Women's Work Roles Research Articles

Museo Nazionale dell'Emigrazione Italiana (MEI)

Museo Nazionale dell'Emigrazione Italiana (MEI)

Women's experience of shiftwork in nursing whilst caring for children: A juggling act.

To explore women's experiences of working shiftwork in nursing whilst caring for children. In nursing, almost 90% of Australia's practising nurses and midwives are women. Much of the research undertaken in the shiftwork area uses men as their sample and uses a quantitative methodology to achieve results. Little work has been undertaken that explores the experience of women working shiftwork whilst raising children. Heideggerian Hermeneutic Phenomenological Design. Semistructured interviews were conducted with ten women who cared for children about their experience of shiftwork. Each interview was digitally audio-recorded. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. The interpretation used first Heideggerian phenomenology as a lens and then second research on women's work and gender roles to resituate the experience in context. Reporting rigour has been demonstrated using the COREQ checklist. Two major themes were derived from the data, Being Guilty and Being Juggler. Each is discussed in this paper. This study adds a qualitative voice to the substantial quantitative shiftwork body of literature. The themes uncovered in this study have thrown light on the nature of work done by women who are nurses, particularly the work related to their home and children. There are opportunities to increase education around the importance of sleep and shiftwork self-care in both preservice and new graduate education to assist nurses to ensure that sleep is a priority whilst working shiftwork.

The Role of Rural Forest Women in Increasing the Household Income

The role of women in managing natural resources is needed to help their husband to increase the economy level of the family. Besides a role to manage the household, women also have a task to get income, and it called double-role in the family. The role of women in work productively holds an effect in fulfilling household needs. This research aims to identify the productive women activities and women role against increasing of the family income in Sidodadi Village Teluk Pandan Sub District Pesawaran District in Lampung Province. The samples taken using cluster and purposive sample methods were 73 samples. Data analysis method used in this research was qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The result showed that the Sidodadi productive women activities to increase the family income were the trader, farmer, agricultural laborer and officer. Trade was a productive activity of women who have the highest income contribution. The contribution of women towards the total income of the family was low (30%), so the role of women in economic activities. Keywords: women role, productive activities, income, household

Marxism, class and women’s oppression

This article argues that the theories of Marxism are able to integrate issues of gender and race oppression in order to develop an inclusive theory of class that recognises the role of women in work and social reproduction in the 21st century. The position of women remains unequal to that of men, as evidenced by a range of issues, including the gender pay gap, the sexual division of labour and the widespread nature of sexual harassment at work. The role of women in social reproduction remains key to this situation, despite the very big changes that women have experienced in the past half-century. Marx’s theories of class and human liberation remain an essential starting point for a theory of women’s equality today.

The Ancient Near East: History, Texts, etc.

