall status, despite cultural ideals that attribute more importance in both family and society to men.
Abstract: It is a commonplace that women's work is underrepresented in labor force statistics,' and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Middle East and North Africa, where women's official labor force participation rate is one of the lowest in the world: 25 percent and 18 percent for the Middle East and North Africa respectively.2 Yet women do engage in productive as well as reproductive activities, and their work has important implications for their overall status, despite cultural ideals that attribute more importance in both family and society to men. This paper examines the nature and significance of women's work in rural Egypt and explores its implications for women's status. What, then, are the kinds of work that are available to women in rural Egypt, and what is the relationship between women's work and status? I cannot pretend to answer these questions for all of Egypt. My attention has been directed primarily to rural women in the governorate of Beni Suef, where I have carried out anthropological research on rural markets and marketing in 1981-1982 and again in 1984-1985. I have every reason, however, to believe that my findings from Beni Suef are not atypical for most of Egypt, barring, perhaps, some of the southernmost governorates of Egypt, where the seclusion of women is more prevalent and where women's participation in marketing activities appears to be less. Beni Suef is a predominantly rural governorate (75.1 percent rural; 24.9 percent urban) located about two hours south of Cairo, in that


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, three strategies to further reduce the wage gap are considered in detail: affirmative action, pay equity, and policies to make it easier to combine work and family life.
Abstract: Since the late 1960s, the women's movement has been strongly associated with the advancement of women's position in the work force. In spite of antidiscrimination laws, women still earn only about 70 percent of what men do. Three strategies to further reduce the wage gap are considered in detail: affirmative action, pay equity, and policies to make it easier to combine work and family life. Questions are raised about the implications of these strategies for the future of the women's movement.