Showing papers on "Women's work published in 2006"

Women's work-life balance trajectories in the UK: reformulating choice and constraint in transitions through part-time work across the life-course

Abstract: This paper examines the apparently paradoxical notion that women ‘choose’ part-time work when it is consistently documented as being less preferential in employment terms, conditions and prospects when compared to full-time work. Forming a dialogue with Hakim's (2000) preference theory, it is proposed here that four dimensions—care networks; employment status; the UK welfare policy context; and work-life balance preferences—shape women's likelihood of making transitions to part-time work following maternity. Data presented here reveal that factors in the first three dimensions often override and undermine the carrying out of preferences in women's decision-making about reconciling work and family life. Furthermore, the intersections of these different dimensions result in women making ‘strategic’, ‘reactive’ or ‘compromised choice’ transitions, which have consequences for the maintenance of careers and labour market prospects. It is proposed that the different combinations of these three types of...

Nurses, nannies and caring work: importation, visibility and marketability

Abstract: This paper examines nurses’ international migration within the broader context of female migration, particularly against more studied groups of women who have migrated for employment in care-giving roles. We analyze the similarities and differences between skilled professional female migrants (nurses) and domestic workers (nannies and in-home caretakers) and how societal expectations, meanings, and values of care and ‘women’s work’, together with myriad social, cultural, economic and political processes, construct the female migrant care-giver experience. We argue that, as the recruitment of foreign workers gains visibility, strategies are introduced to better prepare female migrant care-givers for the marketplace. Language, specifically command of English and accent modification, is highlighted as one means to assimilate migrant care-givers to host communities.

Connecting Time and Space: The Significance of Transformations in Women¿s Work in the City

Abstract: Growing numbers of women with children living in western cities are entering the labour market, raising new questions about changes in the allocation of the tasks of social reproduction between household members and others and about the effects of the increasing time women now spend in the workplace. As Manuel Castells noted over 25 years ago, women’s unpaid labour has long been essential, not only in the domestic arena, but also in patching together facilities separated in space. The spatial layout of cities, with its specialized and segregated land-uses, only works, he argued, if women’s unpaid labour is available to connect urban locations. But many women now spend many more hours in the labour market, replacing their former domestic labour with a range of commodified goods and services as well as by help from a range of related or unrelated others, sometimes but not always remunerated and/or by state-provided or supported services. This article examines the consequences of the growth of women’s employment in Britain and the concomitant decline of the old breadwinner family, the growth of workfare policies that assume all individuals are available for waged work and the rise of commodified caring. The arguments are illustrated by empirical examples from interviews undertaken with middle-class mothers in waged work in London and Manchester in the UK.

Living With the Threat of Preterm Labor: Women’s Work of Keeping the Baby In

Abstract: Objective To explore the social organization of women’s preterm labor experiences. Design Institutional ethnography investigated how the woman’s experience is socially organized and for patterns of how something is organized to recur. Participants/Setting Eight women who experienced preterm labor while living in one city in Western Canada volunteered to participate. Data Analysis Institutional ethnographic methodology guided the analysis of audiotaped transcribed interviews to understand the work these women do and the complexities of their everyday lives. Results Women spoke about their fear of going home and feeling alone with the responsibility for their work of “keeping the baby in.” Overall, preterm labor was experienced as a profound sense of personal responsibility for preventing preterm birth and was practiced as being “careful.” Conclusions The assumption that the family is privately responsible for care work in the home results in the lack of assessment of resources for managing the medical plan on discharge and the lack of resources available or offered to assist families. The work of keeping the baby in conflicts with family care work responsibilities and can cause significant hardships for some women and families. JOGNN, 35 , 700‐708; 2006. DOI: 10.1111/J.1552‐6909.2006.00097.x

Religious tendency and gender roles: Predictors of the attitudes toward women's work roles?

Abstract: Our aim in this study was to investigate if religious tendency and gender roles predicted attitudes of Turkish university students towards women’s work roles. The study was conducted with 138 students from the Ankara University Educational Sciences Department. The Attitude Towards Women’s Work Roles Scale (Kuzgun & Sevin, 2004), Religious Tendency Scale (Onay, 1997, 2002), and Bem Sex-Role Inventory (Bem, 1981) were the tools employed in order to collect data. The findings revealed that the thought dimension of religious tendency, and feminine and androgynous gender roles significantly predicted attitudes towards women’s work roles.