The Ancient Near East:History, Texts, etc. Isaac M. Alderman, Victor H. Matthews, John Thomas Willis, and Christopher T. Begg 822. Alfonso Archi, "Religious Duties for a Royal Family: Basing the Ideology of Social Power at Ebla," JNES 76 (2017) 293-306. The royal family of Ebla, particularly the king, had a clearly outlined calendar of cultic duties which required travel to various regional centers. A. reviews this calendar, noting times that family members other than the king fulfilled cultic obligations. The successful royal fulfillment of these social performances created regional networks of power and cohesion.—I.M.A. 823. Laurel Bestock, "Forgotten Fortress: Returning to Uronarti," NEA 80 (2017) 154-65. The kings of the ancient Egyptian Middle Kingdom (ca. 2055–1650 b.c.e.) conquered and subsequently administered a large territory in Lower Nubia, south of the First Cataract. Monumental fortresses that were built along the banks of the Nile by these kings were excavated in the early twentieth century, but were largely destroyed by the flood-waters resulting from the damming of the Nile in the 1960s. Recent surveys have discovered that two of these fortresses have survived and new excavations have begun at Uronarti. Preliminary work there demonstrates the complexity of lifestyle and cultural interaction at this ancient colonial outpost. [Adapted from published abstract—V.H.M.] 824. [Potter's Oracle] Stefan Beyerle, "Authority and Propaganda—The Case of the Potter's Oracle," Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls, 167-84 [see #1505]. Different recensions and versions of the Egyptian Potter's Oracle show various concepts of authorization—sometimes virtually contradictory. Four core concepts in varied ways can be distinguished in the material: (1) references to the classical kingship ideology [End Page 293] of ancient Egypt, including the awaiting of a savior king; (2) the literary use of other texts and traditions, transmitting relevant and comparable contents; (3) the marginalization and exclusion of foreigners, including Egyptian traditions against Asiatics; and (4) an emphasis on the exigency of prophetic words. These core concepts are also prominent in ancient Jewish and early Christian literature, especially in late prophecy and apocalypticism, irrespective of whether these writings later became canonical or not. All these sources have much in common and are very similar in how they construct the authorities they invoke. In the case of the Potter's Oracle, however, the relationship of its recensions and versions to Jewish traditions is still a matter of scholarly dispute.—J.W. 825. Maria Giovanna Biga, "The Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ebla Kingdom (Syria, 24th century BC)," Role of Women, 71-89 [see #1521]. "The purpose of this paper is to give an outline of the role of women in the society of Ebla and of some of the female workers there" (p. 71). B. organizes her presentation under the following headings: (1) Women of the Eblaite royal family; (2) The queen mother Dusigu and the last queen of Ebla Tabur-damu; (3) Women in rituals; (4) Interdynastic marriages of Eblaite princesses; (5) Women as priestesses; and (6) Women at work. She concludes (p. 85): "Women of the court of Ebla had an important role in Eblaite society, taking part in every event of the court, religious ceremonies, rituals, etc. They did not live apart from men, but were involved in all the affairs of the kingdom with them, except for war. The study of the court ladies, consisting of the king's secondary wives, concubines, aunts, sisters, daughters, wet-nurses, etc. proved to be fundamental for the reconstruction of the relative chronology of the texts and for writing the history of Ebla. For a long period of almost 20 years the most important woman at the Ebla court was the queen mother, lady Dusigu. Many anonymous female workers, who were involved in various types of work, are attested. A complete account of female workers at the Ebla court has yet to be written."—C.T.B. 826. [Pyramids Texts] Mariano Bonanno, "La Declaracíon 219 de los Textos de las Pirámides como antecedente de la relacíon Re-Osiris en los Libros del Más Allá del...

The Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ancient Near East. Edited by Brigitte Lion and Cécile Michel. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 13. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016. Pp. xi + 574 + 35 figs. $210 (hardcover).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ancient Near East. Edited by Brigitte Lion and Cécile Michel. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 13. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016. Pp. xi + 574 + 35 figs. $210 (hardcover).Ilan PeledIlan PeledUniversity of Amsterdam Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 76, Number 2October 2017 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/693391 Views: 363Total views on this site © 2017 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse a book review in this section, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Gender and work‐life balance: a phenomenological study of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan

PurposeIncreased participation of women in the labor force creates challenges for them to balance work and family obligations. The situation becomes more complicated in patriarchal societies such as Pakistan due to women's stereotypical domestic roles, religious prescriptions as well as cultural norms and values. This study aims to explore different influencing factors on women's work and family roles in the unique Pakistani socio‐economic and cultural environment.Design/methodology/approachBased on the interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA), this study explores different influencing factors on women's work and family roles in the unique Pakistani socio‐economic and cultural environment. The methodology helped to analyse data about challenges faced by women entrepreneurs to achieve work‐life balance as well as to have an insight about some of the techniques and effective strategies they use to balance work and family obligation.FindingsThe results show that among other motivational drivers to start their own businesses, achieving work‐life balance is one of the most significant ones. Their own businesses give them flexibility, control and freedom to juggle with their family and social responsibilities. Lack of sufficient time, gender bias, social and cultural norms as well as family responsibilities are the most significant challenges women face to achieve balance in a patriarchal Islamic society. Strategic planning, organising and delegating are the most effective strategies women use to cope with competing roles of work and family.Originality/valueThis ground‐breaking work in Pakistan on women entrepreneurs' work‐life balance may also inspire other women who want to start their entrepreneurial career.

