Reconceptualizing Women's and Men's Undeclared Work: Some Results from a European Union Survey

Recognizing that the current conceptualizations of men's and women's undeclared work derive almost entirely from a limited range of small‐scale studies of specific localities, sectors and occupations, this article begins to resolve this dearth of evidence by reporting the findings of an extensive cross‐national survey of undeclared work conducted in 2007 across 27 European Union (EU) nations. The outcome is fresh and extensive EU‐wide evidence that extends existing conceptualizations of the gender differences in terms of participation, sector, contract type and pay. However, the recognition that undeclared work is conducted for closer social relations and sometimes for motives other than financial gain, is shown to apply not only to women, as previously contended, but to men as well and to constitute most of the undeclared work in the EU. The result is a call for a fundamental reconceptualization of the nature of undeclared work that recognizes the heterogeneous work relations involved.     

Volunteering and the gender division of labour: A Franco-British comparison

Cross-national analyses of the gender division of labour usually focus on employment and domestic labour. This paper argues that formal and informal voluntary work should be included in such analyses. Using available secondary sources, the paper compares the gender division of voluntary work in Britain and France – two countries with well-documented differences and similarities concerning employment and domestic labour. The paper reveals that French women, with a higher commitment to the labour market and a slightly larger share of the burden of domestic labour, have a higher commitment to formal voluntary activity but engage less in informal volunteering than their British counterparts whereas French men, with shorter hours in employment and a slightly smaller contribution to domestic labour, undertake more formal and informal voluntary work than their British counterparts. In France, men consistently undertake more voluntary work than women whilst in Britain, there is a degree of gender equality in formal voluntary work but women undertake significantly more informal voluntary work than men. The paper explains the differences and similarities found by considering the role of the state and social policy, the question of ‘time availability’, and the question of what motivates individuals to undertake voluntary work.     

Reconceptualizing Women's Paid Informal Work: Some Lessons from Lower‐Income Urban Neighbourhoods

This article evaluates critically whether women's paid informal work is low‐paid market‐like work conducted for the purpose of economic gain. Drawing upon interviews with 400 households in UK lower‐income urban neighbourhoods, we show that only a small segment of the paid informal work conducted by women is of this character. The vast bulk is undertaken for and by friends, relative and neighbours under non‐market relations for reasons associated with redistribution and sociality. Given this finding, we thus conclude that a reconsideration is required of whether eradication alone is always the appropriate policy response.     

Unequal returns to social capital: the study of Malays in Singapore through a network lens

Using the concepts of ‘social capital deficit’ and ‘return deficit’, this study considers the social network aspects of social disadvantage among Malays in Singapore, as compared to Singaporean Chinese. Analysing a 2005 representative survey, we find Malays have less social capital than Chinese, a social capital deficit partly explained by their lower educational attainment. We find no return deficit in earnings: that is, every additional unit of social capital increases earnings equally for Chinese and Malays. However, we find return deficits in education: every additional unit of social capital (e.g. ties to educated parents) increases educational attainment more for Chinese than Malays. In all, this study offers a social capital explanation for Malay ‘plight’, complementing the more conventional explanations of human and economic capital.     

Cleaning the ‘People's Home’: The Politics of the Domestic Service Market in Sweden

While there is a substantial scholarly literature depicting the abuses and exploitation of domestic workers in the informal cleaning sector, there is virtually no work that examines conditions in the formal market. This is not an oversight. For many, commodifying domestic labour entrenches gender and economic inequalities; we all should simply clean up after ourselves. We seek to offer a fresh approach: the vital question for those concerned with the women performing this work for pay is not whether to commodify reproductive labour, but rather what form the market will take and what conditions might render it a decent job. In order to make such an assessment, we need to look beyond worst‐case scenarios in the informal sector, and study instead the evolution of the formal market. Only by also examining the content and terms of the work can we address how not to perpetuate inequalities such as the gendered division of labour and its intersection with nationality, race and class. In this article, we analyse the market for household services in Sweden's gender egalitarian social democracy, where a recent tax policy fostered the rapid expansion of a formal market for domestic cleaning. We conclude that domestic cleaning can be a decent job and that there is no inherent contradiction between a market for household services and a social democratic political economy.     

