Uncertainty and the Rise of the Work‐Family Dilemma

Existing research argues that women's wages, consumerism, and changing attitudes dismantled the male bread‐winner system. Families' economic need is dismissed with the suggestion that mothers' rhetoric of “need” was a smoke screen to defend against social stigma for working mothers. Drawing on biennial data from 1965 to 1987, I suggest that consumptive certainty of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to economic uncertainty in the 1970s and beyond. Economic uncertainty provided impetus, legitimacy, and justification for young families to adopt new work‐family arrangements. Hence, economic uncertainty is conceptualized as a real circumstance that substantiates families' reasonable perceptions of need.     

North Korea's Militant Nationalism and People's Everyday Lives: Past and Present

North Korea's anti‐American state power has operated in individuals' everyday practices by focusing on its post‐war militant nationalism. Existing studies have neglected an aspect of North Korea's nationalist power that has been neither necessarily top‐down nor violent, but rather productive and diffusive in people's everyday lives. While the regime's anti‐American mobilization has come from above, people's politics of hatred, patriotism, and emotion have been reproduced from below. Along this line, I examine the historical and social changes in North Korea's militant nationalism and people's ways of life through a comparison between two periods: from the 1950s through the 1980s and from the 1990s through the present. I focus on how the state's anti‐American power was legitimated by people's solid micro‐fascism from the 1950s through the 1980s, and how it has been contested and recreated through both change and persistence in people's micro‐fascism from the 1990s through the present.     

The Gender Gap in Canada: Now You See It,Now You Don't*

Nous examinons les attitudes des Canadiens entre 1965 et 1990 afin d'établir l'ampleur et l'orientation du changement d'attitudes devant des enjeux qui produisent généralement des différences d'opinions entre hommes et femmes. Nous observons de plus en plus d'écarts d'opinions entre les deux sexes en ce qui concerne la force et la violence, et la sécurité sociale, mais non le féminisme et l'égalité. Les plus grandes différences se trouvent chez les jeunes, les personnes ayant étudiéà l'université et les individus qui ont un emploi. De plus, les divergences d'opinions entre les deux sexes quant aux enjeux féministes surgissent lorsque ces variables sont contrôlées. Nous en concluons que l'évolution des différences d'opinions entre hommes et femmes est influencée par l'interaction entre le changement des rôles et la socialisation en raison du féminisme et nous suggérons que les jeunes, l'éducation et l'emploi contri-buent à la création d'une conscience commune chez les femmes. We examine Canadian attitudes between 1965 and 1990 to determine the magnitude and direction of attitudinal change on traditional gender gap producing issues. We discover growing differences in aggregate attitudes towards force and violence and social welfare, but not feminism and equality. The greatest gender gaps appear among young, university-educated, and employed people. Furthermore, gender gaps on feminist issues appear with controls for these variables. We conclude that changing gender gaps result from the interaction of role change and socialization by the women's movement and suggest that youth, education and paid employment combine to create a gender consciousness among women.     

Gender consciousness at work: modification of the male breadwinner norm among steelworkers and their spouses

