Social Policy and Gender Divisions of Domestic and Care Work in France

A number of cross-national comparisons of gender divisions of paid and unpaid labour have highlighted the mismatch which exists in France between on the one hand a narrow gender employment gap due to the full-time and continuous nature of women's employment, supported by extensive state-provided or subsidised childcare, and on the other hand, the persistence of an unexpectedly traditional gender division of domestic and care work. This results in high levels of work–life conflict for French women, and particularly for mothers. In much social policy analysis, the question of how policy might influence the extent to which domestic and care work is shared within the couple has been largely overlooked in favour of discussions of how the state facilitates and encourages the employment of mothers of dependent children. This article therefore focuses on why and how state policy in France, whilst being successful in bringing women and particularly mothers into the labour market, has not brought about a fairer gender division of unpaid domestic and care work in the home.     

Vichy's Mass Firing of Women Teachers of Colour in the French Caribbean and its Consequences1

This article examines the application to Martinique and Guadeloupe of Vichy's sexist law of 11 October 1940, relating to the employment of women and its impact on female teachers. We argue that Vichy showed greater zeal in applying the new regime's patriarchal law on women's work in the Caribbean than in mainland France. We examine in detail the 11 October 1940 law and the modalities of its application in the metropole and in the Caribbean, its manipulation by various actors and the arguments mobilized over the course of its promulgation in a West Indian context. Next, we consider to what degree female Caribbean teachers were impacted by these measures and analyse some of the underlying causes for their dismissal. We highlight the broader social and administrative transformations into which this particular purge fitted. Finally, we underscore the agency of fired schoolteachers as well as their resilience.     

Assessing the Impact of Location on Women's Labor Market Outcomes: A Methodological Exploration

Location and the nature of locally available employment opportunities is believed to shape labor force participation, job type, and wages. Analysts investigating this issue have encountered problems in operationalizing the concept of “locally available employment opportunities.” We first review the grounds for expecting a relationship between local context and employment outcomes for women and then critically assess the methods and measures that analysts have used to explore the relationship. Finally, we describe a new approach for measuring local employment context that consists of a fine-scaled measure individually tailored for each woman in the sample. Using discriminant analysis we ask whether the spatial variables measuring local employment context are important determinants of women's employment in female-dominated occupations. The results suggest that for most groups of women (defined by city or suburban residence and by sociodemographics) the spatial variables are not important. For well-educated, part-time employed women with young children, however, living in an area rich in female-dominated job opportunities increases the likelihood of having a job in a gender-typical occupation; for these women, the local employment context does affect labor market outcomes.     

A history of the African people

Abstract

Colonialism entailed numerous changes in Swazi socio-economic configurations, including a growing recourse to waged employment. Yet little is known about the dynamics that drove indigenous Swazi women to work for wages. This article argues that colonial policy, by adversely impacting areas of production involving Swazi people, drove women to seek wage employment. Moreover, this was not a smooth process, but a contested issue. Swazi men, chiefs, the monarchy and colonial administrators all attempted to frustrate female participation in wage employment. In spite of such barriers, as oral interviews with mid-twentieth century working women show, women continued to take up wage employment, and eventually secured the implicit support of colonial administrators in the service of the colonial economy.     

简论伊斯兰革命以来伊朗妇女的就业状况

本文以伊朗每十年一次的全国人口普查数据为基础,对伊斯兰革命以来伊朗妇女的就业状况做了分析,对导致伊朗妇女就业比例下降的经济、政治和宗教文化等方面的原因做了探讨。     

浅论一战期间的赴法华工及其婚姻

一战期间,法国女多男少的现实、华工对配偶的需求促使不少华工与法国妇女结为夫妻,而法国政府错误的婚姻政策及急功近利的遣返华工政策又在客观上起到了推波助澜的作用。北洋政府为了维护国内的伦理秩序及与法国的外交关系,采取了一些限制华工婚姻的措施,但受制于其法律制度的自相矛盾而不能很好地解决问题。     

Women beneath the Surface: Coal and the Colonial State in India during the Second World War

In British India in 1943, a rapidly escalating Allied coal crisis resulted in the lifting of a six-year-old ban on women’s employment underground. Over 70,000 low-caste and adivasi (indigenous) women, battling the war-induced Bengal Famine, sustained production levels and prevented the monthly loss of 385,000 tons of coal between August 1943 and February 1946. Their employment sparked unprecedented outrage among the public, in the press, and in parliaments, generating a transnational discourse on Indian women workers for the very first time. Meanwhile the desperate colonial government disciplined miners through the threat of starvation, information that has so far remained concealed.     