Attitudes towards Women's Work Roles and Women Managers in a Sports Organization: The Case of Turkey

In recent years the need to apply gender equality principles to all sectors of Turkish society has been widely acknowledged and has become an increasingly important issue because of the modernization and recent Europeanization project of Turkey. However, even as this has been acknowledged, attempts to apply gender equality in employment in sports organizations have been mostly ignored. This article reports on the attitudes towards women's work roles and women managers of 83 women and 138 men who work in the General Directorate of Youth and Sport (GDYS) which is the biggest national governing body for sport in Turkey. The findings of this study indicate that both female and male workers in the GDYS scored lower on their attitudes towards women's work roles and held more negative attitudes towards women managers. Although male workers scored higher on attitudes towards women's work roles than female workers they held more negative attitudes towards women managers. In addition, femininity scores were found to be the only predictor of attitudes towards women's career advancement. Finally, we discussed these findings regarding previous studies and the sociocultural context of Turkey.

Employment, gender, and smoking cessation outcomes in low-income smokers using nicotine replacement therapy

This study examines the presence and correlates of gender disparities in smoking cessation among lower income smokers prescribed nicotine replacement medication. We examined quit rates (7-day abstinence point prevalence) among a cohort of smokers who filled prescriptions for nicotine replacement (N = 1,782), using Minnesota Health Care Programs' (e.g., Medicaid) pharmacy claims databases (2005-2006) and mixed-mode survey protocols. A cohort of smokers who recently filled a prescription for nicotine replacement was stratified by race, and then subjects were selected by simple random sample from each race, oversampling the nonWhite groups (N = 1,782). The primary outcome was point prevalence of 7-day abstinence, and outcomes were assessed about 8 months after the nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) index prescription fill date using a mixed-mode survey protocol. Final interaction models were constructed using backward elimination. Abstinence rates were 11.4% among women and 19.2% among men (p = .02) and remained marginally significant after controlling for demographics, mental and physical health, period of cigarette abstinence, social environment, religious attendance, perceived stress, and NRT prescription type (p = .08). There was a significant Gender x Employment interaction (p = .02). Among men, quit rates were higher among the employed (26%) compared with the unemployed (16%); among women, quit rates were lower among those who were employed (8%) compared with those who were unemployed (14%). Results suggest the need for research on factors specific to women's work roles or workplaces that inhibit cessation as well as cessation programs tailored to low-income, employed female smokers. On-site workplace interventions and flexible counseling programs may be especially beneficial.

RELIGIOUS TENDENCY AND GENDER ROLES: PREDICTORS OF THE ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN’S WORK ROLES?

The purpose of this study was to investigate if religious tendency and gender roles predicted attitudes of Turkish university students towards women's work roles. The study was conducted with 138 students from the Educational Sciences faculty of Ankara University. The Attitude Towards Women's Work Roles Scale (Kuzgun & Sevin, 2004), Religious Tendency Scale (Onay, 1997, 2002), and Bem Sex-Role Inventory (Bem, 1981) were the tools employed in order to collect data. The findings revealed that the thought dimension of religious tendency, feminine and androgynous gender roles significantly predicted attitudes towards women's work roles.

Age and the Gender Gap in Distress

ABSTRACT Women report more psychological distress than men and recent evidence suggests that this gap increases with age. It has been argued that the widening differential in distress reflects the progressive and cumulative nature of women's disadvantaged work and family roles. Drawing on the cumulative disadvantage hypothesis and social stress theory, we test: (1) whether exposure to chronic stress accounts for an increasingly larger proportion of the gender effect on distress with age; and (2) whether women are increasingly more vulnerable to the effects of chronic stress on distress with age. Data are from the 1994 wave of the Canadian National Population Health Survey, a national probability sample of women and men aged 20 and older (N = 13,798). Exposure to long-term stress helps us understand gender differences in distress for those in their pre-retirement years. However, contrary to the cumulative disadvantage hypothesis, the model became increasingly less likely to explain such differences with age. Gendered vulnerability to long-term stress was not evident in the sample. The implications of these findings are discussed with particular reference to our ongoing efforts to understand health in the context of social structure and subjectivity.