Nous analysons ici la recherche, assez mince jusqu'à maintenant, sur la conscience de sexe, selon les perspectives libérate, radicale et socialiste féministe. Nous esquissons une approche qui reconnaît que les identityés de sexe ainsi que des formes sociales plus large de consience de sexe sont construites socialement par les hommes et les femmes, dans des pratiques spécifiques à leur classe et à leur race, au travail, à la maison et dans leurs communautès. Nous appliquons ensuite cette approche à une étude de couples de Hamilton, principalement des travailleurs de l'acier et leurs conjoints. Notre attention se porte en particulier sur une dimension centrale de l'identité de sexe, la norme de l'homme comme ‘soutien de famille,’ telle qu'exprimée chez les travailleurs de l'acier dans la culture ouvrière et dans les attitudes des deux conjoints dans leurs families. Nous tentons de montrer comment le stéréotype de ‘l'homme comme soutien de famille’ est présentement à la fois reproduit et modifié, en réponse à la participation croissante des femmes au marche du travail, et en particulier à l'arrivée de travailleuses de l'acier dans ce qu'on croyait être un bastion de la masculinité ouvrière. This paper reviews the limited research to date on gender consciousness from liberal, radical and socialist feminist perspectives. An emergent approach that recognizes both gender identities and broader social forms of gender consciousness as continually constructed by men and women in class and race-specific practices within paid workplace, household and community spheres is outlined. This approach is applied to a study of Hamilton couples, especially steelworkers and their spouses. We focus on assessing expressions of one central aspect of gender identity - the male breadwinner norm - through steelworkers' shop floor culture and the attitudes of both spouses in steelworker households. We attempt to show how the male breadwinner stereotype is currently being both reproduced and modified in response to women's growing participation in paid employment and particularly the recent presence of women steelworkers within a presumed bastion of traditional working class masculinity.     

Community‐oriented Social Work in Cuba: Government Response to Emerging Social Problems

Cuba developed a unique community‐oriented social work approach in the 1990s that transformed social work education and practice. This paper describes that approach and why it emerged when it did. A review of the literature on social change in Cuba in the 1990s, and 31 open‐ended interviews conducted in Havana, Cuba, showed that social work changed in response to economic crisis, emerging social problems and the need for social workers for community practice. Social workers' participation in neighborhood development projects and Cuba's post‐Revolutionary communal ethos also shaped a community‐oriented social work approach in Cuba. This approach contrasts with an individually oriented model in the US and in Britain. Social workers in Cuba and in these countries can learn from one another, despite the differences that exist among them.     

The Interactional Community: Emergent Fields of Collective Agency*

Social interaction is generally regarded as elemental to the notion of community. Within the broader discourse on community, the field‐interactional perspective is distinctive in its explicit focus on emergent social processes and community change dynamics. Wilkinson (1970) extended Kaufman’s (1959) early work on the interactional approach through an application of the social field concept to community action. In doing so, Wilkinson (1991) outlined several key linkages between social–symbolic interaction and community agency. Despite these promising beginnings, only a modicum of research has examined the theoretical or philosophical underpinnings of the interactional conception of community. This article explores the symbolic‐interactionist tenets undergirding the field‐interactional approach, most notably Mead’s (1934, 1938) discussion of generalized social attitudes and Blumer’s (1969a, 1969b) work on joint or collective action.     

Extracurricular Activities in Multiethnic Middle Schools: Ideal Context for Positive Intergroup Attitudes?

This study examined processes by which extracurricular participation is linked with positive ethnic intergroup attitudes in multiethnic middle schools in California. Specifically, the mediating roles of activity‐related cross‐ethnic friendships and social identities including alliances with multiple groups were examined in a sample including African American or Black, East or South‐East Asian, White, and Latino youth (N = 1,446; M_age = 11.60 in sixth grade). Results of multilevel modeling suggested that in addition to activity‐related cross‐ethnic friendships, complex social identities mediated the association between availability of cross‐ethnic peers in activities and ethnic intergroup attitudes. Results are discussed in terms of how activities can be structured to promote cross‐ethnic relationships and complex social identities, as well as positive ethnic intergroup attitudes.     

Any Difference? An Analysis of Gender and Divisional Management Styles in a Large Airline

