Women's Occupational Choices and Lifetime Work Rhythms: Are We Still Making Progress?

This article reviews women's present and expected future place in the world of work. It considers two issues that grow out of changes that have taken place in women's economic roles: (a) expansion of the range of occupations in which women engage; and (b) work structure flexibility that responds to the intertwined nature of work and family lives. The article recommends a number of initiatives to ensure that social changes that have occurred will result in more life satisfaction rather than just more life complexity.     

Role conflict and perceptions of gender roles (the case of Israel)

The present study focuses on work—family role conflict among Jewish women employed in a female-typed occupation (secondary school teachers) and a male-typed occupation (university professors). The major hypotheses of the study are that women who work in different occupation types employ different strategies to reduce role conflict and that family roles contribute more to role conflict than work roles. The findings support the hypotheses and show that women in a male-typed occupation spend less time on family and domestic roles, and increase their hours of work. Consequently, their burden at home decreases while their burden at work increases. Because the burden at home contributes more to role conflict than the burden at work, women in male-typed occupations report less role conflict than women in a typically female occupation.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Conference, Paris, 1994. We wish to acknowledge our gratitude to Dafna Izraeli for her insightful critique. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This research was funded jointly by Schein Institute and The Eshkol Foundation.     

The Poverty of Privilege:

Despite the seeming freedom from many of the economic and other pressures encumbering women in more palpably disadvantaged subgroups, women of the upper classes are faced with considerable numbers of psychological problems. Prevalent among the presenting problems include depression and other disorders related to powerlessness, relationship problems, alcohol and substance abuse, and eating disorders. While increasing numbers of women in lower socioeconomic groups work outside the home, the upper class wife represents the last vestige of the classic patriarchal family: her raison d'etre is to assist her husband and children in perpetuating the power and privilege of her family and class, often leaving her with nothing that is truly her own. She is most likely to present in therapy when widowed or confronted with "losing it all," finding herself with few marketable skills or even basic life competencies. Therapy issues include how to help her develop greater self-acceptance and begin to identify and pursue some of her own dreams; countertranferential issues, such as envy or impatience, may also need to be addressed. The conclusion is reached that ultimately gender transcends class as the major determinant of the quality of upper class women's lives, and that it is crucial that any therapy geared toward helping them become happier and more effective be informed by a strong feminist awareness.     

DEFINING DISABILITY FOR WOMEN AND THE PROBLEM OF UNPAID WORK

National policy and much of scholarly research on disability overlook the importance of unpaid family work and instead focus on disability in paid work, largely in male samples. Because of societal expectations about appropriate social roles for men and women, women tend to assume responsibility for unpaid work in the family and also tend to have paid work that is characterized by low pay and limited autonomy. This article discusses the political, theoretical, and methodological issues relating to defining and measuring paid and unpaid work disability for women and men within the context of these structural factors. The results of a study analyzing disability in both paid work and unpaid family work among a sample of 206 women with rheumatoid arthritis are presented. The study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring disability in family work and shows that women experience significant limitations in homemaker functioning as well as in paid work roles.     

Interrole conflict among married women: The influence of husband and wife characteristics on conflict and coping behavior

The present research investigated the conflict that women experience between their home and nonhome roles. All of the women in the sample (N = 115) were married and living with their husbands, had at least one child living at home, and were college students. It was found that women who placed a similar level of importance on work as their husbands experienced less intense conflict than women who differed from their husbands in career orientation. In addition, the number of children at home was positively related to a woman's conflict when her husband was highly work oriented. A woman's use of reactive coping strategies was negatively related to her life satisfaction when her husband was dissatisfied with his own life.     

