Full-time Housewives Research Articles

Acceptance Rate of HIV Testing among Women Seeking Induced Abortion in Benin City, Nigeria

Although the campaign against HIV has been intensive, it has been focused mainly on the public health implications. Little or no attention is specifically directed at encouraging the public to know their HIV serostatus. The actual public health burden due to this infection is therefore not known. Accurate data on the health burden is critical for national planning on preventive and other interventional measures. Using a semi-structured self-administered questionnaire, we interviewed 1051 women seeking induced abortion in four randomly selected private clinics in Benin City between January and September 2002. The blood samples of those who accepted HIV testing were collected and screened at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital. The women were aged between 16 and 46 years (mean 31.1+/-6.7 years). One hundred and thirty seven women (13%) accepted HIV testing. Of the 1051 women, 1001 (95.2%) had multiple sexual partners and 722 (68.8%) regularly practiced unprotected sex. All were aware of HIV/AIDS. The older women were more likely to accept voluntary HIV testing than the younger ones. Acceptance rate for voluntary HIV testing was low in both the employed and unemployed and much lower among full time housewives (p = 0.01). We therefore recommend that HIV campaign programmes should include strategies aimed at arousing public interest in voluntary HIV testing.

Korean Culture and the Reentry Motivations Of University-Graduated Women

Well-educated Korean women are returning to higher education in unprecedented numbers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the motivations of these women for returning to higher education. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 Korean full-time housewives aged 25 to 45 who already had a bachelor’s degree and who enrolled as students at a 4-year university, a graduate school, or a university-affiliated lifelong education center. The major finding of this study was that the reentry women returned to school to reclaim their identities as independent individuals. Respect for scholarship in Korean society made their return to school an acceptable escape from the boring and isolated life of full-time housewives.

The determinants of attempted suicide in a general hospital setting in Fiji Islands: a gender-specific study

The objective of the study was to examine the sociodemographic and clinical factors influencing gender-specific attempted suicide. Suicide attempters, 40 males and 88 females, seen on a consultation-liaison psychiatric service over a period of 42 months (from January 1, 1999 to June 30, 2002) were compared on sociodemographic and clinical variables. The female attempters [22.99 years (SD 8.1)] were younger than their male counterparts [25.15 years (SD 9.5)] [ P = 0.0002]. A higher proportion of the male attempters were engaged in outside occupations, compared with their female counterparts who were mainly full-time housewives or engaged in domestic duties [ P = 0.003]. Alcohol misuse was more associated with male suicide attempts [ P = 0.001]. Ninety percent of male attempters and 54.6% of the female attempters had the intention to die [ P = 0.001]. Although depressive episode was the most common psychiatric disorder in male attempters, followed by neurotic and stress-related disorders, while neurotic and stress-related disorders ranked first in female attempters followed closely by depressive episode, the difference was not significant. However, significantly more male attempters required pharmacotherapy and psychological intervention than their female counterparts [ P = 0.002]. More females had marital difficulties, although comparing the two groups on social difficulties did not yield a significant difference. Method used, personality disorders, previous attempt, repeat attempt, race, religion, and marital status were not significant distinguishing factors. Younger age, lack of employment outside home, marital problems, and nondeath motives were more influential in female attempted suicide, while alcohol misuse and severe psychiatric morbidity were more frequently associated with male attempted suicide. The findings support gender-specific preventive and interventional strategies.

Just Like Home: "Home Cooking" and the Domestication of the American Restaurant

Between 1910 and 1930, urbanization, changing gender roles, and increased culinary standardization and commercialization led Americans to lament the demise of home cooking. Gone, they claimed, were large country kitchens, run by full-time housewives,serving home-baked bread and made from scratch pies. In a successful publicity campaign in the 1920s, the restaurant industry capitalized on this discontent by promising to restore to the nation a sense of nineteenth-century domesticity. With hearty foods,matronly servers, and cozy d'cor, they recreated the aura of a nostalgic premodern kitchenthe very institution that they had helped to destroy. In the 1930s and 40s,restaurants would continue to attract patrons by promising to revitalize traditional gender roles and domestic relationships. In one of the great ironies of the modern social experience, Americans were lured into restaurants by promises of home.

Nutritional rickets in young Nigerian children in the Sahel savanna.

