Search Results

Conceptualising influences on women’s employment transitions: from various sociological and economic theories towards an integrated approach

Cristina Solera

in Women in and out of paid work: Changes across generations in Italy and Britain

Women's labour market participation, marriage, fertility behaviour and, generally, gender roles changed dramatically during the second half of the twentieth century. Such changes have dominated the ... More

Women's labour market participation, marriage, fertility behaviour and, generally, gender roles changed dramatically during the second half of the twentieth century. Such changes have dominated the academic and political debate and generated an enormous body of empirical and theoretical literature. This chapter reviews various theories to identify the different potential micro and macro determinants of women's employment patterns, and to propose an integrated approach that considers the interplay among supply-side, demand-side, cultural, material, and institutional factors. It considers the effects of education, wages, and class; effects of preferences, social norms, and moral rationalities; effects of the family; effects of the welfare state; and labour market effects.Less

Working in Japan

Gracia Liu-Farrer

in Immigrant Japan: Mobility and Belonging in an Ethno-nationalist Society

This chapter maps the diverse patterns of immigrants' labor market participation and career mobility. Several characteristics stand out. First, immigrants in Japan occupy diverse roles in the ... More

This chapter maps the diverse patterns of immigrants' labor market participation and career mobility. Several characteristics stand out. First, immigrants in Japan occupy diverse roles in the Japanese economy. They provide low-wage casual or disposable labor in the secondary labor market as well as work as highly skilled professionals in global businesses. Second, different national or regional backgrounds have shown uneven potential for socioeconomic mobility. Finally, the chapter shows that immigrants are creatively engaged in the Japanese economy. Not only are they needed as supplemental labor, but immigrants in Japan are also forces for bridging the Japanese economy with markets outside the country. The chapter then highlights the strategies that immigrants employ to find their niche in Japan's economy—from occupational niching to transnational entrepreneurship. Through finding niches and bridging structural holes, immigrants utilize their unique capacity to not only survive and thrive in Japan's economy but also act as the agents of globalization.Less

The different Italian and British contexts: the link to women’s employment patterns

Cristina Solera

in Women in and out of paid work: Changes across generations in Italy and Britain

Italy and Britain differ greatly in the level, type, and pattern of women's labour market participation, in their normative and institutional contexts, and in the way that these have changed from the ... More

Italy and Britain differ greatly in the level, type, and pattern of women's labour market participation, in their normative and institutional contexts, and in the way that these have changed from the 1950s to the 2000s. This chapter looks at changes in the potential determinants of women's employment behaviour. It starts by describing trends in female activity rates, in the overall and sectoral distribution of demand and in women's supply characteristics. It then outlines changing patterns of family formation and the explanations given for them, focusing on the Italian low participation/low fertility equilibrium. Subsequently, it discusses changes in welfare state policies and in labour market regulations, with specific reference to those dimensions affecting women's movements in and out of paid work. Finally, by drawing on the existing empirical literature, the chapter illustrates how in Italy, Britain, and other European countries, attitudes towards gender roles and behaviours with regard to the gendered division of domestic and care work have changed across cohorts.Less

Labour market participation of women and social exclusion: contradictory processes of care employment in Sweden and Germany

Hildegard Theobald

in Care and social integration in European societies

This chapter demonstrates how the structures of care work in formal employment are in different ways influenced by the informal, family-based care work of the past. It also reports the interplay ... More

This chapter demonstrates how the structures of care work in formal employment are in different ways influenced by the informal, family-based care work of the past. It also reports the interplay between social integration and social exclusion for different groups of women, combining issues of gender and social inequality. Additionally, gender and social norms are defined as ideas about the responsibility for the provision and forms of access to social care. The research results reveal a picture of mutual interaction between the expansion of social services and labour market participation of women according to their educational attainment levels. Sweden is characterised by the norm of labour market participation of women and men, and in Germany, women still have the freedom of choice between family work and labour market participation.Less

The Political Economy of Low Fertility

Frances Mccall Rosenbluth

in The Political Economy of Japan's Low Fertility

This chapter first sets out the book's main argument, that low levels of fertility in Japan and in much of the developed world may not be freely chosen, but rather reflect how hard it is for women to ... More

This chapter first sets out the book's main argument, that low levels of fertility in Japan and in much of the developed world may not be freely chosen, but rather reflect how hard it is for women to work in the labor market and care for their families at the same time. Rather than give up on the labor market in the face of childcare burdens or an inhospitable workplace, many women seem to be striving all the harder, even when it means delaying, curtailing, or forgoing having children. The chapter then sets out some alternative hypotheses to the idea that low fertility reflects constraints on female labor market participation. It presents some evidence for the argument offered here, comparing Japan with other countries, and comparing different regions of Japan that have different labor market properties. It concludes with an overview of the subsequent chapters.Less

‘Her’ and ‘his’ education and class: new polarisations in work histories

Cristina Solera

in Women in and out of paid work: Changes across generations in Italy and Britain

Education is a strong discriminator of women's labour market supply and types of family-work combination. It gives access to higher job positions and wages, it mediates attitudes and identities, and ... More