Interpersonal trust and voluntary associations: examining three approaches

The relationship between interpersonal trust and membership in voluntary associations is a persistent research finding in sociology. What is more, the notion of trust has become a central issue in current social science theorizing covering such diverse approaches as transaction costs economics or cognitive sociology. In different ways and for different purposes, these approaches address the role of voluntary organizations, although, as this paper argues, much of this thinking remains sketchy and underdeveloped. Against an empirical portrait of this relationship, the purpose of this paper is to assess such theorizing. We first set out to explicate major approaches to trust in economics, sociology and political science, using the non-profit or voluntary organization as a focal point. We then examine the various approaches in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, and, finally, identify key areas for theoretical development. In particular, we point to the social movement literature, the social psychology of trust, and recent thinking about civil society.     

Harnessing the community sector

The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically the prevailing policy approach that seeks to cultivate the community sector by the ‘third sector’ route of developing existing community-based groups. Analysing the extent and nature of participation in the community sector using both secondary data from the 2000 General Household Survey and primary data from a case study of the community sector in rural England, the finding is that a culture of participation in ‘third sector’ groups is relatively alien to lower-income populations and that such groups are much more used by relatively affluent populations for the purpose of developing their social networks. If the intention of harnessing the community sector is to improve the material circumstances of lower-income populations, a third sector approach of developing existing community-based groups is thus found to be inappropriate. Instead, it is argued that a ‘fourth sector’ approach is required. This seeks to further cultivate the prevailing culture of participation in one-to-one reciprocal exchange that is predominantly used by lower-income populations to improve their material circumstances. The paper concludes by outlining how this might be achieved.     

From Transgression to Suppression: Implications of Moral Values and Societal Norms on Emotional Labour

This article endeavours to develop a conceptual perspective of moral values and societal norms, and how they impact on emotion regulation within employment contexts. The article draws on social psychology and emotional labour literature to explore the concept of contextual emotional labour. I argue that the conflicting requirements of one's societal and employment contexts may require one to transgress one's moral values to fulfil job requirements. I also argue that it is important to examine the aversive state(s) that may follow one's transgression and how this is managed in the workplace.     

A Strategic Engagement Framework for Nonprofits

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of research data collected over three years at a nonprofit public higher education institution and its community, along with a review of relevant literature, revealed the need for a new framework to guide economic and social value creation by utilizing the social capital held by nonprofit institutions. The study integrated research outcomes from the areas of social capital and institutional–stakeholder engagement to generate the new concept of strategic engagement management and a proposed Strategic Engagement Framework. This framework should help nonprofit organizations deploy their social capital for institutional and societal benefit by facilitating institutional–stakeholder collaboration. The study also tested the utility of implementing one component of the proposed framework: a structure for mapping, maintaining, and evaluating a portfolio of institutional engagement activities.     

The role of network setting and gender in online content popularity

In this study, we explore the role of specific network structures that enhance social capital and assess the extent to which gender, social ties, and communication interaction relate to content popularity within online social networks (OSNs). Our results are based on an extensive OSN data set, containing over 100,000 members, connected by over 1.7 million links. The findings indicate that content popularity inference is more accurate when considering activity interaction among users and that network structures known as advantageous for amassing social capital in the offline environment are relevant online as well. We conclude by discussing how gender mediates the correlation between some network measures and the growth of users’ content popularity and provide a potential explanation for the emergence of gender differences.     

