Gender and Work

Gender and Teaching in Higher Education by Margaret Miles

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

First thing to say is that your experience in teaching will be different than mine. Then was then (1978); now is... more First thing to say is that your experience in teaching will be different than mine. Then was then (1978); now is now.

My first position (GTU doctorate in history; assistant professor, tenure track) was at the Harvard University Divinity School. My starting pay was 15k and I felt rich because I’d been a grad student! The first thing I needed to know – and didn’t – was that everyone at HDS, students and faculty alike was sure that he/she, but especially she, was an imposter, the one that the search committee or admissions committee had made a mistake in inviting them. I became the first tenured woman at HDS in 1985. At the end of the 80s, still the only tenured woman, with a lot of help from my friends, I initiated a doctoral concentration in Religion, Gender, and Culture.

S.Ashley - Museum Volunteers: Between Precarious Labour and Democratic Knowledge Community

by Susan Ashley

Editorial proof, in Jonathan Paquette (ed.) Cultural Policy, Work and Identity, Museum and Heritage Management series, Ashgate Publishing, UK. 2012
NO PREVIEW, DOWNLOAD ONLY or CONTACT SUSANLASHLEY@TRENTU.CA

Transnational Migration and the Gender Politics of Scale: Indonesian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia

by Rachel Silvey

Published in Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 25 (2), 2004.

Recent research has begun to explore the dynamics of transnational migration from a feminist perspective, and studies... more Recent research has begun to explore the dynamics of transnational migration from a feminist perspective, and studies of migrant domestic workers have played a prominent role in pushing forward this work. Emerging simultaneously, but largely separately, are explicit debates within geography about the politics of scale, the social construction of scale, and the gender dimensions of scale. This article develops an analysis of the gender politics of the production of scale, specifically, the “transnationalisation” of Indonesian activist approaches to overseas migrant domestic workers’ issues. Based on fieldwork in an Indonesian community in West Java that has recently become a sending area for migrants to Saudi Arabia, and interviews with activists representing Indonesian migrant women, the article examines the various gender-specific ways in which migrant women’s rights activists construct and deploy the scales of the body, the nation and the transnational. It argues that activist approaches to migrant domestic workers’ rights, and
the ways in which activists mobilise migrant women’s narratives, represent sophisticated feminist theoretical approaches to scale. By identifying and exploring the scale theory embedded in activist strategies, the analysis highlights the imbrication of feminist theory with practice, and underscores activists’ agency in producing the meanings of specific scales. In so doing, the
article is aimed more broadly at elaborating the ambivalent  relationship between feminist activism/theory and transnationalism.

“Getting by” in Time and Space: Fragmented Work in Local Authorities*

by Suzanne Reimer

Employer strategies and the fragmentation of local employment: the case of contracting out local authority services

by Suzanne Reimer

The distribution of wages in Belarus

by Francesco Pastore

Co-authored with Alina Verashchagina.
Revised version published in: Comparative Economic Studies, 2006, 48 (3), 351-376.

This paper uncovers evidence on the distribution of wages in Belarus in the second half of the 1990s. The returns to... more This paper uncovers evidence on the distribution of wages in Belarus in the second half of the 1990s. The returns to education and work experience are high and stable. While the former is a typical finding of transition studies, the latter is not.
This might be due to the pervasive role of the state in fixing wages in the dominant budget sector, rather than to market forces coming into play. Women experience a small, though largely unexplained wage gap coupled with higher than average
returns to education. A wage curve effect is found, which is similar in size to that of other transition countries, but much higher than in market economies.

Appointment Time: Disability and Neoliberal Workfare Temporalities

by Karen Soldatic

Normalising Precarious Work: Gendered Nurses and Primary Teachers Professional Identities in Europe

by Jörg Müller

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Lisboa, Portugal, 2009.

The following paper explores the gendered impact of welfare restructuring on primary teaching and nursing, drawing... more The following paper explores the gendered impact of welfare restructuring on primary teaching and nursing, drawing upon empirical material across seven European countries. Parallel trends between largely professionalised nursing and teaching and an increasingly deteriorating economic reality puts care workers in situations where they feel highly competent to care yet have to cope with its denial. The resulting teachers and nurses’ responses provides key insights into the gendered nature of these highly feminised albeit different occupations, in that it tends to normalise precarious work. A personal approach to care dominates which furthermore gets exacerbated by the late modern quest for authenticity, thus reinscribing care as an innate, personal virtue that is dissociated from its structural and economic conditions.