Segmentation in the Pre-Industrial Labour Market: Women's Work in the Dutch Textile Industry, 1581-1810

Abstract: This article analyses women's work in the Dutch textile industry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries within the framework of dual (or segmented) labour market theory. This theoretical framework is usually applied to the modern labour market, but it is also valuable for historical research. It clarifies, for example, how segmentation in the labour market influenced men's and women's work in the textile industry. Applying this analysis, we find that, even in periods without explicit gender conflict, patriarchal and capitalist forces utilized the gender segmentation of the labour market to redefine job status and labour relations in periods of economic change. Although this could harm the economic position of all women and migrants, it appears that single women were affected most by these mechanisms.

Mechanistic Versus Organic Organizations' Impact on Immigrant Women's Work Satisfaction and Occupational Mobility

Abstract: This paper has its theoretical point of departure in Burns and Stalker's theory on “mechanistic” versus “organic” organizations. It is shown that two hotels belonging to the same hotel chain, work in different ways organizationally, as one of them, “Charm” has more of the features pertaining to the “organic” type, while the other, “Style” more resembles the “mechanistic” type. It is discussed whether typical features of the two organizations such as the division of work, hierarchy, communication, and empowerment produce or fail to produce work satisfaction and organizational commitment, which in turn has consequences for immigrant women's work stability and mobility. It is suggested that the organic form of organization has assets the mechanistic type of organization lacks, which facilitates offers of promotion, and other work values which produce work satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, a homogenous social work environment consisting of one ethnic group may constitute an obstacle to actu...

Global Processes and Local Lives: Guatemalan Women's Work and Gender Relations at Home and Abroad

Abstract: In this paper I address an important aspect of the link between the larger process of globalization and work. I focus on how globalization has affected the lives of Guatemalan women of different class backgrounds and ethnicities in Guatemala and in Los Angeles, through an examination of the link between paid work and household work. Data for this article come from eighty-six in-depth interviews with indigenous and ladina women and from ethnographic field work I conducted in Los Angeles and in two regions of Guatemala. There are certain aspects of earning an income among the women in this study that emerge in both contexts, perhaps due to the demands of contemporary capitalism on workers around the world. My observations indicate that whereas the experiences of women and femininities are played out in the context of global economic relations, they are experienced differently in diverse sites and within the same context by individuals of different class and ethnic backgrounds. Thus, experiences of globalization through work are very much localized; they are historically and culturally situated and interact with broader processes in dissimilar fashion.

Export-Oriented Policies, Women’s Work Burden and HumanDevelopment in Mauritius

Abstract: This paper, looking at the case study of Mauritius, attempts to understand the factors affecting the relationship between EOP, women’s work burden along different social backgrounds. The analysis is based on between-method triangulation consisting of a quantitative survey in the industrial sector and a qualitative survey in the industrial and services sectors. The main result shows that women and the social reproductive process were not affected in the same way depending on the socioprofessional background of the woman.

Women's Work and Lives in Offshore Oil

Abstract: Despite being the standard against which all other offshore work sites are compared, the male-dominated work culture of the Gulf of Mexico has received little attention from social scientists. Drawing on the literature on women and work in the United States, on women in the U.S. South, in the military, and in the oil field, and on interviews with hundreds of individuals this paper explores the roles of women in the development and maintenance of the offshore oil and gas industry in southern Louisiana.

Gender matters: perspectives on women’s work and training

Abstract: This special issue of the Journal of Vocational Education and Training is the first with the focus on gender, and specifically ‘doing gender’ for and with women, in the broad, dynamic and complex f...

