Showing papers on "Women's work published in 1998"

Still a Man’s World: Men Who Do Women’s Work

Abstract: background mandate that his family be induded in the planning ofhis care, yet the medical personnei were ill prepared to do so. Mr. L.'s cultural belief dictated that the removal or loss ofany body part would complicate the passage of the individual's spirit into the afterworld. Until his health care providers understood and accepted the relevance of this cultural belief, care for Mr. L. was limited and hopes of a positive outcome for him diminished. In the final chapter, \"lrnplications for Health Professions,\" O'Comor offers health are prwiders insights and ideas in approaching cultural diversity in health care. The author concludes that health professionals and patients will benefit from a *reframing of the customary provider-patient relationship to recognize patients' authorimtive agency and engage it as a resource in identifying and working towards common goals.\" The strength of Heding Traditions lies in its comprehensive review of the multiple disciplines' treatment of the subject as we11 as the meminingfd case study of the Hmong people. The book is well documented and provides useful tools for the hedth care professional in rhe Appendix. The book contains much information that at times seems too dry when juxtaposed with the interesting case study. Although not a history per se, it does provide an extensive literature review of dfirent academic disciplines' ethnographic studies on health care beliefs. O'Connor's book should become essential reading for all researchers, teachers, and students of ethnography, culturd diversity, vexnacdar health a r e beliefs, and health G a t e systems. Those in the community health arena especially will appreciate its applicability and usefulness. O'Connor's work expands our intellectual horiwns and promotes better, more culturally aware attitudes, values, and beliefs among health care providers.

Lesbian Lifestyles: Women's Work and the Politics of Sexuality

Abstract: Lesbian Lifestyles graphically illustrates the importance of taking sexuality into account in order to deepen our understanding of the constraining and liberating influences on women's domestic and working lives. Charting the lives of 60 women from childhood, through school, to their paid work and home lives as adults, the book explores their experiences of gendering in childhood and their changing feelings about society's prevalent culture of 'romantic heterosexuality'. In particular, it documents the impact of 'coming out' on their adult lives - most importantly on their approach to intimate relationships and paid work. Casting new light on how sexuality is socially constructed, the book argues that the capacity to evaluate the taken-for-grantedness of heterosexuality is linked with empowerment and it offers a vision of what working life and domestic arrangements can look like when gender difference as a structuring principle is absent.

A history of European women's work

Abstract: The work patterns of European women from 1700 onwards fluctuate in relation to ideological, demographic, economic and familial changes. In A History of European Women's Work, Deborah Simonton draws together recent research and methodological developments to take an overview of trends in women's work across Europe from the so-called pre-industrial period to the present. Taking the role of gender and class in defining women's labour as a central theme, Deborah Simonton compares and contrasts the pace of change between European countries, distinguishing between Europe-wide issues and local developments.

Women's Work, Men's Work, and the Sense of Control:

Abstract: This article examines gender differences in four dimensions of work alienation—routine, nonautonomous, estranged, and isolated work—and the ways in which work alienation shapes subjective alienation, measured as the sense of powerlessness versus control. It is expected that women's work is more objectively alienating than men's, that these work characteristics shape people's sense of personal control, and that work characteristics explain the effect of employment status, especially homemaker status and part-time employment, on perceived control. These propositions are examined in a 1995 U.S. national telephone probability sample with 2,592 respondents. Nonroutine work, including task variety and problem solving; autonomous work, including decision-making autonomy and freedom from supervision; fulfilling work; and nonisolated work all significantly positively affect the sense of personal control. Women's disproportionate representation in homemaking and part-time work explains women's low personal control....

The Exchange of Aesthetics: Women's Work and 'The Gift'

Abstract: Drawing on empirical research data on the work of flight attendants, this paper will explore Marcel Mauss's theory of ‘gift’ exchange relations, with particular reference to his concern with the ‘exchange of aesthetics’ (Mauss 1954), as an analytical model which may contribute to our understanding of ‘women's work’ in contemporary Western societies, of which, we shall argue, the work of female flight attendants is a notable example. It will begin by locating the authors' analytical and theoretical concerns with ‘women's work’ within the context of recent empirical research. It will then go on to outline briefly a Maussian model of exchange relations and to identify the potential utility of this analytical model for the study of women's work. This paper then goes on to offer an analytical account of empirical research into the work of flight attendants and to analyse the ways in which airline service provision constitutes a critical case study of women's work, certain elements of which involve a form of ‘gift’ exchange relations which operate, not as an alternative to, but inside — and in the interests of — commodity exchange relations. Finally, in the light of recent feminist work, this paper will conclude by suggesting the wider implications of this analytical model for the study of gender and work.