旅游小企业与就业研究——桂林阳朔西街案例

文章选取中国旅游小企业发展的典型地区桂林阳朔西街为案例地,对旅游小企业与当地居民就业的关系进行探讨。在对案例地进行大量调查的基础上,文章分别从旅游小企业与直接就业、旅游小企业与就业困难人群就业、旅游小企业与从业人员培训这三个方面来进行研究,最终得出的结论为：旅游小企业在促进旅游目的地居民就业方面起着重要的作用,而且与大型旅游企业相比,旅游小企业在帮助当地居民、女性、就业困难人群就业以及对目的地居民的培训方面的作用更为突出。     

The influence of the 'spaces of everyday life' on pregnancy health

Given the recent focus of medical geography on the social influences of health and illness, this paper draws upon a socio‐theoretical framework to show the link between pregnancy health and the spaces of everyday life. The health of pregnant women is becoming increasingly important given that 85 percent of women work during their pregnancy. Employment during pregnancy is consistently linked with good health for infants; however, large discrepancies exist on the effects for employed mothers. This study estimates the health effect of women's employment during pregnancy with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Findings show that women's involvement in paid employment has a beneficial impact for infants compared to women not involved in paid labour. Women who work one job or more per week experience more health problems than women who work less than one job per week. Finally, women who work in male‐dominated and gender‐neutral workspaces experience significantly more prenatal problems than women in female‐dominated workspaces. In conclusion, there is evidence to support that differences in employment status, number of workplaces involved in and gendered workspaces influence the experience of health and illness that are negotiated in the spaces of everyday life.     

Gender Ideology in Historical Reconstruction: A Case Study from the 1930s

You are probably aware of the fact that homes are being wrecked daily due to the fact that married women are permitted to work in factories and offices in this land of ours. You and we all know that the place for a wife and mother is at home, her palace. The excuse is often brought up that the husband cannot find employment. It is the writers’ belief that if the women were expelled from places of business,…these very men would find employment. These same womens’ husbands would naturally be paid a higher salary, inasmuch as male employees demand a higher salary than females.¹     

女性非正规就业研究述评

本文集中关注女性非正规就业的理论、类型、动因、特点、重要性、方式和群体差异,以及贫穷、全球化与女性非正规就业的关系,并探讨了非正规就业对女性的影响、女性非正规就业的对策等。在综合评述的基础上,概括出国外研究存在研究范围全球化、研究队伍壮大化、研究理论多元化、研究内容多样化的特点;指出了目前国内研究存在理论探讨少、缺乏本位主义思考、尚未形成一定的研究体系等不足。提出未来研究的关注点:国外理论的应用与我国特色理论的探索、归纳与总结,女性非正规就业集中的部门和区域的研究,女性非正规就业的政策与组织研究。     

社会转型时期美国女性就业特征与影响(1870-1920)

1870年至1920年,随着工业化和城市化的初步实现,美国经济发展速度空前,创造出了大量就业岗位,并由此形成了一股女性就业高潮。该时期美国就业女性以年轻的单身女性为主,工作岗位高度集中在家庭服务业、制造业、白领以及专门行业中,且具有明显的因种族和民族而导致的就业差异特征。美国女性大量进入就业领域提升了自己的家庭和社会地位,她们传统的婚恋观和家庭观受到冲击,并促使美国妇女从传统女性向现代新女性形象转变。     

The Americans with Disabilities Act: will it Make a Difference?

This article summarizes the research on labor market discrimination against persons with disabilities and discusses the implications of that research for the probable success of the Americans with Disabilities Act ( ADA ). The research shows that discrimination reduces the wages of men and women with disabilities relative to nondisabied men and women. The size of discriminatory wage differentials varies with the intensity of prejudice toward particular impairments, suggesting that prejudice is an important problem. Employment rates for persons with disabilities are also substantially lower than employment rates for nondisabied persons, but it is unclear to what extent the lower employment rates are attributable to discrimination. The most important provision of the ADA with respect to employment is its requirement for "reasonable accommodation." The success of the ADA in improving employment rates for disabled persons will be determined by how employers evaluate the costs of accommodating workers with disabilities relative to the costs of noncompliance.     

Spatial Analysis of Employment and Population Density: The Case of the Agglomeration of Dijon 1999

The aim of this paper is to analyze the intraurban spatial distributions of population and employment in the agglomeration of Dijon (regional capital of Burgundy, France). We study whether this agglomeration has followed the general tendency of job decentralization observed in most urban areas or whether it is still characterized by a monocentric pattern. To that purpose, we use a sample of 136 observations at the communal and at the IRIS (infraurban statistical area) levels with 1999 census data and the employment database SIRENE (INSEE). First, we study the spatial pattern of total employment and employment density using exploratory spatial data analysis. Apart from the CBD, few IRIS are found to be statistically significant, a result contrasting with those found using standard methods of subcenter identification with employment cut‐offs. Next, in order to examine the spatial distribution of residential population density, we estimate and compare different specifications: exponential negative, spline‐exponential, and multicentric density functions. Moreover, spatial autocorrelation, spatial heterogeneity, and outliers are controlled for by using the appropriate maximum likelihood, generalized method of moments, and Bayesian spatial econometric techniques. Our results highlight again the monocentric character of the agglomeration of Dijon.     