Transforming Discriminatory Corporate Cultures: This is Not Just Women's Work

Abstract: In this essay I explore how CEOs affect corporate culture, and suggest that it is possible for them to use their considerable influence on corporate culture to establish workplace race and gender equity. I consider the relationship between the personality, power and identity of a public company's chief executive officer, and the establishment of a corporate culture in which race and sex discrimination do not thrive. For men to behave more responsibly toward their female colleagues, they must work in a corporate culture that supports and affirms gender equity advocacy. Male employees and managers will adapt to the corporate culture in order to survive and succeed within that culture. I explore how American culture influences the cultures of companies operating within it. Superficial discussions of race and gender in American society inspire explicit diversity discussions within corporate culture that are equally superficial. These corporate diversity discussions are misleading because they imply that companies work hard to ensure race and gender equity. The explicit message within corporate cultures is that hiring, promotion and pay decisions are based on merit. Men and whites are promoted more frequently and earn more, and the implied contextual message is that these decisions are based on merit. The implication is that even with diversity training, diversity officers, and codes of conduct that prohibit discrimination, whites and men climb to the top of the corporate hierarchy anyway. It is an implied message of white male superiority. Without attending to the discrimination that women continue to face, an increase in the number of women in the workplace will only increase the number of problems they encounter. Increased diversity in the absence of anti-discrimination efforts will only increase instances of sexual harassment, and situations where women receive fewer promotions and less pay than their male counterparts for the same work. More diverse and equitable corporate workplaces are only possible if men change the way they run public companies. Corporate policy that is perceived as benefiting women and minorities is likely to be viewed as biased, undesirable and improper, and therefore, unfair and illegitimate. Employees will not respect or adhere to such policies. The nature of the relationship between a strong CEO and corporate culture, however, offers hope for inspiring workplace race and gender equity. A CEO's sincere commitment to workplace race and gender equity is a prerequisite to achieving fairness for women and minority employees. Once such commitment is in place, the power and influence of a strong CEO makes cultural transformation possible. In the U.S., a low-context culture where communication systems are explicit, the overt information and messages about racism and sexism, to the extent they exist, decry the subordination of women and people of color. The explicit message in the U.S. regarding anti-discrimination is misleadingly benign. The explicit message is that racism and sexism are wrong, and because the discussion is limited and superficial, many whites and men believe that the problems of racism and sexism are no longer significant. Many believe the issues are resolved. What is communicated about racism and sexism within corporate culture? Corporate cultures are high context. Messages are communicated implicitly, and the corporate culture and corporate norms which are largely homogenous constrain the behavior of individuals within these cultures. Because corporations operate as high-context cultures, most of the communication about race and gender equity is implicit. In other words, the context provides most of the information about race and gender within the corporate culture. There are, however, explicit messages about race and gender diversity within the corporate culture, but like the discourse in American society in general on this subject, the messages are superficial. Even worse, the messages transmitted in corporate cultures about equal employment opportunity are misleading. Web sites proclaiming the value of diversity, diversity training programs and communications with shareholders and employees portray corporate cultures that are intolerant to racism and sexism. The explicit discourse about racism and sexism in American society, and the explicit but misleading communication within corporate culture on these issues combine dangerously with the implicit communication systems of the high-context corporate culture. The implicit messages about race and gender within the high-context corporate culture emerge from a context where whites and men earn more and are promoted more frequently than people of color and women. The superficial discussion of race and gender in American society inspires explicit diversity discussions within corporate culture that are equally superficial. These corporate diversity discussions are misleading because they imply that companies work hard to ensure race and gender equity. The implied contextual message, however, is that men and whites are promoted more frequently and earn more, and that these decisions are based on merit. The implication is that even with diversity training, diversity officers, and codes of conduct that prohibit discrimination, whites and men climb to the top of the corporate hierarchy anyway. It is an implied message of white male supremacy. Individuals in high-context cultures are likely to avoid or ignore conflicts. This means that in high-context corporate cultures, men and women, whites and people of color are likely to ignore and avoid the conflict situations that arise between them. This is especially unfortunate because the corporate workplace is the one place in American society where people of different races come together. I examine aspects of the relationship between women of color and the white men who manage public companies in order to reveal potential insight into the lack of leadership in matters of race and gender equity on the part of this nation's chief executives. Chief executives are not likely to understand that much of the discrimination that occurs against women and minority employees, consumers and suppliers is rooted in unconscious bias. One aspect of this unconscious bias is what I will call the "corporate expectation bias." This unconscious bias affects the expectations that white male managers have for the potential corporate success of white women and men of color. The bias, however, is most vividly illustrated by exploring the expectations that white male corporate managers have for women of color within the corporation. The corporate expectation bias is an unconscious expectation that women of color are best suited for certain kinds of work that require skills and characteristics that are not valued in the corporate context. The corporate expectation bias is more difficult to negate. It is rooted in the complex historical role women of color have played as workers in the United States. Like racial stereotypes the expectation bias most adversely affects the people about whom chief executives and corporate managers know the least. Like racial stereotypes, the expectation bias provides white male corporate managers with incomplete information about people of color. The expectation bias is not easily negated by women of color because it is rooted in social reality. To the extent there is any interaction between white male corporate managers and women of color, it is likely to occur when she cares for his children, his elderly parents, or cleans his home. The women who perform these services for his friends and neighbors are also women of color. De facto racial segregation in American society, coupled with employment realities for women of color create expectations on the part of the whites who employ them. At least on some unconscious level, some will expect women of color to be able caretakers, good cleaners, and willing sex workers. These expectations, as they relate to women of color, will not inspire confidence in them as corporate workers who belong near or at the top of corporate hierarchies. I demonstrate that cultural transformation in this regard can take place, how it can be accomplished, and explore some of the reasons why it has not occurred. I leave the work of determining how to motivate CEOs to engage in this type of cultural transformation for subsequent articles.