Harnessing Women’s Work: Restructuring Agricultural and Industrial Labor Forces in the Dominican Republic

Abstract: The recent period of crisis and adjustment in Latin America and the Caribbean is fueling a fundamentally gendered process of labor force restructuring in both agriculture and industry. An analysis of ongoing changes in the Dominican Republic finds that one of the most striking shifts in the labor market landscape involves women’s increasing incorporation into nontraditional agriculture and export manufacturing. The Dominican state and corporations collaborate in devaluing and harnessing women’s labor in these sectors, enhancing private profits and the success of exportled development strategies.This study deepens our understanding of gendered labor force restructuring by analyzing the rarely noted, but substantial, incorporation of women in new agro-enterprises and by comparing the ways in which a female labor force has been actively constructed in nontraditional agriculture with more familiar patterns in export manufacturing. Firms in both sectors rely on women to fulfill labor-intensive and exac...

Child care work : Intimacy in the shadows of family-life

Abstract: This study analyzes the relationships between child care workers and the families of the children they serve Because paid child care operates in the borderlands of family, many workers develop intimate relationships—both emotional and physical—with the children they care for and their families Based on three and a half years of participant-observation fieldwork, and in-depth interviews with child care workers, the researcher examines how worker's subjective meanings are shaped through daily interactions, through organizational processes found in child care centers, and by the gendering of child care as women's work The child care workers in this study saw themselves in “family-like” relationship with the families they served This designation as “like-moms” and “pseudo-parents” also meant that workers continually engaged in “emotional labor”—managing the intimacy they experienced as caregivers against the expectations placed on them as workers

The work of caring for young children: priceless or worthless?

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to discuss and support my claim that caring for young children is socially useful work, and to trace some of the attention which the women's movement has given to this topic. It comments on the lack of impact of the women's movement on the lives of this particular group of women. Finally it considers what might be done to begin to redress the situation. This article draws on the international theoretical literature, but makes particular use of recent Australian quantitative and qualitative research. Like life in Australia, this article is both particular to this context and part of what happens in the rest of the world. My impression is that Britain, Europe, New Zealand and North America share a similar social construction of this work with Australia. Marilyn Waring's (1988) analysis points out that so-called 'developing' countries run the risk that 'development' projects will undermine the economic status of women in those countries by treating women's work as non-work. I believe that the issues canvassed in this article are international, and I hope that readers from a range of cultures will find some interest in a discussion which challenges the conventional ways of viewing this topic.

Globalization of the economy and women's work in a sustainable society.

Abstract: This paper outlines and critiques existing paradigms of global development, arguing and establishing that the prevailing capitalist/patriarchal pattern of development that is synonymous with the stimulation of permanent economic growth, is incompatible with a concern for conservation of scarce resources, women's genuine empowerment and a sustainable ecology and society.It further argues that the term 'gender,' like sustainability, has been co-opted by capitalist patriarchal societies to invisibilize the concrete situation in which women live. The 'woman' question cannot simply be added on to any liberal, positivist or Marxist theory of society, as is being done, but if taken to its logical conclusions, the gender approach will revolutionize all existing paradigms and relations, particularly those of capitalist and socialist industrial patriarchy. In other words, 'adding gender and stirring' will not do for analysis of the relationship between work and sustain ability. The women's question and the question...

The Sexual Division of Labour in Process Manufacturing: Economic Restructuring, Training and `Women's Work'

Abstract: It is widely assumed that the development of enhanced skills appropriate to advanced technologies is an important means of increasing the employability of the socially excluded. This article tests this assumption through case studies in the food industry in Austria, Germany and Britain. The findings indicate that organizational restructuring, technological change and redeployment of labour have very different consequences for women and for men. In all three countries the restructuring of work and skills increased the marginalization of women, reinforcing gender cleavage.

Women's Work, Men's Work: Gender, Labor Organization, and Technology Acquisition in a Oaxacan Village

Abstract: Research undertaken in the Oaxacan (Mexican) indigenous community of Santa Cruz indicates that gender differences in technology acquisition derive in part from locally unique gendered patterns of labor participation. Previous studies have identified constraints on women's adoption of technology which stem from women's relative resource poverty and mode of insertion into the labor process. In the present comparative gender analysis labor-process theory is extended to argue that Santa Cruz men's engagement with communal labor (from which women are spatially and socially excluded) provides men with: (1) gender-specific sociocultural tools transferable to value-added-commodity production, and (2) a social space for discourse on labor-organization technology. Santa Cruz women's (socially constructed) involvement with household production, by contrast, isolates women, fragmenting the social space necessary for reworking labor-organization technologies. Women, however, contest men's advantages: the social organi...