To determine the prevalence of clinical and biochemical rickets in an under-five out-patient population, relate the prevalence of biochemical rickets (BR) to the sociocultural characteristics of families and determine the response of nutritional rickets to vitamin D therapy. Prospective cross-sectional and retrospective case-series surveys. Paediatric general out-patient and consultant clinics. One hundred and ninety eight out-patients and twenty two patients aged >1 to 60 months treated for nutritional rickets. Clinical examination, interview with mothers and determination of biochemical abnormalities of under-fives and management of patients with rickets using stosstherapy. Prevalence of BR and response to stosstherapy. Eight (4%) patients in the survey had clinical and biochemical rickets while 33 (17%) had biochemical rickets only; 92 (47%) other patients had isolated hypocalcaemia and/or hypophosphataemia. The prevalence of BR was higher in males (p <0.05), and increased with age (p <0.001). The prevalence was lower in families who were indigenous to the area (p <0.05), children of Moslem families (p <0.05) and children whose mothers were full-time housewives, unskilled or traders (p <0.01), and who lacked any formal western education (p = 0.157). Three of the seven evaluable patients who received stosstherapy responded late. The results support the hypothesis that deficiency or reduced availability of dietary calcium may be of at least equal importance with vitamin D deficiency in the aetiology of nutritional rickets in the Sahel savanna.

A Lifecourse Study of Stem Family Women in Rural Japan: A Comparison of the Changes over Three Generations

Abstract The aim of this study is to clarify the changes in the lifecourses of rural stem family women, and how they are influenced by society and the family. Our lifecourses are characterized by the sequence of events in our lifetime. Women's lifecourses are mainly influenced and varied by the experiences of marriage, childbirth and childcare. We used the event of marriage as the basis for finding how the lifecourses of three generations of women had changed. The Mother generation (MI refers to the parent; the Wife generation (W) refers to the child; and the Grandchild generations are the daughters (F) and Son's Wives (SW). Our findings revealed that the Agriculture Continuation type lifecourse had decreased with each generation. About 80% of (MI women helped on the family farm before marrying into another farming family, while this type no longer existed in the grandchild generations. The (W) women were the first to start working in various jobs (outside the farm) after graduating from their last schooling, but they usually quit their jobs after marriage. Many (SW) women followed this same pattern. Many (F) women also worked outside the farm after their last schooling, then became full-time housewives after marriage. Few women in the grandchild generation worked in agriculture when they were young. The lifecourses of (M) and (W) women followed basically a fixed pattern, but began to diversify for the grandchild generations, as their order of life events also diversified. Correlation and changes were found between society and individuals.

Gender and Fairness: Marital Satisfaction in Two-Earner Couples

We investigate the relationship between marital satisfaction and the family division of both paid and domestic work, and we assess whether value preferences for the gender division, the balance of power, and perceptions of equity and empathy mediate this relationship in a random sample of 382 two-earner married couples. Using a path analysis, we find that the division of labor and role preferences affect marital satisfaction mainly through perceptions of fairness, but what is fair is different for husbands and wives. The gendered meanings attached to domestic and paid work are important in understanding these differences and lend support to a gendered model of marital satisfaction. Key Words: division of labor, fairness, gender, marital satisfaction, two-earner marriage. Since the 1960s, the family division of labor has changed markedly in at least one respect. In the majority of married couples of the 1990s, husbands are no longer the sole breadwinners (Wilkie, 1991). It is uncertain whether couples find shared breadwinning satisfying, particularly because there has been little change in wives' responsibility for family domestic work. Many employed married women face a double day or a second shift, combining paid and unpaid work (Goldscheider & Waite, 1991; Hochschild, 1989). On average, employed wives work fewer hours for pay than husbands and earn less, while their husbands still do less than a third of the domestic labor. However, these averages conceal considerable variation in how paid and unpaid work is divided (Ferree, 1991; Hochschild, 1989; Spitze, 1988). We investigate the relationship between variations in the division of labor and wives' and husbands' marital satisfaction among two-earner couples. This study extends prior research on the family division of labor and marital satisfaction in several ways. First, we address how the actual division of paid and unpaid work relates to husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction. We ask whether men's marital satisfaction is more influenced by the division of income, the arena for which men are conventionally held responsible, or whether women's marital satisfaction is more influenced by the division of domestic work, the arena for which women are conventionally held responsible. We look at work as a gendered experience, and we consider how net differences in the total division of labor (hours on the job and in domestic labor combined) contribute to perceptions of unfairness. This research also examines the specific mediating processes by which the division of labor affects husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction. We employ a combination of equity theory and gender theory to examine these mediating processes. This approach leads us not only to specific predictions about perceived inequity, but also to gendered processes that may make perceptions of fairness less relevant. We expect that couples will divide their work differently depending on their values and that each partner's interpretations based on feelings of threat, love, or perceived fairness may lead to different effects on marital satisfaction than the division of labor alone. We focus our analysis on two-earner married couples for several reasons. First, among twoearner couples, gender norms are most contested (Hochschild, 1989). The norm of male breadwinning is directly challenged by wives' employment, and employed wives are more likely than fulltime housewives to expect their husbands to share domestic work (Potuchek, 1992). Second, perceived equity in the gender division of family labor is most problematic for two-earner couples. Women with paid jobs have an average total workday that is longer than the workday of their husbands or of full-time housewives, but only about one quarter of employed married women report finding the status quo unfair (Geerken & Gove, 1983; Pleck, 1985; Spitze, 1988). Finally, two-earner families are today's dominant pattern. …