There has been much debate as to whether women manage differently from men and whether this may constitute a reason for women's lack of progress to the top echelons of organizations (Tanton 1994; Coyle 1993; Still 1994; Wajcman 1998). This article locates the sameness/difference debate in a wider analysis of management styles, with particular attention paid to the business function. It is also suggested that any debate on styles must take place within a feminist theoretical framework which acknowledges inequalities of power, economic and patriarchal interests. Management skills are socially constructed (Phillips and Taylor 1980) and change according to social and economic conditions. The article shows that business function is the most important influence on management style. The author contends, like others, that even in times of great change, men seem to be able to hold on to the most powerful positions in organizations (Cockburn 1986; Savage and Witz 1992; Collinson et al. 1990). The convergence of patriarchal interests with business interests ultimately determines what style is valued. The much vaunted feminization of management (Rosener 1990) does not mean that more women are to be found in senior positions in organizations. Nor do large numbers of women managers necessarily lead to a more feminized management style (Kanter 1977). Stereotypes of women still act against their acceptance into positions of power while men's ability to adopt some of traditionally feminine skills of communication means that women's supposed advantage (Rosener 1990) may have been leapfrogged.     

Premarital sexual experience: A longitudinal study∗

The relative importance of women's sex‐role orientation and their observation of maternal sexual affection in predicting college women's attitudes toward 18 sexual behaviors were examined in this investigation. A sample of 122 single female college students from intact families was administered three questionnaires: the Attitudes Toward Women Scale, the Mother's Expression of Affection Scale, and the Sexual Attitude Questionnaire. Stepwise regression analysis was used to determine the relative contribution of sex‐role orientation and maternal expression of affection to attitudes toward each of the sexual behaviors. Findings revealed that sex‐role orientation was a significant predictor of attitudes toward 14 of the 18 specific items. More egalitarian views of women were associated with more positive attitudes toward engaging in a variety of sexual behaviors and taking steps to ensure one's own contraceptive security. Mother's expression of sexual affection toward her spouse was a significant predictor of only two behavioral items. Greater exposure to an affectionate mother was associated with more positive attitudes toward speaking affectionately to men and behaving assertively in a sexual relationship. Implications of the findings for family practitioners are discussed.     

Problem attribution and intervention. The interpretation of problem causations and solutions in regard of Brickman et al.

Typologies of problem perception are of great importance for the reconstruction of social workers’ professional ideologies. The best-known typology has been provided by Brickman et al. who differentiated between a medical, moral, enlightenment, and compensatory model. The article discusses this typology on a conceptual level and indicates its central flaws. An empirical study is presented in which an alternative attempt to develop a typology is tested. The evaluation refers to a wider spectrum of perceptions of problem causes and solutions than the typology of Brickman et al. The resulting typology comprises a ‘social’, a ‘workfare’, a ‘pathology’, and an ‘education’ type.     

Culture,Context, or Conflict? Analyzing Union Attitudes in Six Rural Counties in Conservative Right‐to‐Work States

This study fills an important gap in the literature by analyzing the predictors of union attitude formation in rural, conservative, right‐to‐work states. Drawing on a survey of all licensed electrical workers in six counties in northern Utah and southern Idaho, we analyzed the impact of cultural orientation, job context, and perceived risk on union attitudes. We find that a conservative cultural orientation does not significantly predict union attitudes but job context and perceived risks of union activity do. Dissatisfaction with current working conditions and the belief that employers will oppose and retaliate against workers engaged in union activity significantly predict positive union attitudes. We consider the implications of these findings for scholarship on union attitude formation and for union organizing strategies in rural, conservative right‐to‐work contexts.     

Attitudes,Perceptions and Concerns of Student Social Workers: First Two Years of a Longitudinal Study

A longitudinal study was initiated by the authors in September 2001 to monitor the changing attitudes, perceptions, concerns and experiences of 32 social work students during their two‐year MSW training at University College Dublin, subsequently following the students into their first three years of practice. This paper reports on the findings from the first two years of the study, exploring how much the attitudes of the respondents changed towards different areas of social work practice while they were full‐time students. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been collected by means of mixed method questionnaires, taken at four points over a two‐year period, and a focus group. Issues examined included the students' changing perceptions of stress, job satisfaction and levels of expertise in different areas of social work practice. The study also monitored their willingness to work in specific areas of social work after graduation. Statistical analysis revealed that students consistently rated social work in the areas of child protection and welfare as requiring high levels of expertise, but they associated the area with higher levels of perceived stress and lower levels of job satisfaction. These attitudes remain relatively stable throughout their two‐year professional training. However, the study revealed greater changes in the students' willingness to work in different areas. For example, specialist family services such as fostering and child/adolescent became more popular choices for future work settings. This change was noted to have occurred between the start and end of the course. Also noteworthy was that general medical, probation and welfare showed the most negative change.     