How maya women respond to changing technology

Abstract: In the mid 1970s labor-saving technology was introduced into a Maya subsistence agricultural community that markedly increased the efficiency with which maize could be ground and water collected. This increased efficiency introduces a possible savings in the time that women allocate to work, which can be reapportioned to child care, food production, domestic work, or leisure. An earlier study suggested that this labor-saving technology had a positive effect in decreasing the age at which these Maya women begin their reproductive careers. Although there is a statistical association between the age at which women bear their first child and the introduction of modern technology, this association does not demonstrate that the decline in age at first birth is causally related to the presence of technology. This paper pursues two objectives to evaluate this potential causal relationship in greater detail. First, a theory relating technological change to the initiation of a reproductive career is briefly developed in order to make qualitative predictions about behavioral changes as a response to changing technology. Second, these predictions are then tested against time allocation data recently collected in this same Maya community. We suggest that both of the conditions necessary to initiate reproduction—fecundity and access to mates—fundamentally depend on the amount of help that a girl provides to her family. Further, the help that a girl provides can be affected by technological changes. Analyses show that when modern technology is available, unmarried young women do not change the time allocated to domestic tasks and child care, and allocate more time to low-energy leisure activities. This lack of perceived benefit to working more and a potential concomitant shift towards a positive energy balance may in part explain why Maya women leave home and initiate reproduction at a younger age after labor-saving technology is introduced.

Women's Work: A Survey of Scholarship By and About Women

Abstract: While most women's studies texts function "topically" as "readings" for courses and general use, Women's Work: A Survey of Scholarship By and About Women takes a broad spectrum of women's disciplines--psychological, artistic, religious, and philosophical--and gives you a diverse, interdisciplinary view of this important and ever-expanding field of study in one accessible volume. You'll see that women are leading the world into the twenty-first century in such areas as education, business, health, and science. You'll also find your appreciation for the current developments in women's studies increase as you see how far-reaching and multifaceted this crucial discipline really is. Women's Work avoids the compilations of topical readings that tend to bog down typical women's studies courses and explores the different disciplines that continue to make this field central to the development of the academic world community. You'll find your perspective on women's studies expand and take on new meaning as you delve into these and other areas: * feminist approaches to research * the lack of women in science and feminist critiques of science * women and health * psychology and discussions on sex differences, sex similarities, and gender roles * communication differences between men and women * women in literature, art history, and metaphysics * Judeo-Christian religions and goddess religions This comprehensive compendium has something for everyone interested in the massive contribution that women have made--and will continue to make--in all areas of human development. All readers, especially women's studies scholars, professors, students, and informed members of the general public looking for an excellent, up-to-date resource concerning the general direction of feminist disciplines today, will definitely want a copy of Women's Work.

Women's Work, Men's Work: The Informal Slave Economies of Lowcountry Georgia

Abstract: In Women's Work, Men's Work, Betty Wood examines the struggle of bondpeople to secure and retain for themselves recognized rights as producers and consumers in the context of the brutal, formal slave economy sanctified by law. Wood examines this struggle in the Georgia lowcountry over a period of eighty years, from the 1750s to the 1830s, when, she argues, the evolution of the system of informal slave economies had reached the point that it would henceforth dominate Savannah's political agenda until the Civil War and emancipation. In considering the quasi-autonomous economic activities of bondpeople, Wood outlines the equally significant but quite different, roles of bondwomen and bondmen in organizing these economies. She also analyzes the influence of evangelical Protestant Christianity on bondpeople, and the effects of the fusion of religious and economic morality on their circumstances. For a combination of practical and religious reasons, Wood finds, informal slave economies, with their impact on whites, became the single most important issue in Savannah politics. She contends that, by the 1820s, bondpeople were instrumental in defining the political agenda of a divided city - a significant, if unintentional, achievement.

Too Many Hours - Too Little Pay: The Impact of Market and Household Hours on Women's Work Lives

Abstract: Work has many components. For many women, the great divide is the number of hours spent in the paid labor force relative to the number of hours working in the household. As the number of hours women commit to the labor market expands, there is a potential for a nurturance gap [Stanfield and Stanfield 1997] as the family unit finds itself underserved. On the other hand, if women choose to emphasize household work, they do not accumulate useable human capital necessary to protect their long-term economic well-being. The result is that many women in families, participating fully in both home and market, work too many hours for too little pay. This paper adds to the research in the economics of household labor through an analysis of the current work effort required of women in different types of families. How many hours does it take to maintain the household? Just how many hours do women in households work each week? What are the actual hourly earnings for that labor? And what are the benefits associated with this work effort?