Occupational Segregation and the Devaluation of Women's Work across U.S. Labor Markets

Previous research on the devaluation of women's work has investigated whether the net effect of gender composition varies across jobs and organizational settings. We extend that research by using hierarchical linear models that combine data from a random sample of U.S. work establishments with metropolitan-area data to explore whether macro-level gender inequality also influences the tendency to devalue women's work roles. Thus, we offer the first attempt to examine processes that lead to organizational gender inequality in local labor market contexts. Specifically, we hypothesize that gender devaluation will be strongest in highly gender-segregated labor markets. One reason for this may be that in segregated markets, men are in a stronger position to benefit from devaluation while women are less able to resist it. The results strongly support this hypothesis: Higher levels of occupational segregation at the labor market level are associated with a significantly increased tendency to devalue women's work roles. This finding is not explained by a diverse set of controls at both the establishment and local labor market level. Our findings highlight an additional way that gender segregation intensifies labor market inequality.

Little Women, Good Wives: Victorian Constructions of Womanhood in the Girl's Own Annual 1927

The Girl's Own Annual 1927 displays a distinctly Victorian construction of womanhood which was at odds with the views of ‘modern’ girls in the 1920s. This article examines the tensions created by these differing social expectations and focuses on the intergenerational debate about the role of women in work and marriage. It suggests that the magazine's aim was consistent with government policy at the time and represents a last ditch effort to influence and control the behaviour of a rebellious generation, in an attempt to restore the prewar social order.

Women's Work Roles and Their Impact on Health, Well-Being, and Career: Comparisons Between the United States, Sweden, and The Netherlands

ABSTRACT As women have become more assimilated into the workforce over recent decades, they have realized considerable changes in their work roles which may contribute to health problems and other negative outcomes such as marital strain and diminished job status. The purpose of this review was threefold: (1) to synthesize data on the distribution of women's work efforts in the areas of paid employment, household chores, and childcare; (2) to outline research which addresses the impact of women's workload on their well-being and careers; and (3) to make international and gender comparisons regarding women's work responsibilities. Our findings showed that women from each of the three countries examined–the United States, Sweden, and The Netherlands–contribute more effort to household chores and childcare and less to the workplace than men do. As a result, their total workloads appear to be somewhat greater and more diffusely distributed than those of men. Heavy workloads may adversely affect women's health, especially in the presence of certain role characteristics (e.g., having a clerical, managerial, professional, or executive position, or caring for young children). Heavy work responsibilities may also undermine marital happiness, particularly if there is perceived inequity in the way partners share household work. Finally, women's total work responsibilities often impact their careers due to compensatory reductions in work commitment and job status. These observations point to the need for further research on women's workload and work roles, on the relationship of work to well-being, and on methods of preventing or alleviating adverse effects on overburdened workers.

Change in Gender‐Ideology, 1977–1996:The Contributions of Intracohort Change and Population Turnover

This paper addresses the processes underlying the dramatic shift in beliefs about women's work and family roles in the United States over the past two decades. Following Mason and Lu (1988), we posited this shift to be a function of actual change in individual opinions, as well as changes in population membership that result from births and deaths. Using pooled cross‐sections from the General Social Surveys (1977 to 1996), we found that although demographic processes and microlevel attitude change are both important in understanding attitude trends, the contribution of cohort succession is substantially greater now than in the period that Mason and Lu examined. Multivariate analyses show that (a) the sex difference in attitudes is greater among recent cohorts, and (b) the strong association between education and attitudes that characterized earlier cohorts is significantly weaker among cohorts born after 1945.

The influence of gender on sex: a study of men's and women's self-reported high-risk sex behavior.