Breadwinner and caregiver: A cross‐sectional analysis of children's and emerging adults’ visions of their future family roles

Participants were 150 school‐age boys and girls, 58 high school students, and 145 university students drawn from communities in the Southeastern United States. In this cross‐sectional study, family role attitudes and expectations were examined across development. Parental work traditionality (occupational prestige and traditionality, and employed hours) predicted daughters’ social role attitudes and plans for future family roles, such that daughters’ envisioned families resembled that of their parents. Sons’ and daughters’ own attitudes about adult family roles predicted their plans to work or stay home with their future children; however, mothers’ work traditionality predicted daughters’ future plans over and above daughters’ own attitudes. The only exception to this was in the case of university daughters, where university women's attitudes about social roles fully mediated this relationship. It may be that, as young women approach adulthood and the formation of families, they adjust their vision of their future self to match more closely their own attitudes about the caregiving role.     

Feminist Pioneer: Annette Brodsky Paving the Way

ABSTRACT

Even when the culture imposed stringent limitations on women’s roles, Dr. Annette Brodsky refused to succumb to these restrictions. As one of only a few women in her graduate school cohort, she broke new ground during her pre-doctoral internship, her post-internship military placement, and in her faculty position at the University of Alabama. Her renowned work advocating for and studying the effect of consciousness-raising groups engendered critical scholarship that revealed the harm of therapists’ sexual abuse and facilitated improved ethics and guidelines for psychologists in their work with clients. Dr. Brodsky has served as a pioneering feminist psychologist for several generations of women.     

Some demographic,personality, and role variables as correlates of women's well-being

This study examined the contributions of some demographic (age and education), personality (extraversion and neuroticism), and role variables (role occupancy and role quality) as predictors of happiness and symptoms of psychological distress in a sample of employed and non-employed English women (N= 145). Using multiple regression analysis, the results showed that personality variables accounted for the largest proportion of explained variance in the well-being measures. The results, however, did not support the predictions made by the transactional model of stress and that the three sets of predictor variables (demographic, personality and roles) combined additively in their effects on women's psychological well-being. Finally, the results showed that happiness and distress, though related, had different correlates. These findings are discussed in relation to current issues within the literature on women's work and family roles in relation to their well-being.     

Parenting,Protecting, Preserving:Mission of the Adolescent Female Runaway

This paper presents a systemic framework for therapy with families of adolescent female runaways. The runaway adolescent is viewed as serving three functions within her family. First, she often parents her parents and siblings. Second, she protects her parents' marriage and regulates marital distance. Third, she preserves her family unit at the preadolescent developmental stage. Interventions are described that remove the adolescent from those roles by empowering the parents to take charge of the adolescent, by changing the communication process such that the couple deal with their marital issues without the help of the teenager, and by facilitating the family's movement toward a new stage of separation and individuation.     

Job experiences over time, multiple roles, and women's mental health: a longitudinal study.

Are changes over time in the quality of a woman's job associated with changes in her psychological distress? Do family roles moderate these relationships? We addressed these questions using longitudinal data from a 2-year 3-wave study of a stratified random sample of 403 employed women who varied in occupation, race, partnership, and parental status. After estimating individual rates of change for each woman on each of the predictors and the outcome, we modeled the relationships between family role occupancy and change in job-role quality on the one hand, and change in psychological distress on the other. Among single women and women without children, as job-role quality declined, levels of psychological distress increased. Among partnered women and women with children, change in job-role quality was unrelated to change in psychological distress.     

Searching for a normal life: personal accounts of adults with schizophrenia, their parents and well-siblings

Using a life course perspective, the research examines personal accounts of adults with schizophrenia, and their parents and well-siblings from six families. Accounts of multiple members of the same family, including the family member with schizophrenia, are used to describe how families understand and accommodate life changes that result from the illness. Families describe the loss of a normal life as one of the most devastating aspects of schizophrenia. We present the personal and social losses described by adults with schizophrenia and their well family members, and document families' search for ways that their ill family member can achieve or maintain valued social roles. The concerns of well family members for the future of the ill family member and ways families contemplate transfer of care issues are described. Implications of the study for community research and action are discussed.     