Does Gender Matter for Academic Promotion?: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment

by Natalia Zinovyeva

Blue-Collar Mother/White-Collar Daughter: A Perspective on US Policies Toward Working Mothers

by Heather Wyatt-Nichol

(2009). Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering. 11(2), 111-121.

Daycare

by Heather Wyatt-Nichol

(2010). Encyclopedia of Motherhood. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc, 273-275.

Maternity leave

by Heather Wyatt-Nichol

(2010). Encyclopedia of Motherhood. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc, 729-730.

Abortion in a Genderless Society

by Noa Nogradi

Care in the Community? Gender and the reconfiguration of community work in a post‐mining neighbourhood

by Jane Parry

Parry, J. (2005), ‘Care in the Community? Gender and the reconfiguration of community work in a post-mining neighbourhood’, in L.Pettinger, J.Parry, R.Taylor and M.Glucksmann (eds.) A New Sociology of Work?, Oxford: Blackwell.

This chapter draws upon a qualitative research project which examined the post-1984/85 Strike experiences of a South... more This chapter draws upon a qualitative research project which examined the post-1984/85 Strike experiences of a South Wales coalmining population, and looked at how people engage in work for their communities, why this work is undertaken, and how it fits in with their other responsibilities, transgressing private and public, formal and informal boundaries (Parry, 2000). I argue that
community work continues to provide a powerful occupation for local populations, and that the disruption of traditional solidarities in the coalfields has at once encompassed gain, loss and stasis. These have given way to a more diverse array of community activities, which reflect the increasingly variable socioeconomic circumstances of people’s lives.

Motherhood: Still Women’s Most Valued Creative Contribution to Society? by Ivy Helman

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion Project.

I’m expecting…

The stork is delivering as we speak!  I hope you can join me in celebrating this joyous... more I’m expecting…

The stork is delivering as we speak!  I hope you can join me in celebrating this joyous news  – although you should know, the stork is the United States Postal Service, and I am expecting my first book, not  my first baby!

It sounds somewhat crass (even to me whose book this is) to even try and pass off a book in the same way in which women announce they are expecting baby/babies.  Sadly, writing books, which is one use of a woman’s creative energy, does not seem to be as valued as a woman’s ability to procreate, another use of a woman’s creative energy.  Among the circle of friends I grew up with, children still seem to hold a more cherished place.  On facebook.com, my “friends” post weekly updates as to the progress of their babies, pictures of their “baby bumps” and pictures of their newborns.  Just through reading comments, the excitement is palpable.

Farmers, farm workers and work-related stress

by Jane Parry

Parry, J., Barnes, H., Lindsey R. & Taylor, R. (2005), HSE Research Report 362.

This research explores the ways in which stress affects farming communities, how this has changed in recent years, and... more This research explores the ways in which stress affects farming communities, how this has changed in recent years, and the degree to which work-related aspects of stress may be assuaged by support interventions. A qualitative case study research approach was employed to address these issues, involving 60 interviews in five locations across England and Wales.

In examining farming stress, a distinction is made between its intrinsic, extrinsic and workrelated dimensions. While
interviewees tended to associate day-to-day worries and acute stress with farming’s intrinsic demands (such as disease and adverse weather conditions), external causes of tension (such as competition and regulation), together with worries about finances and family, were associated with more sustained anxieties. By contrast, work-related aspects of farming stress, such as workload issues and farming practices, involved a combination of physical and mental health effects.

Notably, work-related and extrinsic dimensions of stress have increased in recent years in relation to organisational and
policy shifts, price fluctuations, mounting paperwork demands, workload intensification, and changes in agricultural regulation. These have prompted an escalation in the aspects of their work that farming communities feel powerless to control, and represent a major area for policy intervention.

Principal farmers displayed the most visible manifestations of stress, linked at once to the intrinsic, extrinsic and workrelated dimensions of their work. By contrast, family farm workers and labourers often lacked autonomy over the way they worked, and work-related aspects of stress concerning workload and organisation made up a greater part of their experience.
Increased paperwork demands emerged as a major cause of stress among interviewees, particularly for farmers and their wives, who struggled to balance these with traditional farming priorities. Differences between farms were also influential in explaining stress. Livestock farming embodied intrinsic pressures relating to stock crises and the unpredictability of animals, but more recently has come under intense economic pressure, prompting a rationalisation of working practices. Arable farmers found the organisation of activities, such as harvesting and planting, in a context of reduced and increasingly contractual workforces particularly challenging. Mixed farmers faced the dual stresses of balancing work activities with conflicting timetables, and the paperwork demands of a complex portfolio of farming.
Smaller farms were struggled with intensified workloads, while larger enterprises had to comply with the demands of more
inspection regimes.

