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Abstracts Network C - Gender, Work, and Family
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Sarah Ashwin (London School of Economics, United Kingdom)
E-Mail address: S.Ashwin@lse.ac.uk
Adapting to Economic Transformation in Russia: The Benefits of Women's Double Burden
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Large scale economic transformation rarely has a uniform impact on men and women. Job segregation by sex and the gender division of labor mediate the effects of economic change, while men and women are also likely to respond to new situations in different ways, since they are not subject to the same normative constraints, and, as a result of gendered experience, develop distinct behavioral dispositions. Various views of the way in which gender mediates the effects of economic change can be found in the literature. Some commentators have assumed that men's higher status and greater power mean that women tend to be the losers during economic transformation. By contrast, some empirical studies have shown that women's secondary position in the labor market can offer them some protection during economic crises, while others have shown that women's role as domestic managers can give them an important strategic role in ensuring survival in the face of change. Using data from an INTAS-funded longitudinal qualitative research project, this paper re-visits these issues in relation to the economic transformation of Russia in the 1990s.
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Ana Amelia Camarano (IPEA-Research Institute of Applied Economy and National, Brazil)
E-Mail address: aac@ipea.gov.br
Elderly Brazilian Females: Dependent, Provider, or Social Change's Promoteur?
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The paper looks at the heterogeneity of female aging experience in Brazil. Ageing used to bring about poverty and isolation for women. Nowadays, the end of active life and widowhood have not meant necessary those. For a majority of women, it can mean a new phase in the life cycle. The universalization of Social Security and improvements in health conditions have brought about a new concept of life course.
The Brazilian elderly women are taking over unexpected social roles. Their traditional role of "dependent" has been replaced by that of provider. The majority had not worked during their adult life and did not head their families. Old age has brought about widowhood to them, which has implied in families headship and entitlement to Social Security benefits. This is partially spent supporting other family members, empowering these women.
Their empowerment is also related to the increase in unemployment rates of the youth population as well as rising violence and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and marital disruption among them. Consequently, adult children have been spending more time as dependents of elderly mothers. Living arrangements of elderly population have become more complex than the expected "empty nests".
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Jerome De Henau (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
Daniele Meulders (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
Sile O'Dorchai (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
E-Mail address: jdehenau@ulb.ac.be, dmeulder@ulb.ac.be, sile.odorchai@ulb.ac.be
Maybe Baby! The Comparative Success of Public Policies to Fight Motherhood-Induced Employment Gaps and Decreasing Fertility in the Former EU-15
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Numerous studies have shown that women's decisions to work and to have children are simultaneous even if they can choose to postpone their fertility plans. Labor market conditions play an important role in underpinning these decisions. The length of postponement as well as the ultimate number of children is expected to depend on employment penalties they anticipate in the face of motherhood. Public policies, through their impact on motherhood-induced employment gaps (in terms of part time, wage, segregation, etc.), can therefore indirectly influence fertility outcomes and thus play a tremendous role in sustaining fertility rates.
First, this paper analyses and computes different indicators of motherhood-induced employment gaps in the EU-15 (part-time, wages, occupational segregation) and second, we use an OLS regression to confront them with self-constructed country-specific indicators of child policies (child care provision, leaves around birth, cash and tax benefits), used as explanatory variables. We conclude our analysis by presenting a country classification based on the supportiveness of both child policies and labor market conditions of dual-earners' fertility choices.