Toward Holistic,Compassionate, Professional Care: Using a Cultural Lens to Examine the Practice of Contemporary Psychotherapy in the West*

The author describes work undertaken in New Delhi with two young Indian women and their families from 1995 to 1999. Both presented with depression and suicidal ideation. One was severely cerebral palsied, the other was diagnosed with endogenous depression. As an integrative therapist, the author looks at her work from several perspectives. The debates highlighted here focus on the optimal usefulness of each of these perspectives in different situations, both the benefits and the limits and the very limits of contemporary psychotherapy itself. The author uses a cultural lens to explore the use of the self of the therapist and issues around boundaries, continuity, ethics, and compassion in psychotherapy.*Part of this work has been published in N. Hutnik (1999). An unusual intervention: Disability and abuse. Psychological Foundations - The Journa1, 1, 81–84, and is reproduced here with the permission of Psychological Foundations, New Delhi.**My heartfelt thanks are offered to Reenee Singh, friend of many years and very competent family therapist, who offered me her comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

The health of employed women and men: work,family, and community correlates

Research into clarifying the relationship between social roles and health has increasingly focused on studying the particular circumstances in which occupying multiple roles may enhance or diminish well‐being. This study examined the association between a general measure of well‐being—self‐rated health—and the perceived quality of work, family and community in a sample of employed urban‐dwelling Canadians in a mid‐size city, and whether the nature of the association differed for men and women. Few gender differences were found in the perceived quality of work, family and community. However, men and women differed significantly in the specific type of quality measures associated with general health. For women, satisfaction with one's partner/spouse and in the money available to meet basic family needs had a stronger association with self‐rated health. For men, the significant correlates were satisfaction with family relationships (other than one's partner) and the community physical environment. For both women and men, a more socially cohesive community was associated with better self‐rated health. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Marinella and her interlocutors: hot blood,hot words,hot deeds

In the treatise called La nobiltà et l’eccellenza delle donne co’ diffetti et mancamenti de gli uomini (The nobility and Excellence of women, and the Defects and Vices of Men) (1601) Lucrezia Marinella claims that women are superior to men. She argues that men are excessively hot, and that heat in a high degree is detrimental to the intellectual and moral capacities of a person. The aim of this paper is to set out Marinella’s views on temperature differences in the bodies of men and women and the effects of bodily constitution on the capacities necessary for political deliberation and rule. I situate Marinella’s argument in the context of an ongoing debate about physiological differences between the sexes, begun in antiquity and extending into the Renaissance. That debate is important for several reasons: (i) as part of a broader discussion of the nature and worth of women, (ii) as determining influential interpretations of ancient authorities on matters of physiology, and (iii) as anticipating later discussions of the relation between the sexed body and political roles. This paper considers Marinella in dialogue with a number of interlocutors, elements of whose work can be found in her own: Aristotle, Mario Equicola, Galeazzo Flavio Capra, Ludovico Domenichi and Torquato Tasso.     

Emotional sequelae of abortion: implications for clinical practice

For women in therapy who have had abortions, an exploration of the context and aftermath of each abortion has been suggested. This inquiry should include: characteristics of the woman herself before and at the time of the abortion, the nature of the interpersonal and cultural milieu at the time, characteristics of the medical environment and procedure, and any events subsequent to the abortion that may evoke regrets about the earlier decision.
Whether or not such an inquiry results in the identification of unresolved issues surrounding the abortion, it is likely to enhance one's general understanding of the client. Exploring a woman's decision to have an abortion can bring into relief developmental and family issues, relationship conflicts, and her aspirations for education, work, and family. A woman's approach to establishing and asserting her priorities and values in making difficult personal decisions becomes clear as does her ability to tolerate and resolve the ambivalence inherent in making difficult decisions.
In psychotherapy, it is important to understand and address those aspects of experience that women have difficulty resolving. Hence, the emphasis on categories of experience that may have a negative impact on a woman's emotional well-being after abortion. Nevertheless, the clinician should remember that even women who report negative post-abortion sequelae overwhelmingly report that they feel that the decision was the right one for them. Having ambivalent feelings to resolve does not necessarily mean that one has made a wrong choice, only that one has made an emotionally significant choice with far-reaching personal implications, in a sociocultural environment that reinforces the ambivalence inherent in such decisions.     