Why is the gender revolution uneven and stalled? Gender essentialism and men's movement into ‘women's work'

Men's limited movement into female occupations has been identified as a key barrier to future declines in occupational sex segregation and achieving greater gender equality. So why are men so reticent to enter jobs normatively regarded as female? Drawing from qualitative interviews with multiple stakeholders in four female‐dominated occupations in Australia, this article documents the processes that influence men's employment in gender‐atypical jobs. Gender essentialism is central to many processes that generate and/or stall changes in men's representation in female‐dominated occupations. While gender essentialism's role in producing and reproducing occupation sex segregation is well known, its role in reducing occupational sex segregation is a critical process which has previously received limited attention. The article details gender essentialism's integrative function.     

‘I Just Couldn’t Fit It In’: Gender and Unequal Outcomes in Academic Careers

This article reports on the findings of two pieces of research that were designed to test and challenge widely accepted theories about the causes of gender inequity in academic employment at the national level, and subsequently in a more detailed case study of one of Australia's largest and most prestigious universities. Both research projects used large‐scale surveys to capture information about levels of human capital, family responsibilities, career preferences, workloads and objective experiences of appointment and promotion. The case study, conducted in 2002, also utilized focus group discussions with particular groups of women who seemed, from the survey data, to be located just under the glass ceiling. The case study research confirmed the earlier national survey research which concluded that discrimination or bias in appointments, promotions and workloads were not significant in explaining men's domination of the senior levels. It also confirmed the significant gender differences in some kinds of human capital (particularly possession of a Ph.D.). But it also pointed to a quite particular explanation for the failure of women to progress to Level D (associate professor/reader) which involved other more general demographic changes — particularly, high rates of separation and divorce, far higher rates of partnering among men than women and the impact of older children's needs.     

The Scrutinized Priest: Women in the Church of England Negotiating Professional and Sacred Clothing Regimes

This article examines the integration of women priests in the Church of England through the lens of dress. Clothing is a salient dynamic in occupational cultures, particularly in relation to the regulation of gendered bodies. Women's ordination to the priesthood was only sanctioned in 1992. Complex clothing regimes are negotiated, for ordination bestows upon the priest certain clothing rights and responsibilities. However, such attire has traditionally been associated only with the male body, creating tension in relation to women's appropriation of this sacred and professional dress. Based on in‐depth interviews with 17 Anglican clergy women, this article will focus both on the scrutiny the women experienced in relation to their clothing choices, as well as the relationship the women themselves negotiated with their clothes. It will be argued that as representatives of both a sacred and professional domain, clothing had to be carefully managed by clergy. Dress functioned as a key test in women's integration into the organization, often operating as a constraining and exclusionary mechanism.     

REREADING THE PASSING OF TRADITIONAL SOCIETY

This paper employs a proposed alterity discourse analysis (ADA) framework to argue that The Passing of Traditional Society – the bible of the modernization paradigm of development communication research – exemplifies far less a discourse on the relationship between empathy and development, as it does on the political/ideological imperatives governing the construction of the Other (i.e. the Middle East) by the Self (i.e. the US). To substantiate this claim, the paper debunks the book's claim to social scientific objectivity by pinpointing the methodological shortcomings of the empathy model and of the Middle East project from which the model was derived, and highlights the paradigm's dogma by revealing the religious metaphors with which the book's narrative is infused.     

The strengths of close ties: Taiwanese online entrepreneurship,gender and intersectionality

This article examines entrepreneurs who have started innovative Internet and mobile technology companies in Taiwan because they are at the forefront of industrial changes in the country. Similar to findings in Europe and the USA, education and careers in technology in Taiwan remain dominated by men. However, I argue that the gender inequality of the sector is partly the result of the fact that small new enterprises rely on family support and close social networks. Few women are able to join the sector with male friends and colleagues due to the close social ties of the founding teams (homophily). Among my female interviewees, half have started their nascent companies with their husbands and male partners (husband and wife teams). However, gender, family backgrounds and childcare responsibilities affect both men and women, and the interviewees in my study were open in discussing these personal factors in relation to being entrepreneurs. This article argues that starting an Internet company is a family decision, discussed within the household. Intersectionality, not only gender, explains the founders’ decision to start a company, and their choice of co-founders.     