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Jerome De Henau (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
Daniele Meulders (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
Sile O'Dorchai (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
E-Mail address: jdehenau@ulb.ac.be, dmeulder@ulb.ac.be, sile.odorchai@ulb.ac.be
The Childcare Triad ? Indicators Assessing Three Fields of Child Policies Toward Dual-Earner Families in the EU-15
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In order to investigate the influence of social policies toward dual-earner families on parenthood choices, we have analyzed those state interventions that are likely to reduce employment penalties for mothers: provisions supportive of maternal employment such as public childcare and early childhood education but also more general family policies such as child allowances, tax deductions. Moreover, the specter of policies regarding maternity as well as opportunities to take parental leave have also been discussed since their effects on employment and gender equality are not straightforward. This paper explains how we have built synthetic indicators based on the collection and in-depth analysis of available, accurate, quantitative and qualitative data covering all relevant dimensions of child policies in the former EU-15 countries. We apply the linear scaling technique to our harmonized data (used by the UNDP for the calculation of the Human Development Index) in order to make comparison and build synthetic indicators in each dimension. We compare this method to another one called Decision Lab when it is possible. Results show that both methods lead to same classifications. These indicators are then confronted to assess countries' preferences as to the type of policy privileged.
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Esther Deom (University Laval, Canada)
Jacques Mercier (University Laval, Canada)
E-Mail address: esther.deom@rlt.ulaval.caB
Pay Equity in Quebec and Canada
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Pay equity (e.g. equal pay for comparable work) is a very complex issue, not easily understood in the workplace. The province of Quebec (Canada) has enacted Pay Equity legislation in November 1996. Implementation has taken place since November 1997 and the results of pay equity programs should have been posted by November 2001. Quebec Pay Equity bill has been considered, at the time, as one of the most advanced proactive legislation, in order to achieve pay equity. Expectations, particularly in terms of workers' participation, were very high. This paper will briefly present the content of the pay equity legislation and address the most important challenges encountered in the work places in the implementation process. It will also discuss the orientation of the latest report on pay equity at the federal level.
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Anne Eydoux (Centre d'études de l'emploi, France)
Marie-Therese Letablier (CNRS - CEE, France)
E-Mail address: anne.eydoux@mail.enpc.fr; etablie@mail.enpc.fr
Comment les modes d'accueil des jeunes enfants s'ajustent aux horaires atypiques des parents?
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En France, les modes d'accueil des jeunes enfants ont été conçus dans un contexte où la norme de temps de travail était relativement homogène - les horaires atypiques concernaient essentiellement le travail posté des ouvriers (surtout masculins) de l'industrie. Le développement récent de la flexibilité des horaires de travail interroge l'organisation actuelle de ces services.
Tout d'abord, nous préciserons les évolutions qui affectent l'organisation des temps sociaux des parents, en tentant d'évaluer l'importance de la flexibilité des temps de travail, ainsi que ses effets pour les femmes et les hommes sur l'articulation entre travail et vie familiale.
Ensuite, nous nous intéresserons à la manière dont les expériences d'extension des horaires d'accueil des jeunes enfants répondent aux besoins renouvelés des parents. Nous montrerons que ces expériences contribuent à diffuser les horaires atypiques à un plus grand nombre d'emplois (dans les métiers très féminisés de la petite enfance) et soulèvent de nouvelles questions, portant sur la qualité des emplois mais aussi sur la qualité de l'accueil des enfants et de la réponse aux besoins des parents.
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Anne Eydoux (Centre d'études de l'emploi, France)
Marie-Therese Letablier (CNRS-CEE, France)
E-Mail address: anne.eydoux@mail.enpc.fr; letablie@mail.enpc.fr
Working Time Flexibility: Challenges and Opportunities for Childcare in France
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Changes in the working conditions of parents have had an effect on childcare arrangements, not only in terms of everyday family life, but also at policy level. The increase in working time flexibility can positively affect the work-life balance, especially when employees decide their working schedules, but it can also negatively impact when working schedules are imposed on workers, or when working hours are concentrated at unsocial hours, incompatible with childcare. This contribution examines the consequences of an increase in atypical working hours on the balance between work and family life and analyses recent trends in family policies regarding childcare. It draws on the results of a qualitative survey conducted in 2004 in three contrasted regions in France, questioning the organizational responses to changing parents working conditions. Different types of innovations in childcare services are scrutinized. Emphasis is put on the effect on the well-being of families and on the working conditions of childcare employees, either in collective childcare structures or caring at home.