What Is Different about the Profile of the Social Entrepreneur?

In recent years, the term social entrepreneur has become increasingly common in academic and business circles. Social entrepreneurs engage in a variety of activities, but always with the intention of solving social problems. Social entrepreneurs are not merely people who perform acts of charity; they have an evident desire to improve social well‐being and develop projects with long‐term vision. The creation of sustainable social value is a key characteristic that differentiates them from well‐meaning individuals who simply engage in charitable works. There are, however, significant gaps in our understanding of social entrepreneurs and few empirical studies on the subject. This present study attempts to identify the characteristics of more socially oriented entrepreneurs, using sociodemographic variables and the theory of universal values toward work. Analysis of a sample of approximately 400 people shows that more than half of entrepreneurial orientation can be explained through the possession of the values of self‐enhancement (with an inverse relationship in this case), self‐transcendence, and conservation. The theory of universal values has proved extraordinarily useful for studying the characteristics of social entrepreneurs.     

Exploring MSW students’ and social workers’ orientation toward the evidence-based practice process

The aim of this exploratory study was to assess whether practicing social workers currently enrolled in Master Social Work (MSW) programs (hereafter referred to as MSW students) were more oriented to the evidence-based practice (EBP) process and more engaged in it than practicing social workers who are not currently enrolled in MSW programs (hereafter referred to as social workers) in the Netherlands. Data were collected from MSW students (n = 32) and from social workers (n = 341) using the EBP Process Assessment Scale. MSW students reported a stronger orientation toward the EBP process, more positive attitudes toward EBP, more familiarity with EBP and more intentions to engage in EBP than social workers did, however, they were less positive about the feasibility of implementing EBP in practice. These preliminary results suggest that there are grounds for optimism about MSW students’ acceptance of and engagement in the EBP process. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

Retired and Making a Fresh Start: Older Russian Immigrants Discuss their Adjustment in Israel

Social research on immigrants has usually centred on working age groups or youth, while studies on retired immigrants were typically driven by the social work, geriatric, or nursing agendas, centring on the issues of health, stress, social, and medical services. Trying to explore migration in old age from a broader sociological perspective, this qualitative study addressed different aspects of the socio‐cultural adjustment of older Russian immigrants of the 1990s in Israel. Drawing on group discussions and in‐depth interviews conducted in two major urban centres, the study covers senior immigrants' attitudes toward the host Israeli society; material privations and coping tools; intergenerational families; patterns of social organization, communication, and cultural consumption; ties with places of origin in the former Soviet Union (FSU); and the perceived sum total of losses and gains from migration. The findings indicate that older immigrants have developed multiple ways for meaningful identification with Israel and generally perceived their resettlement experience as difficult but positive. As their social networks were limited to the Russian immigrant community, most elders did not see their poor knowledge of Hebrew as a major integration obstacle. The main reported difficulties were in the areas of housing, low income, and weakening ties with younger family members.     