Education is a strong discriminator of women's labour market supply and types of family-work combination. It gives access to higher job positions and wages, it mediates attitudes and identities, and it furnishes greater bargaining power in adopting ‘preferred’ choices. Moreover, everywhere a woman's allocation of time between paid and unpaid work is negotiated within the household, and, because of either cognitive or instrumental rationality, it is influenced by her partner's symbolic and material resources. However, variations across countries in the link between education, motherhood, and participation are still wide. This chapter focuses on the family-work nexus and on its variation according first to the woman's education, and then to her partner's education and class. Do women with low educations behave differently from those with high educations when they get married or become mothers? In particular, is motherhood a social leveller, or does education overcome motherhood's typically negative effect on participation? Do women married to high-educated or high-class men behave differently from those whose husbands have a lower educational and occupational profile? And how has all this changed across generations?Less

Exploratory Analysis for Europe: Religion and Physical Appearance

Eleonora Patacchini, Giuseppe Ragusa, and Yves Zenou

in Unexplored Dimensions of Discrimination

Using the available cross-country data for Europe, this chapter provides novel evidence on the employment and labor market participation rates of underweight and overweight people as well as people ... More

Using the available cross-country data for Europe, this chapter provides novel evidence on the employment and labor market participation rates of underweight and overweight people as well as people belonging to different religious groups. In particular, it uses the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) to investigate the relationship between religion and labor-market outcomes, and the European Community Household Panel and the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions to study the relationship between obesity and labor-market outcomes. This chapter also discusses the labor market and anti-discrimination policies that have been implemented in the different European countries.Less

Changing patterns of ethnic disadvantage in employment

Mason David

in Explaining ethnic differences: Changing patterns of disadvantage in Britain

This chapter describes the changing patterns of ethnic disadvantage in employment in Great Britain. It discusses the increasingly differentiated experiences of Britain's minority ethnic citizens and ... More

This chapter describes the changing patterns of ethnic disadvantage in employment in Great Britain. It discusses the increasingly differentiated experiences of Britain's minority ethnic citizens and the persistence of disadvantage relative to the white population and reviews the situation of minority ethnic groups across a range of labour-market issues, from participation rates to earnings. The findings suggest that upward occupational mobility and labour-market success do not have the same beneficial consequences for members of all groups in terms of material well-being.Less

Housework over the family life course

Shannon N. Davis and Theodore N. Greenstein

in Why Who Cleans Counts: What Housework Tells Us about American Family Life

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 ... More

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.Less

Promoting social investment through work–family policies: which nations do it and why?1

Kimberly J. Morgan (ed.)

in Towards A Social Investment Welfare State?: Ideas, Policies and Challenges

This chapter analyses the development of childcare and work-family reconciliation policies in three groups of countries: countries where early childhood education and care policies are well developed ... More

This chapter analyses the development of childcare and work-family reconciliation policies in three groups of countries: countries where early childhood education and care policies are well developed (Sweden and France); path-shifting countries who, in the past decade or so, have broken from decades of entrenched immobility on child care and leave-time policy (Germany, the Netherlands and the UK); and countries that so far have not developed any such policies (Austria, Italy and Spain). It characterises the nature of the recent changes that have taken place, compares these reforms to the social investment ideals which are commonly articulated and then probes the political forces driving these reforms. The chapter shows that the policies which have been implemented have not always been designed in the most gender egalitarian way, and that gender equality and the quality of childcare have often been sacrificed in the name of labour market participation.Less

Labour market integration of women and childcare in Slovenia

Nevenka Černigoj Sadar

in Care and social integration in European societies

This chapter emphasizes the socio-economic, social policy and individual level influences seen on the production and reproduction of gender divisions in care work in the last few decades in Slovenia. ... More

This chapter emphasizes the socio-economic, social policy and individual level influences seen on the production and reproduction of gender divisions in care work in the last few decades in Slovenia. To overcome the gender-biased impacts, possibilities for re-conceptualisation of caring and the parenting/family employment relationship are examined. There are two main objectives for increasing the public provision of childcare. It is shown that pluralisation of childcare forms is yet to be achieved in Slovenia and that some mothers would like to care at home for the children during their first years of life. It can be concluded that long-term public policies enhancing women's labour market participation have limited but positive effects, during the drastic economic and social changes the majority of women succeeded in obtaining their labour market positions.Less

Informal family-based care work in the Austrian care arrangement

Margareta Kreimer and Helene Schiffbänker

in Care and social integration in European societies

This chapter starts by discussing the Austrian care system and giving some figures about female labour market participation. It also describes the social integration of family care on the conceptual ... More

This chapter starts by discussing the Austrian care system and giving some figures about female labour market participation. It also describes the social integration of family care on the conceptual level. It then verifies if the changes that are currently observed in Austria may be interpreted as a transformation of the traditional breadwinner model into a new care model. It comes to the conclusion that Austria is still far away from the realisation of a caregiving parity model. Additionally, it investigates the question of whether the Austrian care arrangement fits into a caregiving social wage model for three groups of carers: lone mothers, partnered/married mothers and long-term carers. The actual Austrian welfare state does not show a progressive development in the direction of a caregiving parity model.Less