Pressures from work,self, and home in the life stages of married women

Following Lopata's (1966) model of the life cycle of the married woman's role, it was predicted and found that a woman's life stage would be related to her role pressures (work, home, self, and time), conflict, and satisfaction. Age and number of roles were not as strongly related to these variables as was life stage. Work activities and pressures declined through the peak child-rearing stage and then increased for women with older children, while pressures from home generally rose throughout the life cycle. The differential impact of various sources of conflict in different life stages was reported, and forms of organizational career support oriented toward particular life stages were suggested.     

Counseling adolescents with problem pregnancies

The whole gamut of problems involved in counseling pregnant teens, from the national statistics and psychosocial context to the goals of counseling and follow-up are discussed. In the U.S. 40% of women have become pregnant by age 20 (1982 data), making this one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy worldwide. Many factors contribute to this problem: adolescent development with its unresolved conflicts; teenage cultural myths about sex roles, such as the idea that it is harmful to deny sex to males; cultural roles for women such as being passive and therefore unprepared with contraception. The teen pregnancy, then, evokes a personal, interpersonal, moral and medical crisis. Goals for counseling are to help the young woman mjake a fully integrated, final decision; provide emotional support and referral information; to help her use the experience for growth. The decision often has to be rapid, because many teens delay revealing their pregnancy out of fear, yet prenatal care is essential, while a second trimester abortion should be avoided. Decisions about whether to bear the child, involve the father, the family, where to live, how to get financial support become complex. Even the counselor's background can be counterproductive, especially when the teen chooses STET unlikely to succeed. Issues of client's autonomy and confidentiality regarding family, the male partner, and even local regulations may confuse the process. Follow-up counseling may be indicated, for post-abortion or pregnancy support, for future contraception, for a committed relationship, or for balancing her needs versus her sexual partner's.     

Capturing a More Complete View of Employees’ Lives Outside of Work: The Introduction and Development of New Interrole Conflict Constructs

This research introduces 4 new constructs that reflect interrole conflict (i.e., work‐to‐personal, personal‐to‐work, family‐to‐personal, and personal‐to‐family conflict) and provide a more complete view of the roles and responsibilities employees experience outside of work. An integration of interrole conflict literature and research on work and nonwork roles or domains highlights the importance of considering an individual's personal domain, which includes activities one pursues because of his or her own interests (e.g., friends, hobbies, community). Unfortunately, without conflict measures pertaining to this new role, researchers cannot clearly understand how roles other than family interfere with individuals’ work role including how interrole conflict impacts employees who do not have significant responsibilities in the family domain. Five phases of research across 4 separate samples were conducted in order to develop measures for the 4 new conflict constructs and to examine relationships with important work, family, life, and health outcomes. Findings from multisource data, including self‐rated, coworker‐rated, as well as single and nonsingle participants, show that the 4 new forms of interrole conflict have significant implications for employees and organizations.     

Coping with work and family: How do dual‐earners interact?

Juggling the demands of both work and family has become increasingly difficult, especially for dual‐earner households; nevertheless, families have developed strategies to deal with work‐family challenges. This paper uses couple level analyses (APIM models) with 100 dual‐earner couples to provide insight about partners' mutual influence on the use of work‐family coping strategies. The results show that women's use of coping strategies is more associated with work‐family conflict and work‐family enrichment than men's coping. In addition, using partner coping, having a positive attitude towards multiple roles, using planning and management skills and avoiding having to cut back on professional responsibilities is associated with better outcomes (more enrichment and less conflict). Surprisingly, the use of childcare facilities is associated with women's conflict and partner effects were only found concerning the use of management and planning skills. These skills, however, have distinct effects for men and women's outcomes: their use by men reduces their own conflict but increases their wives', while their use by women decreases their own conflict and increases their own and their partner's enrichment. These results point to the fact that gender roles continue to be a hallmark of work‐family issues. Our design and results point out the need for new interventions that take couple interdependences into account.