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Bernard Fusulier (University of Louvain, Belgium)
Giraldo Silvia (University of Louvain, Belgium)
E-Mail address: fusulier@anso.ucl.ac.be; giraldo@anso.ucl.ac.be
The Use of Family Related Leaves by Fathers and Effects of Organization
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Since the mid-nineties the 'work-family challenge' has become particularly prominent in Belgium. This has been reflected in the institutional context, which is changing in favor of implementation of family-friendly policies. However the whole question of the work-family balance is one which concerns not only the 'individual jugglers' and public policies, but importantly, workplaces as an organizational mediation between institutional pressures and individual behavior. Our purpose is to have a diagnosis on company attitudes (more or less family-friendly and especially father-friendly) with regard to different kind of leaves in Wallonia (Belgium). A central objective of this funded research project is 1) to collect data on use of family related leaves by male and female workers (focus on paternity leave, parental leave and time credit used by men) and 2) to identify if there is an impact of the workplace on uses by fathers. Drawing on a company survey by questionnaire (N = 150) in medium/large organizations (more than 100 employees) in two contrasted and gendered sectors of activity ("Technology Industry" and Health), we will offer a clearer appreciation of the organizational mediation effect.
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Sigtona Halrynjo (Work Researh Institute, Norway)
E-Mail address: sigtona.halrynjo@afi-wri.no
"Always ready" For work? - An Analysis of a Prevailing Work Culture and Its Unintended Consequences for the Realization of Competence Resources
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The paper explores the encounter between a new generation of highly educated employees with care responsibilities and the culture of "always ready for work". In the paper I challenge the requirements for dedication to work and management of work-family in terms of realizing the potential of competence resources in the working life. By the use of correspondence analysis I analyze qualitative and quantitative material from 1192 leaders in a large Norwegian industrial corporation to examine some prevalent distinctions, or dividing lines, in the organization culture. The paper shows how generation, gender and life situation can be understood as structuring factors that either raise or lower status in a work organization. I also examine how position in the organization structure (closely linked to generation and life situation) influences the hierarchy of values in the organization culture through the taken-for grated power of definitions. Finally, the paper discusses the organization's handling of diversity in life situation and shows how the prevalent tradition (the implicit, accepted doxa) may lead to deprivation of competence when the basis for recruitment becomes more heterogeneous.
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Heather Hofmeister (University of Bamberg, Germany)
Daniela Grunow (University of Bamberg, Germany)
Sandra Buchholz (University of Bamberg, Germany)
E-Mail address: heather.hofmeister@sowi.uni-bamberg.de; daniela.grunow@sowi.uni-bamberg.de; sandra.buchholz@sowi.uni-bamberg.de
Comparing Women's Work and Family Careers in Germany and the United States, 1960s to 1990s
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We compare changes in West German and American women's early and mid-career exits, re-entries, and job mobility during the past three decades longitudinally, considering the consequences of rapid shifts in gender relations within the household and the workforce and the growth in female-type service sector employment. We focus on women from the 1940s and 1950s birth cohorts of the German Life History Study and the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women using event-history analysis. We find cohort differences in the processes by which family formation (marriage, divorce, births, ages, and number of children) impacts women's labor market participation, evidence that changes in gender relations and family organization have strong consequences for women's employment careers. National differences suggest that country-specific packages of norms and institutions mediate these effects. For example, in later cohorts, exclusive female homemaking has strongly declined in the U.S. but just begins at a later stage of family formation in West Germany. We also find more and stronger labor market attachment for women across cohorts and shifts in the meaning and value of educational level regardless of family status.
