Restructuring women’s work; labour market and household gender regimes in the Greater Latrobe Valley,Australia

This article examines the impact of economic restructuring on gender relations. It examines the implications of labour market change for households within a region, in this case the Greater Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia. The argument is that the unchanging gender structures of the labour market constrain the intentions and efforts of individuals within households to significantly alter household gender relations. The analysis considers how restructuring has reshaped the regional labour market since 1996, changing opportunities for both men’s and women’s employment. Despite these changes, the regional labour market continues to be underpinned by a ‘male breadwinner’ gender regime and significant occupational and industrial gender segregation. Drawing on four vignettes, the analysis shows that the impetus towards greater gender equality in the household is constrained by a stagnant and stable labour market gender regime.     

Migrations

Brian M. du Toit and Helen I. Safa, eds. Migration and Urbanization: Models and Adaptive Strategies. The Hague and Paris: Mouton Publishers, 1975. A volume in the World Anthropology Series, Sol Tax, general editor. Distributed in North America by Aldine Publishing Co. Maps, tables, figures, references, biographical notes, index of names, and index of subjects. xii + 305 pp. $15.50.

Helen I. Safa and Brian M. du Toit, eds. Migration and Development: Implications for Ethnic Identity and Political Conflict. The Hague and Paris’. Mouton Publishers, 1975. A volume in the World Anthropology Series, Sol Tax, general editor. Distributed in North America by Aldine Publishing Co. xvi + 336 pp. Tables, maps, figures, references, biographical notes, index of names, and index of subjects. $16.50.     

Unity in the trees: Arbor Day and Republican China, 1915–1927

ABSTRACT

Scholars of modern China have overlooked the role environmental policy played in early Republican efforts to promote both modernization and national unity. Beginning in 1916, the national government in Beijing mandated that each province and county throughout the Chinese nation celebrate “Arbor Day” in order to foster a modern Chinese environmental culture. This change was made in response to global discourses that linked forest cover to a modern nation’s moral and economic health. Arbor Day coincided with the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, a day traditionally reserved for ancestor worship. Due to the vast climatic disparities within China, many governments planted Arbor Day trees under conditions that made it impossible for them to thrive. Nevertheless, officials throughout China continued to celebrate Arbor Day as proof of their loyalty to the government in Beijing. Arbor Day thus served more as an exercise in promoting national unity than in creating a viable reforestation campaign.