Changes in Gender Inequality in Six Eastern European Countries

This article addresses the question whether or not gender inequality on the labour market increased after the collapse of the communist parties in eastern Europe. Are women the losers in the process of transformation? Several researchers claim that women are the victims; they link this claim to the needs of capitalist production, gender ideologies or the lack of social movements to defend women's interests. We argue that a more thorough analysis is necessary to draw the conclusion that women are the losers. We use data from the survey 'Social Stratification in Eastern Europe after 1989' which was conducted in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Slovakia in 1993. Our conclusion is that women in general do not seem to have suffered major setbacks in their economic positions compared to those of men in the first five years after the demise of state socialism. They did not withdraw in large numbers to become full-time housewives, as predicted by various researchers. The restructuring of the economy was instrumental in preventing a large increase in gender differences. Before 1988, women were over-represented in the service sector and men in industry. Due to the growth of the service sector, women's experience and current positions are useful in maintaining their employment patterns. However, men have improved their positions more in areas related to the emerging market economy. Between countries, we did not find many differences in changes in gender inequality between 1988 and 1993, but there are differences which existed already in 1988 and before.

Korean Gifted Girls: The Achieved and the Unachieved

To identify the factors which facilitate or hinder personal career advancement of Korean gifted females, 162 graduates from the most prestigious girls' high school in Korea were studied using qualitative methods and in particular, documents such as alumnae records, questionnaires and interviews. Half of the gifted females had been included in a publication entitled ‘Korean Eminent Women’ and the other half were full-time housewives. The two groups were compared on their perceptions of their family background, school experiences, career development, career choices, life and marriage satisfaction, and attribution of their success and failure as professional women. Results indicated that gifted girls whose aspirations for career development were supported by their families and who were determined to advance in their careers achieved in their professional lives. The results imply that in Korean society, which remains a “patriarchal democracy” only those gifted females who were strong enough in their own convictions to discount the pressures of stereotypical attitudes limiting women's role in society to that of mothers and housewives, could achieve in their careers.

Ireland: A Private Patriarchy?

Ireland has recently been characterised as a country dominated by private patriarchy. One indicator of private patriarchy is the incidence of women engaged in full-time ‘home duties’ rather than in paid employment. The participation of women in the Irish labour force has been comparatively very low because the majority of married women in Ireland are full-time housewives. Persistently high fertility rates—in 1987 the highest in Europe—and a state ideology which enshrined women's position in the home explained this phenomenon in the past. One might have expected industrialisation to have promoted greater change, yet its influence was minimal. Early industrialisation did not create a demand for female labour. In the 1960s export-oriented industrialisation generated a demand for female labour but this was obstructed by patriarchal state policy. In the 1970s, EU membership removed many legislative restrictions on the labour-force participation of married women. However, a patriarchal family based taxation policy and the absence of state supported child care still perpetuate private patriarchy in Ireland.