Globalization and Women's Work in the Mine Pits in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract: This chapter examines such a context: a large coal mining operation located in the midst of equatorial forests in Sangatta, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The process of global connectivity in the contemporary world is leading to far-reaching changes in both mining and women's work. Globalization is about 'making things global'; the phenomenon of 'creating languages, services and products that apply not just to an individual neighbourhood or city or country, but to the whole world'. The chapter shows that the globalized mine pits as gendered workplaces where the local concepts of gender roles conflict with imported values and conform or change in myriad ways. Discrimination against women can take place outside of the labour market such as in unequal access to formal education and skills training, restricting their employment opportunities. Large scale mining is a globalized industry spreading its tentacles into the remote parts of the developing countries.

Gender equality in the labour market: Attitudes to women's work

Abstract: The analysis of economic factors usually applied for examining gender inequality in the labour market suggests that former post communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe have reached similarly high standards of gender equality compared to Western European countries. This paper aims at comparing attitudes to women's work between transition and OECD countries highlighting the explanatory power of societal norms. The analysis of attitudes, their determinants and their change in regions and countries is based on mainly two waves (1994 and 1998) of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). These data reveal that a strikingly higher share of people in the East than in the West agrees with traditional values on women's work. The large homogeneity in patriarchal values of Eastern European people with differing socio-economic background explains these regional differences. The East-West gap in traditional value orientations is likely to widen given that liberal values spread faster in OECD than in transition countries.

Women's Work Is Never Done

Abstract: Let's read! We will often find out this sentence everywhere. When still being a kid, mom used to order us to always read, so did the teacher. Some books are fully read in a week and we need the obligation to support reading. What about now? Do you still love reading? Is reading only for you who have obligation? Absolutely not! We here offer you a new book enPDFd women s work is never done to read.

Gender, Work and Organizational Culture: A Southeast Asian Experience

Abstract: Organizations operate in the social milieu and therefore the socio-cultural factors greatly influence the organizational culture. The Asian societies are patriarchal in nature that gives superior position to a man as compared to a woman. This social role perception (sex role stereotype) seemed to have a bearing on the structural role of men and women in organizations. The present study aimed at examining the impact of social role on organizational culture and managerial work behaviour. The study was conducted in Southeast Asian countries. Hundred twenty-nine male and seventy-six female managers from India, Bangla Desh, Nepal, SriLanka and Korea participated in the study. The overall findings indicated the spill over of socio-cultural values into organizational situations. The managerial behaviour seemed to be culturally influenced. Interestingly, the respondents did not perceive women managers as less competent. Therefore, the results hinted a need for corporate wide mindset change for breaking the glass ceiling at the perceptual and attitudinal level first so that things are different and bright at the functional level

Re- and detraditionalising maternalism and women’s work in ECEC

Abstract: For citizens of nations functioning with advanced liberal, knowledge-based economies a dominant theme is the exhortation to become reflexive, self-maximising subjects. This reflexive and self-maximising subject, who is increasingly thought of as separated from institutional and structural constraint as a free and individual agent, has become the valorised citizen of western politics and policy. Some researchers regard this shift in understanding of citizenship as a detraditionalisation; or an unhooking of traditional social roles and relationships, such as gender, from individuals. Others argue that it is instead a more complex process of both detraditionalisation and retraditionalisation; that is ‘unhookings’ combined and in conflict with reinforcings of ‘tradition’. One site in which these shifts in thinking about subjectivity can be explicated is in the arena of women’s labour, motherhood and ECEC. This paper seeks to make an analysis of the way in which Australian governments are ‘problematising’ ECEC in advanced liberalism, taking account of the complex combination of detraditionalisation and retraditionalisation across women’s labour, motherhood and ECEC policy.

Tribal women's work structure and time utilization pattern in subsistence production

Abstract: Women play a significant and crucial role in agriculture and allied fields. Apart from household chores tribal women spent substantial portion of their time in agriculture activities. The paper aims to explore tribal women’s time utilization pattern in subsistence production in terms of work structure. Tribal women on an average spent 232 minutes in a normal day in subsistence production with higher time spent in backward region as compared to advanced region. Intra work structure analysis showed that subsistence producers devote more time on agriculture and allied activities. Hence, it is important that in place of cumbersome equipment, simple, low cost, subsidized, user friendly technical equipment should be introduced which are also time and energy saving.