Gender and Household Economic Strategies in Rural Appalachia

In recent decades, many Appalachian households have experienced declining incomes due to the loss of traditional male jobs in the mining and manufacturing sectors. One response to this decline has been an increase in female employment in formal sector activities. Another response is homework, or the home-based production of goods and services for sale in the formal and informal sectors. In rural Appalachia, where formal jobs are often unavailable or inadequate to support a household, many women are engaging in homework as an economic strategy. Consequently, economic restructuring cannot be fully understood without analyzing household strategies and gender relations. This paper examines the intersection of gender, households, and economic restructuring as it relates to women's homework and employment shifts in rural Appalachia. Research for this paper entailed qualitative interviews with 50 West Virginia women who are engaged in the home-based production of goods and services. The study analyzes the variety of homework activities done by rural women, their contribution to household incomes, and the effect of these activities on gender relations and divisions of labor in the home. The research forwarded in this study advances a conceptual understanding of household economic strategies and has some practical applications for women and economic development in underdeveloped regions .     

‘Generous Amazons Came to the Breach’: Besieged Women,Agency and Subjectivity during the French Wars of Religion

Gender studies of violence have forced scholars to rethink the association of femininity with ‘vulnerability’ and the objectivisation of women as mute victims of organised violence and oppression, incapable of agency. Recent debates about the role women and homosexuals should play in military systems in the United States and other countries have sparked a renewed interest in exploring historical contexts of the relationships between gender and organised violence. If we consider violence as a performative act, whole new dimensions of gendered aspects of the history of violence and warfare emerge. In this article, I intend to draw on my research on gender, honour, and violence during the French Wars of Religion to explore the roles played by Protestant and Catholic women in southern France during siege operations. These besieged women acted to support their coreligionists by participating in the conflicts as healers, suppliers and even combatants. Besieged women were considered ‘vulnerable’ in sieges, yet their involvement in siege operations challenged contemporary gender stereotypes, threatened social norms and opened new potential cultural possibilities for these women. I hope to show how the discourses on violence, bodies, revolt and religion shaped the tough choices that confronted these women as they participated actively in civil violence. The besieged women in southern France, I believe, are key to understanding the dynamics of gender and warfare and the ways in which women have actively participated in violence – especially in cases of civil violence where the status of the body politic was thrown into question.     

Afro-Caribbean migrants in France: employment,state policy and the migration process

"Afro-Caribbean labour in France plays a distinctive role relative to the French population as a whole and the foreign immigrant population. Using a variety of qualitative and quantitative sources, this paper demonstrates that the role of the state in the process of migration from the French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe from the early 1960s onwards was crucial.... Aggregate sources are used to describe detailed occupational distributions while records of individual migrants illustrate the process of migration and the influences on employment. At a time usually characterized by lack of direct involvement in migration by the French state, for Afro-Caribbeans state intervention in recruitment, training and settlement is shown to be very substantial."     

Old and cared for: place of residence for elderly women in eighteenth-century Toulouse

Although they lacked the ideological and economic advantages of patriarchal authority, women in eighteenth-century France were no less likely than men to receive support in their old age from friends and family. Elderly women rarely lived on their own, and when they could not rely on their children for support, they found care in more distant kin and friends. This support was not derived from economic coercion but from a vague sense of moral duty. Informal networks of care sufficed for both the rich and the poor except in cases of extreme illness.     

Women’s changing domestic responsibilities in neoliberal Africa: a relational time-space analysis of Lesotho’s garment industry

Since 2001 when Lesotho embraced the neoliberal African Growth and Opportunities Act that offers preferential access to the US market, its garment industry has expanded dramatically to become the nation’s leading employer. Elsewhere, large-scale employment of women in low-paid factory jobs has entailed spatial restructuring of gender and age relations. Lesotho is a distinctive context, with socio-spatial relations historically adjusted to male labour migration, high levels of contemporary male unemployment and alarming AIDS prevalence. Based on semi-structured interviews with 40 female factoryworkers and 37 dependents, this article applies a relational time-space analysis to explore how financial and spatio-temporal aspects of factory employment articulate to alter women’s relationships with those for whom they have culturally determined responsibilities: their children, those suffering from ill health and their (generally rural) home communities. The analysis highlights that such employment is not merely adding to women’s responsibilities, but transforming how they are able to undertake social reproduction, as practical, social and emotional roles are converted to largely financial obligations.     

Moving stories: precarious work and multiple migrations

According to the United Nations over 3% of the global population or 232 million people currently live outside their country of birth. Their significance as a growing proportion of the labour force in many European countries is widely known. It is also evident that women – many of them young – are increasingly represented among economic migrants and asylum seekers. However, the longer term contribution of women, as migrants and as workers, is less well recorded. Here, I explore the connections between migration and employment, through the lens of oral histories undertaken with women who moved to the UK. Their life stories illustrate the growing diversity among female migrants as well as the changing nature of women’s employment. My key focus is, however, not on the work these women migrants undertook in the UK, but on precarious forms of waged work engaged in during the migration journey itself. I also reflect on oral history as a method and the problems of writing difference for feminist scholars working with and on women migrants.