Health inequalities among men and women in contrasting welfare states

This paper compares the degree and patterning of health inequalities among men and women in 4 different welfare states: in Britain and in 3 Nordic countries (Finland, Norway and Sweden). It is argued that the structural position including social class/employment status and material living standards are determinants of men's health, but additional determinants of women's health include family roles. Employment patterns are similar for men in all 4 countries and for Finnish women, but differ for women in the other 3 countries where women take part-time jobs or, particularly in Britain, where more women are full-time housewives. Prevalence data from comparable surveys in the 4 countries are presented and further analysed by means of logistic regression analysis. Associations with limiting long-standing illness are examined by age, social class, material living standards and family roles. Contrary to expectations inequalities in health are more pronounced for both employed men and employed women in the Nordic countries than in Britain. For men in all 4 countries and for Finnish and Swedish women, age and social class are strongly associated with ill-health. For Norwegian women the evidence remains unclear. Employment participation among British women is lower than in the other 3 countries and in the examination of their ill-health a role framework complements the structural one: in addition to age and social class, marital status and parental status are associated with their ill-health.

Inequalities in women's and men's ill-health: Britain and Finland compared

This paper examines inequalities in ill-health among men and women in Britain and Finland, using national survey data from the mid-1980s. Age-standardised illness ratios are compared followed by multivariate logistic regression analyses. The degree of social inequality in ill-health for women and men is greater in Finland than in Britain. British employed women in each class report less limiting long-standing illness than their Finnish counterparts. A major difference between the two countries is the poor health of British housewives. We relate these differences to societal variations in the participation of women in paid employment. In Finland women participant fully in paid work, whereas in Britain women are more likely to be full-time housewives or part-time employees. Unlike Finland, state provisions do not support the economic independence of British women. Structural variables, encapsulated by occupational class and employment status' are the primary factors associated with men's ill-health in Britain and Finland and also with Finnish women's ill-health. The difference between British and Finnish women is striking: class is associated with ill-health amongst women in both countries, but housing tenure and family roles are additional factors only among British women. In Britain, previouly married women have particularly poor health. Our findings suggest that in a society such as Britain where paid employment is not universal for women, women's family roles and housing quality are associated with ill-health, but this is not the case in Finland, where women's participation in the labour market is near universal.

Women, Paid Employment and Ill-Health in Britain and Finland

The paper seeks to disentangle how similanties and differences between women's employment position in Britain and Finland are associated with inequalities in women's ill-health, using national surveys from 1986 In Finland, women participate fully in paid work, whereas British women are more likely to be full-time housewives or part-time employees Unlike Finland, public provisions do not support the economic independence of British women The degree of inequality in ill-health is greater among employed women in Finland than in Britain. Major differences between the two countries are the poor health of British housewives, and the impact of housmg tenure and family roles on women's ill-health in Britain but not Finland Previously married women who are not in paid employment in Britam have particularly poor health Our findings suggest that in a society such as Britain where paid employment is not umversal for women, women's family roles and housing quality affect their health, but this is not the case in Finland where women's participation in the labour market is near universal

Childcare: A study of white married couples with young children

Abstract The focus was on the childcare arrangements made by a sample of white married couples who were parents of children up to the age of twelve years old. Some sample wives were employed full time, some part time and others were full-time housewives. Couples were asked who cared for their children in the morning, afternoon, evening and when they were both out for the evening. The aim was to find out what arrangements white dual-earner and male-breadwinner couples made for childcare and whether husbands were more likely to share childcare in the evenings if their wives were employed. Common beliefs about who ought to be responsible for childcare and some policy issues are discussed initially to provide a social context for the research. It is argued that the provision of childcare is important for at least two key reasons: formal childcare of good quality benefits children and the position of parents generally, and of mothers in particular, would be improved if they had access to affordable childcare f...

A Residue of Tradition: Jobs, Careers, and Spouses' Time in Housework

This study compares the amount of time dual-career husbands and wives spend in housework, relative to their same-sex counterparts in other dual-earner and single-earner households. Data on 1,565 white couples drawn from the 1976 wave of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics were entered into a multiple regression analysis of husbands' and wives' weekly hours of housework. Across couple types, wives spent considerably more hours in housework than husbands and performed about 79% of all the housework that was done in their homes. Dual-career wives performed significantly fewer hours of housework each week than did full-time housewives, but they did not differ significantly from other fulltime employed wives. Dual-career husbands only differed significantly in their household labor from nonprofessional or nonmanagerial husbands of full-time housewives. They did not allocate significantly more time to housework each week than professional or managerial husbands married to housewives or than husbands in other dual-earner families in which the wives had nonprofessional/nonmanagerialjobs. Dual-career couples were not found to be more egalitarian than other couples in their allocation of time to household labor. Consequences of these findings for the extent of viability of the dual-career family form are discussed.