Citizenship and changing welfare states

Ruth Lister

in Changing labour markets, welfare policies and citizenship

This chapter provides an overview of the tradition of citizenship within the context of a number of trends in European welfare states, which have impact on gendered citizenship. These trends are ... More

This chapter provides an overview of the tradition of citizenship within the context of a number of trends in European welfare states, which have impact on gendered citizenship. These trends are reviewed in relation to four main issues: the pressures for residualisation of social rights; the relationship between social rights and obligations and the ‘remodification’ of labour through which the ability to uphold a socially acceptable standard of living is tied closely to labour market participation; the implications of this remodification for the recognition of care as an expression of citizenship responsibility; and supra-national citizenship, in particular with reference to the European Union (EU) and social rights and the treatment of ‘outsiders’. The chapter begins by elaborating on the concept and on the relationship between citizenship and the welfare state. It then clarifies how the concept of citizenship serves to point out the important qualitative changes in welfare policies, and how the notion of citizenship and its transformation may be applied to identify and to address the core contemporary challenges to welfare states.Less

Coping Strategies

Charles S. Pearson

in On the Cusp: From Population Boom to Bust

The chapter starts with some general comments on population policy: the fiscal-economic distinction, the national security argument regarding population size, life cycle analysis of policy, and the ... More

The chapter starts with some general comments on population policy: the fiscal-economic distinction, the national security argument regarding population size, life cycle analysis of policy, and the false allure of Ponzi-style population growth. It continues with a systematic examination of coping strategies: boosting fertility (pro-natal policies such as incentives for child rearing); increasing productivity (labor-market participation, human capital); compensatory immigration (which cannot be done simultaneously by all); achieving rentier status, and the “de-growth” option of accepting somewhat slower economic growth and concentrating on more equitable distribution. A few are clear winners (better day care, removing artificial incentives for early retirement and so forth), but most are intricate combinations of benefits and costs, such as immigration, and institutional vs. home care of the very old.Less

Hong Kong and human dignity

Chak Kwan and Graham Bowpitt

in Human dignity and welfare systems

This chapter looks at the first case study on human dignity, which is set in Hong Kong. It reveals that Hong Kong can be considered as a good case study of a capitalist welfare system's attitudes ... More

This chapter looks at the first case study on human dignity, which is set in Hong Kong. It reveals that Hong Kong can be considered as a good case study of a capitalist welfare system's attitudes towards the dignity of economically weak citizens. The discussion is able to determine that human dignity in Hong Kong appears to be narrowly defined as a ‘contribution to society’ and ‘labour market participation’. The chapter also shows that workfare practices in Hong Kong have forced a large number of poor citizens out of the public welfare system, without providing them with enough financial support.Less

The Italian Case

Francesca Degiuli

in Caring for a Living: Migrant Women, Aging Citizens, and Italian Families

This chapter explores how global and regional macroprocesses become embedded in the local reality of one specific country, in this case Italy, generating new realities, new jobs, and new economic and ... More

This chapter explores how global and regional macroprocesses become embedded in the local reality of one specific country, in this case Italy, generating new realities, new jobs, and new economic and social relations. Specifically, the chapter looks at how the feminization of migration generated through political and economic transformations both in sending and receiving countries came to intersect with the growing need for short and long-term eldercare in Italy, a need generated not only by demographic processes but also by cultural, social, and economic transformations. In addition, the chapter explores the role that migration policies, both at the regional and national level, play in creating a segmented, gendered, and racialized labor force.Less

Disability and Social Security Reforms The French Case

Luc Behaghel, Didier Blanchet, Thierry Debrand, and Muriel Roger

in Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Historical Trends in Mortality and Health, Employment, and Disability Insurance Participation and Reforms

This chapter, which examines the link between pension reforms and take-up of disability benefits and, more generally, the importance of health considerations in the design of pension policies, begins ... More

This chapter, which examines the link between pension reforms and take-up of disability benefits and, more generally, the importance of health considerations in the design of pension policies, begins with an overview of older workers’ participation to the labor market. It then describes the main historical changes that occurred in the pension system, in early retirement schemes, and in disability benefits, focusing on interactions that took place until the early eighties. This is followed by discussions of two changes that occurred post-1990: the 1993 pension reform which restricted access to full pension benefits at sixty; and increased control over sickness leaves covered by health insurance in 2003. It is shown that institutional changes or changes in the intensity of controls are sufficient to explain the changes in the take-up of disability benefits. There is also a lack of correlation between health and labor market status.Less

Who Are Victims? A Review

in Criminals and Victims

Victims are individuals who suffer harm as a consequence of a crime. This chapter examines the circumstances and behavior of victims, focusing on the actions taken by victims and the wider desire to ... More

Victims are individuals who suffer harm as a consequence of a crime. This chapter examines the circumstances and behavior of victims, focusing on the actions taken by victims and the wider desire to deter crime. It examines self-protection behavior, victim resistance, and various forms of recourse victims take in the aftermath of a violation or a crime. The chapter also considers the connection between crime victimization and labor-market participation or earnings.Less