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Katarina Katz (Göteborg University, Sweden)
Lena Sand (Göteborg University, Sweden)
E-Mail address: Katarina.Katz@economics.gu.se; Lena.Sand@economics.gu.se
Transition To Traditionalism? Paid and Unpaid Work in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia
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Has the transition to a market economy reduced the gender bias in Soviet policies on family and employment? Or has the market economy trapped women in unpaid household labor? More detailed empirical work is needed to assess a possible "polarization of gender roles". The shortage of data for comparison of Soviet and post-Soviet conditions is severe, particularly time-use data. This paper uses unique surveys from Taganrog, Russia 1989 and 1998. To ensure comparability, time spent during a workday is analyzed, with careful account of measurement, sampling and definition problems. Estimates are for employed respondents but additional information is given about female and participation in paid work. In both years the men performed more paid work and the women more unpaid, but the difference has increased from 1989 to 1998. All groups except married women with young children have increased their market work but men more than women. Both genders spend less time on shopping in 1998. Married men spend less time with children and in traditional chores in 1998. Single mothers of pre-school children carry the greatest work-load in 1998 -an hour more than in 1989.
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Lane Kenworthy (University of Arizona, USA)
E-Mail address: lane.kenworthy@arizona.edu
Women-Friendly Policies and Women's Employment
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In affluent countries with employment deficits, the problem consists chiefly of a shortage of women in employment. For instance, Germany's employment rate among men is almost as high as Sweden's, but the employment rate for women in the two countries differs by 15 percentage points. Italy's male employment rate is comparable to that in Finland, but its female rate is more than 20 percentage points lower. A critical task for countries seeking to raise employment rates, then, is to identify and implement institutional or policy changes that can substantially increase women's employment. I examine the impact of "women-friendly" policies -- child care, paid maternity leave, public employment, support for part-time employment, tax systems that do not penalize a second household earner, and antidiscrimination laws and affirmative action -- on women's employment rates across rich OECD nations over the past four decades. I conclude that some of these policies have helped to increase female employment, but that no single policy package has been decisive. The countries with high women's employment have succeeded via several different paths.
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David Laloy (Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)
Charlotte Plaideau (Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)
Laura Merla(Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)
Bernard Fusulier (Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)
Jacques Marquet (Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)
E-Mail address: laloy@anso.ucl.ac.be; plaideau@anso.ucl.ac.be; merla@anso.ucl.ac.be; fusulier@anso.ucl.ac.be; marquet@anso.ucl.ac.be
The Work/Family Issue in Belgium and "New Fathers" Behaviors
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Since women's participation to the labor market has increased, the idea that the balance between work and family should be achieved through the traditional division of labor between men and women (also called the alternative model) has been put into question. The diversification of families, the transformations of working conditions, the ageing of the population etc. have contributed to reflections on a new model which could supplant the alternative model. Articulation between work and family seems to be more and more a question of being able to cumulate both. In this paper we will first examine the Belgian institutional supports to the balance of work and family and the current debate around that question. Next we will confront the norms that emerge from these supports and debate with the practices and representations of 40 men living in different family configurations.
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Selma Therese Lyng (Work Research Institute, Norway)
Sigtona Halrynjo (Work Research Institute, Norway)
E-Mail address: selma.therese.lyng@afi-wri.no; sigtona.halrynjo@afi-wri.no
Commitment to Care and/or Career? An Empirical Study of "Informal Contracts" Structuring Work-Involvement and Parenting Among Professionals in "Family-Friendly" Norway
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In this paper we conceptualize different ideas and experiences of what it takes to be a "serious player" as a young professional in work life and a "serious player" in parenting in the family focused welfare state of Norway. The paper is based on interviews with male and female professionals with different work-family adaptations (with vs. without children and staying on vs. opting out of the fast track when becoming parents). The paper investigates different ways of interpreting and performing commitment to care and career. We discuss whether the concepts "informal work contracts" and "informal parent contracts" (= taken-for-granted expectations regarding tasks, responsibilities, opportunities and rewards), can be used to understand how professionals negotiate commitment to care and/or career. Relating the informal contracts to concepts like identities, schemas (Blair-Loy 2003), structures of privilege and symbolic capital (Bourdieu 1977), we explore how apparently individual work/family choices and adaptations are shaped within both material and cultural structures. Finally, we look for traces of new informal contracts that allow combined commitment, and discuss what it will take to turn these traces into sustainable and compatible schemas.