An investigation is presented of the relationship between gender and five self-reported high-risk sex behaviors: ever having had casual sex, the lifetime number of vaginal sex partners, the lifetime number of anal sex partners, having had multiple vaginal sex partners over the short term, and having had multiple anal sex partners over the short term. The analysis was guided by a conceptual model that emphasized the constraints and opportunities for high-risk sex behavior that arise from an individual's structural position and cultural context. Gender differences in high-risk sex behaviors were predicted to be due to differences in men's and women's family roles, work roles, religious behaviors, and past sex experience. In addition, the effects of certain sociocultural factors on the high-risk sex behaviors were expected to be dependent on an individual's gender. The hypotheses were evaluated using national data from the United States on self-reported sex behaviors for men ages 20 to 39 years old and women ages 20 to 37 years old. Data analyses were conducted using ordinary least-squares regression and logistic regression. Findings provided mixed support for the predictions. Gender was not significantly related to short-term, self-reported high-risk sex behaviors once social and cultural factors were included in the statistical models. But it continued to predict lifetime behaviors. Several variables, including race, age, age at first sex, and marital status, had gender-specific effects on the self-reported high-risk sex behaviors. The study demonstrates how the effects of structural and cultural factors on sex behavior differ for men and women.

Absent without leave: a gender perspective on the management of staff sickness in social services

This article is concerned with the management of sickness absence and its implications for women staff. Changes in the management of sickness absence in a London local authority are outlined and considered in relation to the predominantly female staffing profile of the organization, and to women's work roles, health needs and stress factors, in the light of research on the Social Services workforce (Balloch et al., 1995, 1998). It is argued that the approach to managing sickness absence in the local authority has disproportionate effects on women and that it undermines other goals of the organization. It is suggested that the causes of absence have been ignored in favour of symptomatic action, that in the interests of an effective workforce links between absence and stress should be addressed and that gender roles should be considered explicitly in policy-making and workforce planning.

Work and family roles: Indian career women in India and the West.

This study examines Indian career women's work and family roles, sources of stress, ways of coping, and well-being in the light of cultural expectations in India and the West. A number of different instruments were included to measure job satisfaction, mental health, job stressors, coping behavior, demographic characteristics, domestic responsibility and satisfaction. Data were collected, using two earner stressor questionnaires (a coping behavior questionnaire and a mental health and job satisfaction questionnaire), from 100 career women in India and 60 in the US (New York) and England. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 career women in India and 15 women in England. The results showed that women in India had more somatic symptoms than those in the West, who expressed their anxiety directly rather than suppressing it. Fewer women in India than in the West reported that they shared responsibilities for domestic work and child care with their spouses. Major work-family pressures are similar for women in both groups: overload, time pressures, constant fatigue, work interfering with relations with children, and guilt and anxiety over children while at work. Lifestyle differences between women in India and the West nevertheless exist and may impinge in various ways on women's experiences of work and family. Although this study has led to many interesting findings, the results are still inconclusive and should be treated with caution. Due to the small size of the sample, this study needs further broadening, as it should incorporate the experiences of non-Western women, including those living at the junction of two cultures.

Women's roles in a disaster

In this study I examine women's roles in the 1997 Grand Forks flood. Based on field research and sixty in-depth interviews, I explore women's community, family, and work roles before, during, and after the disaster. By examining the ways in which women's roles shifted and the meanings the women attached to the roles, I find that the women experienced role accumulation, which resulted in an expansion of both their roles and their sense of self. By successfully performing the “greedy” family role, the emergent community role, and expanding work roles the women often discovered a new sense of confidence, self-worth, and competence.

Marital Types and Quality of Life

ABSTRACT This research examined three marital types proposed by Scanzoni. Data from 112 couples were analyzed to develop profiles of equal-partner, junior-partner, and head-complement marriages using demographic characteristics, equity in earning and housekeeping. Those in equal and junior-partner marriages were most advantaged. Equal financial responsibility was less important in sustaining well-being for women than work itself. When husbands held more constricted views of work roles of women, but felt inequity in earning, wives had the lowest self-esteem. The typology differentiated quality of life. In contrast to some earlier research, both spouses and a range of ages were studied in a multivariate analysis.