Women, Work, and Family: Bernard's Perspective on the Past, Present, and Future

1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Voydanoff

This essay reviews and synthesizes Jessie Bernard's writings on women, work, and family. Bernard's conceptualization of “two worlds”—one of women and one of men—provides the organizing theme, from which three major issues are derived: (a) the dilemmas of caring, (b) the feminization of work, and (c) work and family roles over the life course. Examining her historical perspective on these issues, her view of the present, and her vision of the future, the article raises unanswered questions in Bernard's work and suggests implications for future research on women's work and family roles.

2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Leupp

Despite the importance of employment for shaping mental health over the life course, little is known about how the mental health benefits of employment change as individuals age through their prime employment and child-rearing years. This study examines the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 Cohort ( N = 8,931), following respondents from their late 20s to mid-50s. Results suggest that among women, the aging of children is especially salient for shaping the mental health consequences of employment. Young children diminish the protective effect of mothers’ full- and part-time employment, but the salubrious effects of paid work increase as children get older. The benefit of employment for men’s mental health also changes over time, but it is the aging of men themselves rather than their children that alters the magnitude of full-time employment’s protective effect. Findings suggest the contribution of employment to life course mental health remains tethered to traditional gender roles.


2006 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin M. Perrone ◽  
L. Kay Webb ◽  
Stephen L. Wright ◽  
Z. Vance Jackson ◽  
Tracy M. Ksiazak

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of spirituality to work and family roles and life satisfaction among gifted adults. Satisfaction with work and family roles was examined in combination with spiritual well-being in order to study the contribution each makes to variance in life satisfaction. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in order to gain a greater depth of understanding of these complex issues. Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that existential well-being and marital satisfaction contributed significantly to life satisfaction. In response to open-ended questions, participants articulated many ways in which their spirituality impacted their work, marriage, parenting, and life satisfaction. Results are discussed in relation to the literature. Implications for mental health counseling and future research are provided.


Focaal ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2007 (49) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharika Thiranagama

Charting the life course of Malathi, a young Sri Lankan Tamil woman, this article attempts to discuss the ways in which people and places in Sri Lanka are remade through experiences of violence. The article suggests moving away from a notion of 'home' as fixed on one place; instead, it considers the movement of people between different places. Further, it suggests that senses of home are also embedded within uneasy, constantly negotiated relationships with those people with whom we feel at home. Moreover, the article argues that ideas about 'the future' as equally as 'the past' inform the possibility of being at home.


2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Donnelly ◽  
Jean M. Twenge ◽  
Malissa A. Clark ◽  
Samia K. Shaikh ◽  
Angela Beiler-May ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Pilar Martínez ◽  
María José Carrasco ◽  
Gonzalo Aza ◽  
Isabel Espinar ◽  
Ángeles Blanco

Entre los cambios sociales más destacados en las últimas décadas en España, al igual que en otros países occidentales, está el incremento espectacular del número de mujeres que, además de sus responsabilidades familiares, tienen un trabajo remunerado y lo mantienen cuando se casan y cuando tienen hijos. Este cambio ha supuesto una menor presencia de la mujer en los espacios que hasta ahora venía ocupando y ha demandado, por lo tanto, una reorganización de las estructuras y las relaciones en el hogar y en los roles que tanto varones como mujeres han venido desempeñando. Los cambios en la actividad de las mujeres se pueden rastrear a través de las tasas de empleo, el tipo de empleo, o el abandono del mercado laboral. Sin embargo, los datos relativos al cambio en los roles y en las relaciones familiares son más difíciles de documentar. En este artículo se llevará a cabo un análisis de las características del empleo en las mujeres y del contexto ideológico en que se desarrolla, atendiendo a sus implicaciones en las relaciones familiares. Se presentará por último un estudio empírico en el que se<br />comparan mujeres con hijos pequeños que tienen un empleo remunerado y mujeres que no lo tienen en algunas variables personales y familiares relevantes en el tema de la relación entre familia y trabajo.<br /><br />The number of couples in which both partners have a job, and must balance work and family roles, has increased dramatically over the past thirty years. In Spain as in other<br />western countries the number of women who continue in their employment when they marry and have children, has been steadily increasing. This change has brought a decrease in the woman´s presence at home and a reorganization of the traditional family roles and relationships for both women and men. Although changes in women activity may be studied through their employment rate, type of employment and drop out of the<br />labor market, it is much more difficult to study changes in family gender roles and family relationships. This article will examine women´s and in particular mother´s employment, taking into account the sociological patterns and the ideological context in which it occurs and its relationship with family dynamics. Finally, it will be presented an empirical research comparing mothers who are employed and mothers who are not in some relevant family and individual areas.<br /><br />


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