"Stories about women in the workforce permeate newspapers, magazines--virtually all media formats devoted to news and commentary in contemporary society. Women's movement into the paid workforce has transformed their lives--and those of their families-and has in many ways reshaped society. This book takes a holistic view of the economic lives of women in the workforce"--
Today, more American women than ever before stay in the workforce into their sixties and seventies. This trend emerged in the 1980s, and has persisted during the past three decades, despite substantial changes in macroeconomic conditions. Why is this so? Today’s older American women work full-time jobs at greater rates than women in other developed countries. In Women Working Longer, editors Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz assemble new research that presents fresh insights on the phenomenon of working longer. Their findings suggest that education and work experience earlier in life are connected to women’s later-in-life work. Other contributors to the volume investigate additional factors that may play a role in late-life labor supply, such as marital disruption, household finances, and access to retirement benefits. A pioneering study of recent trends in older women’s labor force participation, this collection offers insights valuable to a wide array of social scientists, employers, and policy makers.
An informative and important volume. Johanna Kumlin, European Sociological Review This collection further contributes to our awareness of the complicated intersection of work and family life for women and men and to a few of the socio-economic factors which serve as impediments to its synchronization. It is well written, carefully researched, and rather detailed in its analysis. Susan Cody, Sex Roles This excellent collection deserves to be read, and from cover to cover. . . all the contributions focus on the UK situation over the past 25 years, although some offer comparative exemplars and analysis. This national focus makes this collection an essential resource for those working in the UK (and Europe). But, the general empirical excellence of the collection, as well as the theoretical insights generated in some of the chapters, make this an essential collection for anyone interested in gender and work. Lesley Patterson, Gender in Management: An International Journal There cannot be a richer collection than this on the topic of women, their employment conditions and how they balance home and work life. . . a valuable resource that can be returned to for hard statistics and proven solutions you can use in your own policy creation. Equality and Diversity This collection will be an invaluable resource for anyone concerned with changes in women s employment over the last twenty-five years. Authoritative and up to date, it is simultaneously wide-ranging and focused, analytical and policy oriented. The editors have brought together the knowledge of many renowned experts to reflect on labour market developments and gendered employment. Attention to transitions across the life course is a particularly welcome feature of the book, as is the linking of employment studies with family research. Miriam Glucksmann, University of Essex, UK How is women s employment shaped by family and domestic responsibilities? This book, written by leading experts in the field, examines twenty-five years of change in women s employment and addresses the challenges facing women today. The authors offer an innovative analysis of how global changes including new migration processes, educational expansion, transnational labour markets, technological advances and the global economy affect women s labour market experiences. They tackle issues relevant for future change, including gender inequalities and ethnic diversities, and confront contentious questions such as what is meant by work life balance. The book provides new empirical research that both advances our understanding of the challenges posed by women s employment in our changing society and draws out the policy lessons that could improve economic and social wellbeing. Providing dynamic analysis of employment family inter relationships, Women and Employment will be of great relevance to social scientists and academics interested in employment and family as well as policymakers concerned with changing women s employment.
In the present stage of international capitalist development, women are increasingly being drawn into paid employment by multinational and state investment in the Third World. This volume investigates the interrelations between women's participation in the urban wage economy and their productive and reproductive roles in the household and family. It brings together a selection of important recent research on all major regions of the developing world by leading scholars in this emerging field. It argues that the household itself is an important determinant of the character and timing of women's labour force participation, and it assesses the extent to which family patterns can be expected to change as women increasingly work outside the home.
This open access book investigates female employment and the gender gap in the labor market and households during China’s economic transition period. It provides the reader with academic evidence for understanding the mechanism of female labor force participation, the determinants of the gender gap in the labor market, and the impact of policy transformation on women’s wages and employment in China from an economics perspective. The main content of this book includes three parts―women’s family responsibilities and women’s labor supply (child care, parent care, and women’s employment), the gender gap in the labor market and society (gender gaps in wages, Communist Party membership, and participation in social activity), and the impacts of policy transformation on women’s wages and employment (the social security system and the educational expansion policy on women’s wages and employment) in China. This book provides academic evidence about these issues based on economics theories and econometric analysis methods using many kinds of long-term Chinese national survey data. This book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in up-to-date and in-depth empirical studies of the gender gap and women’s employment in China during the economic transition period. This book is of interest to various groups such as readers who are interested in the Chinese economy, policymakers, and scholars with econometric analysis backgrounds.
"Scholars and students of management, labor, gender, and China will find this volume of great interest. Government leaders will also find the research on women's employment lives a useful tool in future decision-making."--BOOK JACKET.
In the first half of the nineteenth century the main employments open to young women in Britain were in teaching, dressmaking, textile manufacture and domestic service. After 1850, however, young women began to enter previously all-male areas like medicine, pharmacy, librarianship, the civil service, clerical work and hairdressing, or areas previously restricted to older women like nursing, retail work and primary school teaching. This book examines the reasons for this change. The author argues that the way femininity was defined in the first half of the century blinded employers in the new industries to the suitability of young female labour. This definition of femininity was, however, contested by certain women who argued that it not only denied women the full use of their talents but placed many of them in situations of economic insecurity. This was a particular concern of the Womens Movement in its early decades and their first response was a redefinition of feminity and the promotion of academic education for girls. The author demonstrates that as a result of these efforts, employers in the areas targeted began to see the advantages of employing young women, and young women were persuaded that working outside the home would not endanger their femininity.
What are the effects of employment on women’s well-being and social position in a Third World city? Until recently before publication, Calcutta (now Kolkata) had been notable for having one of the lowest rates of female employment in India. This had been largely determined by strong cultural beliefs that a woman’s place is in the home. However, in recent years, the growth of ‘female’ jobs in the small-scale industry and service sectors, combined with an increase in male unemployment had resulted in a sudden increase in the numbers of women entering the labour force. Originally published in 1991 and based on Hilary Standing’s extensive fieldwork within Bengali households, Dependence and Autonomy considers the effects of women’s employment on the labour market, the household, and the women themselves. Particular attention is paid to the role of the life cycle and of class position in determining the impact of employment, and the work is set within a historical perspective on gender and employment in Bengali society. This book is a re-issue originally published in 1991. The language used is a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.
Dr Hakim tests the power of patriarchy theory against economic and psychophysiology theories. Sex discrimination, part-time work, flexible hours, homeworking, marriage and career patterns, labour mobility, labour turnover and the impact of the European Union are all considered. Analysis of the grand sweep of history over the last century, based on large national surveys, is complemented by case studies of people working in occupations undergoing change and their resistance to it. Throughout the book comparisons are drawn between Britain, the USA, and other European countries and also China, Japan and other Far Eastern societies. The analysis draws on sociology, economics, psychology, labour law, history and anthropology to conclude that female heterogeneity is increasing, explaining the growing polarisation of women's employment and many contradictory research results