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Laura Merla ( Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
E-Mail address: merla@anso.ucl.ac.be
Identity Implications of Being a House-Husband in Belgium
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Even though much progress has been made in terms of equality between men and women in the last decades we can still observe that when it comes to the theme of sexual division of labor within families, women are still the ones who put their careers into brackets to take care of children. It is thus interesting to see that some men engage into practices that reverse that norm, by becoming househusbands. The paper will present a part of the results of a qualitative study of househusbands living in Belgium, focusing on the one hand on the factors that played a role in decision-making and on the other hand on the identity implications of being a househusband. We will try to show how these men give sense to their practices and how they deal with the lack of legitimacy and social valorization they are confronted with.
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Mauro Migliavacca (Catholic University of Milan, Italy)
E-Mail address: mauro.migliavacca@polimi.it
The Transformation in the Labor Market Between Family and Social Vulnerability
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During the last decades in the European countries, some relevant changes in the labor market happened with the increase of unstable and atypical works. These events put in crisis those welfare systems - like the Italian one - where permanent jobs represent the main protections for workers and their families. To analyze this complex change it is necessary to look at the family as a sphere where different job conditions are composed. This paper put the focus, from a theoretical and an empirical perspective, on the social vulnerability concept as a frame, to understand some effects of the changes inside the labor market. The study of the social vulnerability needs a multidimensional approach in order to analyze the social inequality/differences. In particular the paper focuses on the necessity to use the family as unit of analysis in order to explore the relation between work condition and family condition. This paper is a part of the my PhD project that analyze this topics by using the ECHP data set to understand the differences between two south European country, Italy and Spain.
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Kristian Orsini (KU Leuven, Belgium)
E-Mail address: kristian.orsini@econ.kuleuven.ac.be
And What if I Leave You?
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Equal intra-household sharing is still assumed by the large majority of applied analyses in welfare economics. Few pieces of work have tried to depart from the equal sharing hypothesis, but their impact has been limited by lack of data or restricted application to special cases. This paper proposes a new framework to derive sharing rules based on individual bargaining power. The latter is defined for each household member as the share of resources gained by the household due to his/her presence. The causes of power differentials and their impact on income distribution are analyzed in four EU countries presenting significantly different tax-benefit systems: Finland, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.
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Ania Plomien (University of Bremen, Germany)
E-Mail address: aplomien@gsss.uni-bremen.de
Labor Market Policy and Women in Poland: Justified Nostalgia for Socialism or Reasonable Hopes of Return to Europe?
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The paper tackles the issue of the European Employment Strategy and its application in a New Member State - Poland. The main focus is on the influence of the EU level employment policy coordination on the national welfare state and its labor market policy making relevant to the employment of women. Furthermore, current labor market policy and politics are related to the socialist state's action toward women's employment. Specifically, three stages of Poland's concern with labor market policy and its effect on equal opportunities for women are discussed: the socialist command economy, the post 1989 transformation period, and the accession to the EU phase culminating in the drafting of the first National Action Plan for Employment. The paper argues that the political, economic and social transformations have changed the nature of politics and labor market policy making in Poland: from the socialist state's declared commitment to equality between men and women, through the post transformation disregard for the case, to the response of the current administration to European calls for greater gender equality and the attainment of social inclusion.
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Thierry Ribault (National Center for Scientific Research, France)
E-mail: thierry.ribault@ifresi.univ-lille1.fr
Gender Inequalities, Female Employment and Service Activities
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What is the relation between gender equality arrangements, female employment and the structure of service jobs, namely social services versus personal and domestic services?