Inequalities in health and gender

Gender inequalities in health are studied in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden on the basis of survey data on morbidity and symptoms of anxiety, and of mental hospitalization statistics. Women have higher rates of illness than men in countries where, and in periods when, they have to a great extent stayed at home as full-time housewives. Participation in paid economic activity and the resulting economical independence thus seems to be beneficial to women's health on the macro-level of society. On the micro-level of individual families, inequality in morbidity by gender is smaller in families with two economical providers than in families where the wife stays at home. The anxiety rates of employed wives are, however, relatively high compared with those of men and non-employed wives. Only in Sweden is the mental health of employed wives good, perhaps because of supportive social policies favouring women's work outside the home. The strain involved in combining family and work among women thus becomes manifest in the appearance of symptoms of anxiety but not in physical morbidity nor mental hospitalization.

The Labor-Force Participation of Married Mothers of Infants

This study investigates why some married mothers of infants are employed while others stay out of the labor force for the first 3 years of their childrens lives. Using data on married women with children less than 3 years old from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics discriminant function analysis is used to examine 4 groups of wives: 1) white employed wives 2) black employed wives 3) white full-time housewives and 4) black full-time housewives. 4 distinct patterns emerge. Overall white employed wives appear to be working not so much out of financial need but rather out of an interest in being in the labor force. These women are most likely to have been employed before their children were born intend to remain in the labor force are psychologically comfortable with their employment and have husbands supportive of it. Black employed wives appear to be working out of financial need and are more likely to be employed full-time. Like white employed women they have a history of employment and plan to continue working. However black employed women are just as likely to be employed with or without their husbands approval. White housewives show little attachment to the labor force are unlikely to have been employed before their children were born are unlikely to have a career occupation and are the least likely to plan to work in the future. They are well off financially and psychologically; they have feelings of personal efficacy and claim that their husbands oppose their working. Black housewives have high financial need and plan to work but are hampered by lack of work experience high county unemployment and more children. They have a low level of personal efficacy. This analysis suggests that perceived job-family conflict with husbands attitude being the most important aspect of this discriminates very powerfully between employed and unemployed white women. Black wives are more strongly attached to the labor force; they also more strongly expect to be employed.

Expected Versus Actual Work Roles of Women

This paper examines the impact of women's long-range work plans for mid life on actual work behavior at that age for a cohort of women who were 35 in 1980. We hypothesized that work plans would significantly affect actual behavior at mid life, and moreover, would modify the effects of many variables typically associated with women's employment. Our findings indicate plans did influence subsequent behavior, largely reflecting the realization of plans for those who expected to be employed. Further, marital and fertility status considerably influenced the labor force behavior only of those who expected to be at home, while employment history affected the employment only for those expecting to be employed. These results suggest: (I) demographic and economic change over the 1970s differentially affected this cohort's ability to actualize plans for mid life; and (2) She employment behavior of those who planned to be full-time housewives may be a transitory response to changes in their domestic roles.

Conflicting sex-role expectations, housework dissatisfaction, and depressive symptoms among full-time housewives

Little research has been conducted on the factors that influence a full-time homemaker's attitudes toward housework, and the influence of satisfaction with housework on psychological well-being. Data from a community survey of 134 full-time housewives showed that the greater the degree of conflict in the marital dyad over expectations for the female role, the greater the dissatisfaction of the housewife with housework. It was further demonstrated that the more dissatisfied a woman was with housework, the more likely she was to suffer from depressive symptoms. Finally, the results suggest that the greater the degree of conflict over sex-role expectations, the higher the depressive symptom score of the housewife.

Counseling Parents of a Child with Meningomyelocele

The primary care physician has an important role in counseling families of children with meningomyelocele and providing ongoing support and coordination of care. A spina bifida treatment center will provide subspecialists in neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, urology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nutrition, social work, and genetics. When the family does not live near a center, the pediatrician may fill many of these roles as well as that of team coordinator himself with the psychosocial and educational issues, as these are often forgotten by the multiple subspecialists seen by these children. The outlook for children with spina bifida is changing rapidly. The evolving medical, educational, and social treatment of individuals with meningronyelocele makes reliable prognostic information unavailable. Intelligence is usually normal and death due to renal insufficiency is extremely rare. A follow-up of surviving patients treated from 1928 to 1951 revealed that more than half were self-sufficient, full-time college students or housewives.7 With the improved outlook today, the majority of affected children can expect to become independent adults.