Gender equality in the labour market: Attitudes to women's work

Abstract: The analysis of economic factors usually applied for examining gender inequality in the labour market suggests that former post communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe have reached similarly high standards of gender equality compared to Western European countries. This paper aims at comparing attitudes to women's work between transition and OECD countries highlighting the explanatory power of societal norms. The analysis of attitudes, their determinants and their change in regions and countries is based on mainly two waves (1994 and 1998) of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). These data reveal that a strikingly higher share of people in the East than in the West agrees with traditional values on women's work. The large homogeneity in patriarchal values of Eastern European people with differing socio-economic background explains these regional differences. The East-West gap in traditional value orientations is likely to widen given that liberal values spread faster in OECD than in transition countries.

As politicos neoliberois implementodas no Brasil nos anos 90 e as repercussoes no vida das trabalhadoras brasileiras

Abstract: The article analyzes the economic policies that were implemented from the nineties and their repercussions on the lives of women who are Brazilian workers. For that, it approaches the relationship between women and work in Brazil, as studies about women's participation in the job market have made analysis models to expand and diversify. It contextualizes neo-liberal politics in Brazil in the nineties considering that the neo-liberal project was late implemented in the country on a basis of larger sophistication if compared to other countries of Latin America. Finally, it analyzes the repercussions of those political actions on the work of Brazilian women considering that their participation in the market place has presented important changes which have a repercussion in the current days.

A Biblical World View in Support of the Worth of Women's Work

Abstract: Scripture and false science have been used for many years to discourage women from reaching their full potential in the world of work. Perceptions that women were not fit to be educated arose in the culture of Old Testament times and continued for centuries. In the United States, as well as in other places in the world, the argument that women are not suitable for education and employment is now moot. However, cultural values have not always progressed to include women in positions of leadership, to allow them freedom to not have primary responsibility for the home and for children, or to encourage an equitable relationship between men and women, or even the view that, according to the Bible, men and women are equal in all aspects. This paper does not focus on the differences between men and women. While acknowledging that there are physical differences between the two genders, the focus here is that the Judeo-Christian Bible supports the equal standing of men and women in all aspects of the Creator's intent. Specific scripture passages that have been misused and misunderstood are cited and explained. A view to change is offered. Introduction It is a misunderstanding that the Judeo-Christian world view does not support women working outside of the home. Even a stronger misconception is that work of women that is church related should be limited, and under the headship of men. While the Old Testament presented a patriarchal society, there are many examples of strong women who were active in their society and moved the purposes of the God of the Israelites forward. The New Testament presents a number of women who were active in ministry and financial support of the emerging church. There are also examples where Jesus Christ acted in a radical manner to support the concept of women being taught and equipped for service. Even those non-Christian religions who share the Old Testament as a point of origin do not have a basis for prevention of the right to achievement at work and ill treatment of women. This paper presents concepts which, when misunderstood, promote a patriarchal system that keeps women from recognition and opportunity they deserve. In addition, current prejudices, stereotypes, and other barriers to women's advancement, some of them stemming from religious misconceptions, will be presented. The Church and Current Perspectives In his book, 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, J. Lee Grady (2000, 153) lists as Lie #9 the statement that women should not work outside of the home. He posits that today's church operates with a mindset from the Industrial Revolution--that men went to work and women were in charge of the home and children. Before then, mother, father, and children were all likely to be employed in either a craft, or trade, or some kind of family business. There was no concept of a full time domestic mother. There is no definition in the Bible of this person, either. The woman in Proverbs 31, who is often cited as providing for her family, is actually a composite woman, who tends to her household but also is active in the marketplace and commerce. Unfortunately in the United States, the Protestant/Calvinistic work ethic, coupled with the misinterpretation of Scripture passages, have produced a view of women's work that is skewed on several fronts. The current situation in the United States is a product of a patriarchal misinterpretation of the worth of women: * The glass ceiling, where a disproportionate number of women are CEOs and corporate board members. * Unwritten precedents in academia regarding tenure and promotion that keep women from advancing in rank and tenure. * Lack of support by government and private enterprise for quality day care as well as meaningful paid family leave systems. * Jobs categorized as "women's work" which are often the most essential in our society for care giving, and education and nurturing of the young--teaching, nursery, daycare workers, nursing, caregivers to mentally and physically disabled children and adults, with a concomitant lack of respect and salary for these critical jobs. …