According to the welfare state theory care services for the elderly and for children are supposed to lighten household chores and to contribute to women's labor force participation. On the contrary, unequal gender arrangements are considered as impediments to female labor force participation, by increasing the relative scarcity of public infrastructures and of corresponding jobs, by increasing the weight of household chores, therefore constraining opportunities of externalization of household activities (especially care activities), and by pressuring the time availability women invest in non domestic work. On the other side, the same unequal arrangements can provide a support to a working time availability particularly well adapted to the labor force specificities which are looked after by companies such as fragmented and flexible time schedules, particularly in the service sectors. What are the empirical evidences of such a causal relation and what conclusions can we draw from the perspective of the tertiary structure of a country? Can we have gender arrangements and policies more equalitarian in a country than in another one while having household working times almost the same in the two countries? If it is the case, we can put into question the idea according to which equalitarian gender arrangements are systematically at the origin of the development of social services - often public - and of related jobs, to the detriment of the personal and domestic services - often private. Based on a comparison between Sweden, the United States and Japan, our analysis tries to reintroduce the role played by time availability arrangements into the determination of the kind of service jobs that women accept to handle.
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Thierry Ribault (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS-Ifrési-Clersé, France)
E-mail: thierry.ribault@ifresi.univ-lille1.fr
Inégalités de genres, activité des femmes et emplois de services
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Quelle est la nature de la relation entre les conventions d'égalité de genre, l'activité des femmes et la répartition des emplois notamment entre services sociaux d'un côté et services personnels et domestiques de l'autre ? La théorie de l'État providence nous enseigne que les services de garde et de soins allègent le travail domestique non-rémunéré et contribuent à accroître la main-d'œuvre féminine. A contrario le caractère inégalitaire des conventions de genre freinerait ainsi la participation des femmes à la force de travail, en accroissant la rareté relative des infrastructures publiques et des emplois correspondants, en accroissant le poids des tâches domestiques, donc en contraignant les opportunités d'externalisation de certaines tâches domestiques (notamment les activités centrées sur autrui, le care) et en pesant sur la disponibilité temporelle des femmes au travail hors du foyer. D'un autre côté, les mêmes conventions inégalitaires peuvent venir appuyer une disponibilité au travail particulièrement adaptée aux besoins de main-d'œuvre des entreprises de services privées en quête d'emplois du temps morcelés et flexibles (cas de nombre d'activités de services intensives en main-d'œuvre). Qu'en est-il empiriquement de cet enchaînement causal et que peut-on en déduire du point de vue de l'analyse de la structure tertiaire d'un pays ? Peut-on avoir des conventions et des politiques de genre plus égalitaires dans un pays par rapport à un autre, tout en ayant des temps de travail domestique proches, tout au moins concernant les femmes ? Si c'est le cas, on remet partiellement en question l'idée selon laquelle ce sont les conventions de genre égalitaires qui seraient systématiquement à l'origine du développement des services sociaux - souvent publics - et des emplois attenants, au détriment relatif des services personnels et domestiques - souvent privés. À partir d'une comparaison entre la Suède, les États-Unis et le Japon, notre analyse réintroduit le rôle joué par les conventions de disponibilité temporelle dans la détermination des types d'emplois de services que les femmes acceptent d'occuper.
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Michael Rose (University of Bath, United Kingdom)
E-Mail Address: hssmjr@bath.ac.uk
Provisioning Blues? Subjective Well-Being and the Vanishing Job Satisfaction Premium of British Women Employees
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Formerly, the general level of women's job satisfaction in the UK, as in many other countries, was very significantly higher than that of male workers. Since the early 1990s, a fall in the job satisfaction of British women has been producing a so-far unnoticed convergence with male employees. A neo-utilitarian despondency thesis which perceives a general fall in subjective well-being among British employees cannot account for this dwindling of the women's job satisfaction premium: scores of employed women for the customized General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) measure of well-being have barely moved for 12 years, while job satisfaction has dropped. A sociological explanation in terms of cognitive competence and rational response to the employment relationship seems required, with this historic convergence explained in terms of two changes: a) women's enhanced position in the labor market, higher skills, and new work orientations; b) the impact of women's partnership and family involvements in forming work attitudes. Within households and family units considerable renegotiation of provisioning roles appears to have been occurring, de-gendering the provisioning role. However, the increased status of employed women may make them more exigent in their expectations of work rewards and roles.