WORK–FAMILY CULTURE IN FOUR ORGANIZATIONS IN FINLAND

The main objective of this study was to examine work–family culture in four organizations in Finland (n=1,114). Specifically, we attempted to clarify whether perceived work–family culture would vary according to gender, economic sector and type of organization. Furthermore, we investigated whether these perceptions would be related to employee self-reported well-being. The study data were gathered during 2001 by a questionnaire filled in by personnel from four different organizations, i.e. a municipal social and healthcare department (n=496), a municipal education department (n=232), a paper mill (n=183) and an IT organization (n=199). The first two organizations represented the public sector and the latter two the private sector in the Finnish economy. The results showed, first, that work–family culture was assessed more positively within the public sector organizations than in the private sector. Second, the work–family culture was experienced least positively in the paper mill and most positively in the municipal education department. Third, there were also variations between same-sector organizations, i.e. the paper mill and the IT organization. Finally, it emerged that poorer perceptions of work–family culture were related to decreased work–family balance, job satisfaction and positive job-related mood experiences.     

Cultural capital and perception of teacher-student relationships: Uncovering inequalities at schools in China

A long tradition in stratification research argues students with higher cultural capital are likely to be treated by their teachers as possessing the “right culture,” which positively affects their academic performance. Nevertheless, the literature has paid little attention to the role of students' perception in this process. Using two waves of the China Educational Panel Survey, we investigate how students' cultural capital affects their own understanding of teacher-student interactions, including its gender difference. Fixed effects regressions show a substantially positive effect of cultural capital on the perceived frequency of teachers praising and calling on students to answer questions across subjects. Nonetheless, we also find the lack of cultural capital is not punished and that the cultural capital's effect varies across its specific components and gender. These findings pave the way for elucidating the entire causal chain of intergenerational social inequality via cultural capital, teacher bias, students’ perception, and their educational outcomes.     

The Post-Washington Consensus and Economic Representations of Women in Development at the World Bank

In the past few years, the neoliberal Washington consensus has given way to a "post-Washington consensus' aimed at integrating social and economic dimensions of development, paying attention to broader goals such as sustainability, and challenging the old state versus market dichotomy. Among its other effects, this shift in development thinking has contributed to a greater emphasis on gender concerns in development institutions such as the World Bank. This article examines the recent innovations in economic theory that have informed these efforts. Through an analysis of the ways that these theories construct meanings about gender equity and development, the article concludes that the post-Washington consensus maintains the economistic and colonial discourses of neoliberalism, and thus provides little space for the meaningful social transformations called for by feminists working in development.     

From social protection to vulnerability: Argentina's neo‐liberal reforms of the 1990s

This article examines the neo‐liberal reforms introduced in Argentina in the 1990s, focusing on labour policies and their consequences for labour market dynamics and the welfare of households. To put this period in historical context, the authors first provide a brief summary of the strategies applied both during the preceding import‐substitution phase and in the aftermath of the political, economic and social crisis of 2001–02. The latter, in effect, served as the tipping point for the emergence of a new set of social and economic policies aimed at promoting social cohesion and inclusion through employment.     

‘Dirty Work?’ Gender,Race and the Union in Industrial Cleaning

The study uses an eclectic framework and through an intersectional analysis and use of narratives explores the meaning of janitorial work, the gender division of labour (GDL), the unions and organizing for janitors engaged in industrial cleaning for a big cleaning company, Pluto, in Toronto. Pluto was organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 2006. The study is based on the organizing drive for Pluto and uses participant observation and interview methods. Intersectional analysis is useful in understanding the worker's perceptions of the racialized, gendered and classed constitution of cleaning work as ‘dirty’ and their resistance to these constructs. We explore GDL in industrial cleaning and the construction of women's work as ‘light duty’ and men's work as ‘heavy duty’. We conclude that union membership is important not only for material benefits of the janitors but also for their alternative identity construction. However, there is a persistence of GDL and gender pay equity is not addressed seriously in the organizing drive or upon organizing.