MYTHOLOGIES REVISITED: ROLAND BARTHES AND THE LEFT

This essay arises from the author's scepticism about the received notion, prevalent both in literary and cultural studies, that Roland Barthes's work of the 1960s constituted an abandonment of the previous decade's social critique. The paper develops the argument that, to the contrary, understanding Barthes's socio-cultural development following World War II and in the French cultural context helps to situate the political engagement of his writings in the 1950s and to clarify the continued political commitment of this work from the 1960s onward. This essay addresses a series of questions: what was Barthes's relationship to the 1950s French intelligentsia that prepared his active participation in the heterodoxical Marxist journal, Arguments, a forum for many of the urgent intellectual debates between 1956-62? What is the relationship of this activity to his writings of the early 1950s, developed into Mythologies in 1957, as well as to the shift toward semiology and structuralism and to the purported abandonment of social critique betokened by this shift? How do these phases inform the different readings of Barthes's work developed in more recent interpretations of his writing? It is argued that we would do better to view the structuralist phase and especially the ‘later’ Barthes (from the late 1960s onward) more fully and deliberately in relation to the early, explicitly political period. This revised perspective, one not limiting Barthes to works such as Mythologies, will help us better comprehend Barthes's continuing legacy for sociosemiotic critique both in literary criticism and in cultural studies and to create new ground for interdisciplinary dialogue that is very much needed in an era of questioning the limits and borders of this field.     

Evaluating a Measure of ‘Social Orientation’ of Chinese Students in Social Work: Developing its Reliability and Validity

This study examines the reliability and validity of a measure of ‘social orientation’ indigenously developed from Chinese students of social work in Hong Kong. By administering two tests with Chinese social work students (n = 293 and n = 304) at associate degree level, the measure achieves strong internal consistency with r>0.75 and test–retest consistency with r>0.63. The instrument also has strong validity by attempting factor analysis of items generated from qualitative data in in‐depth interviews. The development of this indigenous measure of ‘social orientation’ will contribute to an understanding of the authoritarian, relationship and ‘other’ orientation of Chinese social work students. The authors propose that this will be a crucial factor in influencing the response of Chinese students towards different teaching and learning approaches in social work education.     

Empowerment:

It has been twenty years since Robert Hill's seminal research on Black family strengths revolutionized the perceptions, attitudes and modalities related to the coping abilities of Black people. His findings were instrumental in effecting changes in a body of knowledge from one that focused on a monolithic, ethnocentric deficit model to one that affirmed strengths within an historical, culturally diverse conceptual framework. Much of the information available is theoretically based on the Euro-centric worldview resulting in limited use, acceptance and credibility among social work practitioners, social policy analysts and social work academicians. This paper revisits the literature relative to the strengths of Black families. Utilizing recent works of Billingsley (1990), Boyd-Franklin (1989) and others, the strengths of Black families will be re-examined for the purposes of comparing Hill's strength model with the contemporary model of African-American families and its implications for social work education, practice and policy. Additionally, new imperatives are described that possibly will insure African-Americans greater power and control over life situations in the decade of the 90s and into the twenty-first century.     

Invitation to the Barbecue: Political Correctness,Social Criticism and Family Therapy

Marta Lohyn and Andrew Relph were asked to read and comment on two recent works by Australian‐born social commentators: Germaine Greer's The Whole Woman and Robert Hughes Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America. As they searched for what relevance these two books could have to family therapy practice, Andrew and Marta found themselves discussing political correctness, the fear of voicing an opinion that differs from the dominant one, attitudes to the personal and the political, and the state of male‐female relationships in 2000.     

REWARDS AND FRUSTRATIONS OF BEING A SOCIAL WORKER: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

This paper deals with aspects of actual professional experience of social workers, in order to grasp a framework for professional rewards and frustrations. A qualitative research tool was chosen, life histories, and ten social workers were interviewed. The subjects were women who graduated between the 1950s and the 1990s from schools of social work in Brazil, and whose practice, present or past, involves direct contact with clients. The reasons explaining satisfying professional situations are rooted in professional experiences which were translated into personal development, the establishment of personal ties and the acquisition of skills. Perceptions of having contributed towards solving a difficult situation and recognition from their clients were positively appraised. These are rewarding situations from which social workers derive the feeling of having created something which is positive for the clients and for themselves. Unpleasant situations were described as unfair situations experienced by clients, poor working conditions and difficulties concerning inter‐professional relationships. Inferences on the feminine role as influencing social workers' rewards and frustrations with the profession, as well as inferences on possible unconscious configurations underlying some of the data were drawn in the conclusions.