Social Norms, Choice, and Work

Author(s):  
Christie Hartley

In modern liberal democracies, the gendered division of labor is partially the result of men and women making different choices about work and family life, even if such choices stem from social norms about gender. The choices that women make relative to men’s disadvantage them in various ways: such choices lead them to earn less, enjoy less power and prestige in the labor market, be less able to participate in the political sphere on an equal basis, make them to some degree financially dependent on others, and leave them at a bargaining disadvantage and vulnerable in certain personal relationships. This chapter considers if and when the state should intervene to address women’s disadvantage and inequalities that are the result of gender specialization. It is argued that political liberals can and sometimes must intervene in the gendered division of labor when persons’ interests as free and equal citizens are frustrated.

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 101-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dora L Costa

The widespread participation of women in paid labor outside of the home and in the highest echelons of society would have been unheard of a century ago. This paper documents this dramatic change in women's social and economic status and argues that it was determined both by contemporaneous demand factors and by the characteristics, expectations, and social norms regarding work and family of different cohorts of women. History suggests that change in women's labor force experiences may be slow because it must await the entry of new cohorts of women (and also of men) into the labor market.


2021 ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Katie Lauve-Moon

Chapter 1 first provides a historical account of events leading to the formation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). It also serves as the theoretical foundation of the book and offers an in-depth description of Acker’s concept of gendered jobs. This chapter presents quantitative data illustrating the gendered division of labor across the entire CBF and utilizes survey data to explore congregants’ conceptions of the ideal pastor in relation to gender. This chapter illustrates how the position of senior pastor conflates with leadership and authority and, therefore, is inherently masculinized despite some feminized expectations. This means that if congregants assume essential gender differences between men and women beyond anatomy, then women will be less likely to secure these positions.


Author(s):  
Shannon N. Davis ◽  
Theodore N. Greenstein

To examine the effectiveness of our argument that housework can be used to understand power in families, we apply our theoretical framework across the family life course. In this chapter we empirically examine patterns across the five housework classes (Ultra-traditional, Traditional, Transitional Husbands, Egalitarian, and Egalitarian High Workload) regarding shifts in measures of power. We focus on changes in labor market participation, income, and occupational prestige from NSFH Wave 1 to Wave 2. We find that couples where women secured more economic resources at a pace similar to their husbands were more likely to be more egalitarian in their division of housework over time. However, couples where women secured resources while men did not were likely to exhibit gender deviance neutralization and a traditional division of labor at the second interview.


2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy S. Wharton

Arlie Hochschild is one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her many contributions include her research on emotion and emotion work, the gender division of labor in the household, work–family relations, and the global dimensions of carework. A less visible aspect of Hochschild’s career involves her efforts to nurture, encourage, and engage those inspired by her work. This essay examines Hochschild’s influence as revealed in a new book on work and family life edited by two of her former students. The book offers a look at “Hochschildian sociology” as practiced by those who have expanded and built on her ideas.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruijuan Zhang ◽  
Shaoping Qiu ◽  
Larry M. Dooley ◽  
Tamim Choudhury

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how gender and gender role identity separately and jointly affect managerial aspirations. Design/methodology/approach The study was cross-sectional in nature. Survey data were collected from Chinese Government sectors. Two-way analysis of variance was used to test the research hypotheses. Findings The results showed that gender role identity and combination of gender and gender role identity predict management aspirations while gender alone does not affect management aspirations. Androgynous individuals self-reported higher scores of managerial aspirations. Female managers who perceive themselves as androgynous and masculine tend to possess higher management aspirations. However, when they perceive themselves to exhibit feminine traits, they are more likely to hold lower management aspirations. Moreover, male managers with androgynous and feminine traits are inclined to have higher management aspirations. Research limitations/implications Due to cross-sectional survey data, research results may be biased by common method variance. In addition, because of a convenient sample, the research results may lack generalizability. Moreover, with participants from different organizations, the percentage of men and women in the organization and participants’ role conflicts between work and family life would impact the gender role identity of individuals. Future research should control for the gender composition of the workplace and participants’ role conflicts between work and family life. Practical implications The findings can help narrow the gender gap of managerial aspirations through focusing on gender role identity in selecting managers and designing the leadership training program, ultimately resulting in diminishing disparity in top leadership positions between men and women. Originality/value This study examines how gender and gender role identity separately and jointly affects managerial aspirations in the Chinese context.