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F. Sarfati (CNAM, France)
E-Mail address: f_sarfati@hotmail.com
Work & Passion: A Gendered Analysis
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According to the sociological literature, the difference between men and women is a social construction. But this construction occurs "in the shadow of technological changes"(Maruani and Nicole, 1989). After having been new, information technologies have become standardized and spread to all sectors of the economy. Our suggestion is to consider how the introduction of these technologies is likely to alter the social relationships in the world of the Stock Exchange. More precisely, our study will deal with the call centers of broking online companies. Empirical research in those organizations will enable us to observe the confrontation between customer services that are characterized by a strong feminization [in this sector, 68% of workers are women, (Zuber, 2002), and the "social world of finance", which is traditionally centered on male values.
We find this organization of work quite interesting to study insofar as it puts the customer at the very core of the productive process. It produces interactions that are added to those usually observed in the teamwork, or with the hierarchy. It is then possible to built up a sociology which focuses on how the process of the distinction between genders occurs. Does this distinction rest on the relationships with the co-workers, on the hierarchy, or on the relationships with the customers? After showing that Brokers on line combine a social world centered on male values and qualities, that are socially considered as feminine we will see how the "arrangement between the sexes" (Goffman, 1997) occurs in the world of broking on line companies.
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Kerstin Sorensen (Elon University, USA)
E-Mail address: ksorensen@elon.edu
Labor Scarcity, Housewives, and Women Workers: Economic Policy in the Making of the Welfare State
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This paper analyzes the role economic factors have played in explaining differences in gender-egalitarian policy development in Norway and Sweden. Gender-egalitarian polices encourage women's participation in the labor force and men's participation in family care-giving, e.g., public child care and parental leave provisions. The economic models adopted by the two countries - labor market policy in the Swedish case, regional, agricultural, and industrial policy in the Norwegian case - are key to understanding the difference in policy outcome in the post-World War II period. In Norway, state-directed economic development resulted in the preservation of rural areas with minimal migration of the population to metropolitan areas, and this reinforced the traditional family structure and the corresponding gender ideology. In contrast, the Swedish model of active labor market policy (and solidaristic wage policy), which subsidized labor mobility, resulted in the abandonment of local communities and population concentration in and around regional centers or cities. This paper shows how these structural factors reinforced and interacted with gender ideology and resulted in differences between the two countries in gender-egalitarian policy outcomes. The findings indicate that there are multiple social democratic paths to the development of social policy, thus challenging the assumption of a common Scandinavian model.
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Bila Sorj (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
E-Mail address: bilsorj@attglobal.net
Balancing Work and Family Responsibilities in Brazil: The Role of Crèches and Pre-schools
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In Brazil, the last two decades have been greatly marked by changes in the structure of families and the labor market, which aggravate the problems of balance between work and family responsibilities. An important step in the redefinition of family responsibilities between the private and public spheres is promoted by broadening the access of children aged up to 6 years to child educational institutions. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the performance of the provision of crèches and pre-school institutions on the increase in number of women going out to work, their income and working hours and across social classes.
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Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay (Canada)
Email Address: dgtrembl@teluq.uquebec.ca
Virtual Intentional Communities of Practice: A Gendered Analysis of Participation
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This paper highlights various results from an action-research on communities of practice in Canada, in particular the main conditions and challenges of such new modes of knowledge creation and management and their gendered characteristics. It does this on the basis of the results of a questionnaire survey administered to the participants of these communities of practice. Participants' commitment and motivation in the project, dynamism and continuity of leadership, organizational support and recognition of employees' involvement appear to be the key elements, and some of these variables present interesting differences by gender and by age, as well as by type of organization, elements which we detail in the paper. Social relations at work may have been neglected in some normative publications on communities of practice and our research gives indications on how these elements are important in the actual development of such communities.
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