Women's work

About: Women's work is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1625 publications have been published within this topic receiving 33754 citations. The topic is also known as: woman's work.

Employment versus empowerment: A case study of the nature of women's work in Ecuador

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.

The relationship between women's work histories and incomes in later life in the UK, US and West Germany

Abstract: Using data from several large scale longitudinal surveys, this paper investigates the relationship between older women’s personal incomes and their work histories in the UK, US and West Germany. By comparing three countries with very different welfare regimes, we seek to gain a better understanding of the interaction between the life course, pension system and women’s incomes in later life. The association between older women’s incomes and work histories is strongest in West Germany and weakest in the UK, where there is evidence of a pensions’ poverty trap and where only predominantly full-time employment is associated with significantly higher incomes in later life, after controlling for other socio-economic characteristics. Work history matters less for widows (in all three countries) and more for younger birth cohorts and more educated women (UK only). We conclude with a brief discussion of the ‘women-friendliness’ of different pension regimes in the light of our analysis.

Women's Work, Cohort Change, and Health∗

Abstract: Rapid changes in women's labor force participation, access to good jobs, and changing work-family pressures have altered the landscape of work and family life. We use logit negative binomial hurdle models to examine whether these countervailing trends have affected the physical health of women across four birth cohorts. Longitudinal data are used to compare successive cohorts of U.S. women when they are between the ages 44 and 50. While the health of women overall did not change across cohorts, we find an increase in health problems among employed women, explained by increases in the ability of women with physical limitations to become and remain employed. Health problems among housewives decline across cohorts, resulting in better health among housewives than among employed women in the most recent cohort. These findings provide further evidence of the importance of selection processes in understanding health effects of roles, and they highlight the need for greater attention to the health effects of unpaid work.

Being Involved and Making a Difference Empowerment and Well-Being Among Women Living in Poverty

Abstract: Background:The relationships between poverty, empowerment, and health are of theoretical and practical interest to nurses, yet few researchers have examined volunteerism in poor communities from a holistic health perspective. Purpose:This study explores the experiences of women engaged in community volunteer work in the context of economic poverty. Method:Individual, in-depth interviews were conducted with 8 women, ages 21 to 77 years, who qualified for federal assistance or self-identified as low-income and were currently involved in volunteer community work.Findings:Participants’ stories of being involved and making a difference illustrated women making connections, developing relationships, gaining knowledge and skills, increasing self-esteem and confidence, reaching out to help others, and strengthening communities. Conclusion:At both the individual and community level, well-being was enhanced through women’s community volunteerism in the context of economic poverty. Implications:At the individual and...

Two Approaches to Measuring Women's Work in Developing Countries: A Comparison of Survey Data from Egypt

Abstract: The social science literature has long recognized that womens productive activities are poorly measured. Evidence indicates that womens work is underreported in official data censuses and labor force surveys. Two broad issues affect measures of womens work: 1) the definition or conceptual categories used; and 2) the way in which the definition is operationalized for data collection. The authors examine this second issue data collection methods using examples from a number of surveys recently conducted in Egypt. Their concern is with the measurement of womens contribution to production rather than their labor force participation. A review of the conceptual consensus regarding what activities constitute work and past efforts to determine how best to capture work in large-scale surveys was conducted. The analysis compares two surveys of the same population of women in Egypt that share the same definition of work but that differ in their approaches to measuring it. This article contributes tothe literature on the measurement of womens work in several ways: 1) Results support the superior effectiveness of the activities list format but depart from previous methods tests in claiming that multiple keyword questions are largely ineffective. 2) Quantify how much hidden work is captured by activities lists and argue that this work is not inconsequential. 3) Examine systematic biases inherent in the keyword approach by looking at the types of work activities that it obscures and the profiles of the working women excluded. 4) Make practical recommendations for improved questionnaire designs that will more accurately measure womens work. The changes to surveys of womens work that recommended would probably improve estimates of the work of children and the elderly as well as work performed in the agricultural and informal sectors. (excerpt)