Support agencies need to overcome the stigma attached to asking for help among farming communities and offer a range
of responsive and proactive services. Locally based support was more likely to be used and trusted, although concerns about client confidentiality might deter those most in need from seeking help. Where existing local networks were established, there was a strong argument for providers to plug into these and work towards publicising their efforts to ensure that support is provided most effectively. Critically, support must be multidimensional, reflecting the wide range of stressors and their impacts among farming communities.

Changing Roles - Gender Differences in Poverty in an International Comparison

by TARKI Social Research Institute

Title of the Hungarian original: Szerepváltozások. Jelentés a nők és férfiak helyzetéről 2005
© TÁRKI, 2005
© Ifjúsági, Családügyi, Szociális és Esélyegyenlőségi Minisztérium, 2005

This book was published in English language with the support of the UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women, Central and Eastern Europe Regional Office, Bratislava).

English translation:
Anna Babarczy (papers 6-12)
Tibor Radványi (Introduction, papers 1-5, Bibliography)
Ildikó Nagy (Register of Researchers)

Language Editor: Clive Liddiard-Maár
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
© TÁRKI Social Research Institute, 2006
© Ildikó Nagy, 2006
© Marietta Pongrácz, 2006
© István György Tóth, 2006
ISBN 963 7869 39 5
Cover Design: Péter Maczó
Typography: András Nyíri

The current study examines gender differences in the various dimensions of pov-erty with the help of the Laeken... more The current study examines gender differences in the various dimensions of pov-erty with the help of the Laeken indicators. Comparison of the male and female populations in terms of the incidence and depth of poverty is carried out using the most recent available dataset that is best suited to a cross-sectional comparison.

Development of work stress scale for correctional officers

by Mithat Durak

Key Words: Correctional officers, work-stress, psychometric properties

This study aimed at examining the psychometric properties of Work Stress Scale for Correctional Officers (WSSCO).... more This study aimed at examining the psychometric properties of Work Stress Scale for Correctional Officers (WSSCO). Methods: One hundred nineteen correctional officers (109 males and 10 females) employed in Turkey participated in this study. In addition to WSSCO, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were administered to the participants. Results: The internal consistencies and the item-total correlations were acceptable both for the whole scale and for its subscales; namely, “work overload,” “role conflict and role ambiguity,” “inadequacies in physical conditions of prison,” “threat perception,” and “general problems.” Test–retest reliability coefficient was 0.77 for total scale, and test-retest reliability coefficients ranged between 0.68 and 0.78 for the subscales. The total scale and most of the subscales were positively correlated with depression, anxiety, and hopelessness, and negatively correlated with perceived social support. Furthermore, all subscales significantly differentiated high depressive symptomatology group from the low depressive symptomatology group. Conclusions: The present results revealed that the psychometric properties of WSSCO were quite adequate. The scale can provide a potentially useful tool for research on job stress in correctional officers.

(2009) Change in attitudes about employed mothers: Exposure, interests, and gender ideology discrepancies

by Cheryl Elman

The gender of power: The female style in labour organizations. In Feminist critical discourse analysis : gender, power, and ideology in discourse. Michelle M Lazar. Palgrave Macmillan

by Luisa Martín Rojo

The first collection to bring together well-known scholars writing from feminist perspectives within Critical Discourse Analysis. The theoretical structure of CDA is illustrated with empirical research from a range of locations (from Europe to Asia; the USA to Australasia) and domains (from parliament to the classroom; the media to the workplace).

This chapter explores perceptions and appraisals of the way women exercise authority and communicate in labour... more This chapter explores perceptions and appraisals of the way women exercise authority and communicate in labour organizations in Spain.
Our main objectives are the following. First of all, we wish to show the influence of the work context (organizational culture and structure) on the way women manage and communicate, and on how these capacities are perceived and judged. To this end, we shall try to identify the prevailing model of management in Spanish companies and to examine its relationship with communicational styles, specifically that of women.
Likewise, we shall consider the connections between the gender system and labour-related power, and in doing so examine the importance of social networks for the development of women’s professional careers and for the integration of women in labour organizations. Our second objective is to suggest good practice in work organizations. Throughout
these sections we shall encourage, by means of examples, reflection on women’s style of leadership and communication, with the aim of considering new ways of developing our professional careers.