Was women's work bad for babies? A view from the 1911 census of England and Wales

Abstract: Comments penned in the late-Victorian and Edwardian eras leave few doubts that many contemporaries believed that womens work (in the sense of paid employment) particularly that of married women was bad for babies With theseissues in mind the opportunity was taken to include in the 1911 census [of England and Wales] a set of questions above and beyond those previously asked Re-examining individual level responses to the 1911 "Fertility" census the author concludes that "`womens work in itself does not emerge as bad for babies but having a mother who was employed in industry increased a childs likelihood of being born into an area which would hold increased perils for infant life" (EXCERPT)

Arbetarskydd för kvinnor: Kvinnlig yrkesinspektion i Sverige 1913-1948

Abstract: This dissertation deals with the Female Factory Inspectorate in Sweden 1913-1948. Its creation and activities and its approach to women and women's work are analysed from a genderperspective. The creation of a Female Factory Inspectorate was a consequence of industrialisation and subsequent changes in society and should be seen as part of the growing welfarestate in Sweden. The Female Factory Inspectorate was established after many years of campaigning byphilanthropic organisations and the feminist movement to arouse public opinion. The newinspectorate meant an institutionalisation of differences between men and women. The workat the Female Factory Inspectorate was concerned with questions of a social nature, such aseducation or morality, in contrast to that of the General Factory Inspectorate which focusedon technical questions. When the Female Factory Inspectorate was dissolved in 1948, theintention was to integrate the social questions into the General Factory Inspectorate. The Female Factory Inspectorate in Sweden had a pivotal position, having much contactwith workers, male as well as female, employers, civil servants and organisations. The inspectorate was thus able to influence legislation affecting women workers. In this thesis, the organisation of the Female Factory Inspectorate, its employees and itscharacteristics are explained and its development from a philanthropically-based organisationto a public authority is described. In the description and analysis of the practice of the femaleinspectorate, it becomes clear that the focus of its work was on the everyday life at the work-places. With this work the Female Factory Inspectorate contributed to the construction andreconstruction of female (industrial) workers.

Preparing to Understand Feminism in the Twenty-First Century: Global Social Change, Women's Work, and Women's Movements

Abstract: The history of women's non-wage work, women's wage labor, and contemporary women's movements can be understood with greater clarity if studies of "globalization", feminism, and the capitalist world-economy are examined in relationship to each other. Today many women's movements clearly reflect, respond to, and attempt to shape changes in wage (employer-organized) and non-wage (labor-organized) work relations. This paper is a conceptual, theoretical and historical exploration of how scholars, who study inter-related global areas, can prepare to do research on women's work and women's movements that will contribute to the development of "globalization", feminist, and world-economy scholarship.

Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 (review)

Abstract: dericalism, but that the laity and the clergy were cooperating, even to the exent that clerics joined many gilds. Bainbridge warns, however, that over the whole population, gilds cannot be seen as central to religious experience: the majority of the laity were too poor to participate. As well as providing church lights, gilds were central to many lay people's funeral rites. In a reconstruction of mentalite, Bainbridge suggests that the stages in a funeral and other commemorative rituals can be seen as 'markers in the passage of grief. In addition, she insists that w e should consider eschatological history over the longue duree, arguing that beliefs about the afterlife change in a cyclical pattern. As part of insurance for the afterlife, the dispensation of charity was an additional gild function. Charity directed to other members of the group was more important than that given by people of higher to those of lower status. Gilds provide many examples of the former. By the sixteenth century, however, the deserving poor became increasingly the recipients of charity. Where earlier, the poor reciprocated with prayer, now that this prayer was irrelevant, the medieval ideal of caritas declined. Bainbridge concludes her book with a fascinating discussion of the contribution of the gilds to local government, using this relationship to shed new light on such institutions as the parish, the diocese and the manor. In addition, she examines the gilds as a 'microcosm' of society, reflecting hierarchies, collective identities and corporations. Finally she traces the sixteenth-century abolition of the gilds, and the replacement of their function in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the parish. Bainbridge has lucidly set out a great deal of new information about the late medieval gilds, explaining them both as a product and a reflection of their society. In places, her analysis is obscured by a mass of detail, and as a result, the important contributions of this book are less clear than one would wish. Bainbridge has added to the recent debate concerning the laity in late medieval religion with a welcome focus on institutional rather than individual piety. In addition, her book straddles the rather artificial divide between medieval and Early Modern England. It deserves to be read by all religious scholars of either era.

Women's Work and Life Satisfaction in Relation to Career Adjustment:

Abstract: The literature on women's satisfaction and career adjustment encompasses a broad range of women's career experiences subsequent to entry into an occupation. The experiences most commonly investigat...

Women's work and wages : a selection of papers from the 15th Arne Ryde Symposium on "Economics of Gender and Family", in honor of Anna Bugge and Knut Wicksell

Abstract: At a time when women in industrialized countries have a stronger and more permanent presence in the labour market than ever before, why does the gender pay gap differ so greatly between countries? The contributors to this book use empirical studies of gender differences in family responsibilities and time allocation to demonstrate how such differences affect women's wages and analyse pay structures and wage mobility throughout Europe.