1980 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-346
Author(s):  
John Sharpless ◽  
John Rury

Recent work in women's history suggests that the dramatic rise in female labor force participation in the first decades of the twentieth century cannot be understood solely in terms of labor market forces. Although thedemandfor female labor increased substantially between 1900 and 1920 (Oppenheimer, 1970), such variables as religion, education, ethnicity, and social class interacted to determine thesupplyof women available for hire at any one time. It should not be surprising, therefore, that “cultural” variables such as these also served to limit the ability of women to improve their position in the labor market generally. This article will examine the ways in which the family and work environments interacted to determine the responsiveness of working women to different sorts of organizations which (theoretically) could have assisted them in altering the basic conditions of their work and family experiences.


2021 ◽  
pp. 175069802098875
Author(s):  
Öndercan Muti ◽  
Öykü Gürpınar

In this paper, we discuss what role gender plays in remembering, transmitting, and reframing memories of the Armenian Genocide in order to address the question of how young Armenian women negotiate their roles in this process. Centering the societal roles of memory transmission, we employ the specific sociological lens of gender to analyze 26 interviews conducted in Beirut during the week of the official commemorations of the Armenian Genocide in 2016. We define gender as the social construction of a stylized repetition of acts that reflect power relations. Accordingly, the examination of these power relations is necessary not only to understand the experiences and testimonies of men and women, but also the transmission of memory. While understanding Armenian youth as agents of the collective memory, gender allows us to discuss different patterns of remembrance and transmission. We therefore argue that gender influences how individuals remember the Armenian Genocide, as it underpins the (historically) assigned roles of memory and transmission.


Author(s):  
I. Sakharuk

The article deals with the problems of improvement and implementation legislation for gender equality in Ukraine. Have been analysed the main manifestations of discrimination against women in labor market: vertical and horizontal occupational segregation; gender wage differentials; difficulties associated with the combination of work and family responsibilities; the overwhelming predominance of women in the field of part-time, informal, temporary employment; sexual harassment. The issues of gender segregation, gender pay gap, gender equality for work-life balance in the context of foreign and national experience have been explore. The author have been determine the tendencies of improving the labor legislation in foreign countries for introducing the principle of equality between men and women. Gender mainstreaming strategies and programs in G20 countries were summarized. The author draw attention to the nonefficiency of State Social Program for Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men for the period up to 2021, was made the proposals for its improvement. The study finds that there is the issue of equality opportunities between men and women in representation authorities at different levels in Ukraine (on the example of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine). Approaches to gender quotas in foreign countries have been analyzed. The author used the statistics on employment, entrepreneurship and remuneration to show inequality on the labor martet in Ukraine. The author have also identified that the national legislation, which establishes special guarantees and restrictions on women's work, will have to be improve in the context of a substantive model of equality. Have been suggested the ways of overcoming gender discrimination in the workplace by a policy of affirmative action


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tine Rostgaard ◽  
Anders Ejrnæs

The prevailing gender ideologies in the Nordic countries generally support the equal division of work and family life between men and women, including the equal sharing of parental leave. Regardless, as the exceptional case in the Nordic region, Denmark currently has no father’s quota, and this despite the strong impact such policy has effectively proven to have on gender equality in take-up of parental leave. While a quota intended for the father is instead implemented in Denmark via collective agreements, this is mainly available for fathers in more secure labour market positions. This situates Danish fathers, mothers and their children very unequally regarding parental leave entitlements, and the existing inequalities continue across gender, social class and labour market positions. This article explores to what extent institutional variables vis-à-vis cultural explanations such as gender attitudes provide an understanding of why Danish fathers take less parental leave than other Nordic fathers. We use data from the European Values Study (1990‒2017) as well as administrative data for fathers’ parental leave take-up in the same period, relative to the other Nordics and for specific education backgrounds. We conclude that Danish men and women are even more supportive of gender equality in terms of work‒family life sharing compared to other Nordic countries. This indicates that institutional conditions such as parental leave entitlement matter for leave take-up, but in the Danish case attitudes do less so. Not having a father’s quota seems to affect fathers disproportionally across the education divide, and the lower parental leave take-up among Danish men with little education is primarily ascribed to their labour market insecurity. The policy implication is clear: If we want mothers and fathers with different social backgrounds to share parental leave more equally, the policy must change—not attitudes.


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