Older Professional Women's Views on Work: A Qualitative Analysis

This qualitative study reports on the career experiences of older professional women using consensual qualitative research. Thirteen women over age 50 were interviewed regarding the influences of gender and age on work. In general, all participants reported career adaptability, and many participants also reported specific subthemes of career adaptability (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) as resources. These subthemes denote participants' future orientation, self‐discipline as evidenced by their conscientiousness in career decisions, active information seeking, and certitude that they have the ability to solve career‐related problems. Relationships with colleagues were also considered critical, and participants acknowledged the benefits and drawbacks of being a woman and being older. These women were able to achieve flexibility and autonomy in their work and spoke about the importance of work–family balance and boundaries. Practitioners are encouraged to consider how career adaptability is manifested within the interplay between gender and age, because this can influence career counseling with older women.     

Social and Health Factors Affecting Community Service Use by Vulnerable Older People

Abstract

This article reports on Outcomes for older people with complex or chronic care needs, a study undertaken by the Brotherhood of St Laurence and La Trobe University, examining older Victorians’ use of community services following Aged Care Assessment Service (ACAS) recommendations that they remain living at home. The paper reports on interviews with older people and carers undertaken at three-monthly intervals, over 12 months. This paper contributes to understanding the factors that impede or facilitate uptake of community aged care services that are critical to meeting the needs of older people and their carers. The study found that among other factors social isolation, high carer burden, and the older person reporting low mood were important barriers to service uptake. Cost, waiting lists, and service satisfaction were also identified in qualitative data as influencing factors. The study concludes there is a need for better means of identifying and supporting older people and carers at risk to improve community service uptake.     

Older Women in Poverty: The Impact of Midlife Factors

This study investigates the factors contributing to older women's economic well‐being from a life course perspective, assessing the effects of both midlife characteristics and later life events on women between the ages of 66–70, and 71–85. Using the 1968–1997 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the findings suggest that midlife characteristics such as workforce participation, income, and rural residence are strongly related to economic outcomes in old age. Late‐life events and characteristics, however, also contribute significantly to economic outcomes even when midlife factors are incorporated into analyses. In addition, both midlife and later life characteristics contribute to the persistence of poverty in old age, with many groups of ever poor women finding themselves in poverty for over 50% of their old age years.     

Factors Influencing Condom Use and STD Acquisition Among African American College Women

Abstract

To identify factors that influence condom use and the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among African American college women, the authors surveyed a sample of 123 sexually experienced undergraduate women at a state university. The college women who were older, had initiated sex earlier, or had more recent sexual partners were more likely than others in the study to report a history of an STD. The findings have implications for prevention and intervention programs for African American college women.     

Child Sexual Abuse Evaluations: Adherence to Recommendations

ABSTRACT

Sixty-eight parents of children with alleged child sexual abuse (CSA) were surveyed 4 months after visiting an interdisciplinary CSA evaluation clinic in order to examine the extent to which recommendations were recalled and implemented. Of those parents for whom specific recommendations were provided, 9% recalled recommendations for medical follow-up, 79% recalled recommendations for child therapy, and 43% recalled recommendations for parental therapy. Families were more likely to receive and adhere to recommendations when there were behavioral problems and a strong indication of CSA. To improve communication with families, the reasons for recommendations must be clearly conveyed, and possible barriers to implementation should be anticipated and addressed. In addition, recommendations need to be realistic, and professionals need to facilitate the implementation of their treatment plan.     

Relationship of Previous Divorce and Previous Widowhood to Older Women's Adjustment to Recent Widowhood

The present study examined the adjustment of recent widows, relative to their experiences with the loss of a previous marriage. It was expected that widows with such previous experience would show greater adjustment on factors of psychological, economic, and environmental well-being. Interviews were conducted with 290 widows, age 60+, approximately 1 1/2 years after the husband's death. Thirty of the recent widows had been previously divorced, 22 had been previously widowed, and 238 had been married only once. The groups did not differ on psychological well-being: however, both economic factors and environmental factors revealed significant group differences. In general, women with previous experience with either widowhood or divorce showed better adaptation and self-sufficiency than women without such experience.     

Women's Access to Property: A Comparative Study on Islamic and Kemalist Women in Turkey

This article uses a comparative approach to discuss women's access to property using evidence collected from field research conducted on two distinct communities of Istanbul: one secular and one Islamic. The two groups of women possess distinctly different views of the world and how it is organized. This is particularly the case concerning gender where secular women put forth a view rooted in the sameness of the genders where the Islamic women were clear in their commitment to the idea of difference. These attitudes toward the equality and difference of the genders structures the relations of these women to property and the process of inheritance.     

Muslim Women's Challenges to Islamic Law The Case of Malaysia

The reform of Islam by women and especially the lessons this activism might contain for feminist praxis is a highly topical and important issue. This article outlines some of the lessons to be drawn from studying this area with a specific focus on the activism of some groups of Malaysian Muslim women aimed at the reform of Islam. Two different strategies for reform are explained and traced in their attempts to reform religious interpretation and the Islamic legal system, the Syar'iah. The aim of the article is to provoke dialogue over the relationship of Islam to women's rights, while highlighting the agency of Muslim women within an Islamic framework. Another aim is to contribute to the debate over what constitutes feminism and the need to subject the debate continuously to cross-cultural and international perspectives.     

Battered Immigrant Mexican Women's Perspectives Regarding Abuse and Help-Seeking

SUMMARY

A qualitative, pilot study employing in-depth ethno-graphic interviews was conducted to examine perceptions and attitudes towards abuse and the help-seeking behaviors of a sample of ten battered immigrant Mexican women. Findings indicated that participants' attitudes about seeking help were influenced more by cultural factors (e.g., gender-role expectations, famialism) than by psycho-social stres-sors (e.g., immigrant status, financial dependency). Children's welfare played a salient role in women's decisions about seeking help, both as a deterrent and a motivating factor. Women's attitudes about their own abuse were more tolerant than their attitudes about hypothetical situations involving others. Changes in women's attitudes about abuse reflected changes only after some type of intervention had taken place. The majority of the women in the sample had misconceptions or were uninformed about shelters. Suggestions for further research and intervention with this population and a model of internal and external determinants of help-seeking behavior are presented.     

Gender and Pensions: An Analysis of Factors Affecting Women's Private Pension Scheme Membership in the United Kingdom

There has been considerable debate about the future sustainability of pension provision and, in particular, the precarious position of many female pensioners. The reasons for women's lower participation rates in private pensions than men's require greater investigation. Using the General Lifestyle Survey (GLF) 2008, this article examines the impact of various characteristics on the likelihood of contributing to a private pension, such as educational attainments, income, occupational group, full-time/part-time status, and whether an individual has any dependent children. It shows that these characteristics play an important role in access to private pensions. Finally, it suggests that strategies to alleviate disadvantages must take into account the complex circumstances that individuals experience throughout the life course, which result in gendered pension provision.     

Race and Marital History as Correlates of Women's Access to Family-Friendly Employee Benefits

Using a nationally representative sample of young women surveyed intermittently since 1968 (N = 2030), this study assessed the effects of race and marital history on access to family-friendly employee benefits between 1978 and 1995. Accounting for such factors as work history, total number of employers for whom the respondent has worked, education level, and number of children, race was found to act as a suppressor variable. White women were found to work for more years for employers providing family-friendly benefits even though Black women worked for more years in full-time jobs. Results suggested that systematic biases relegated Black women to lower-paying full-time jobs without family-friendly benefits more so than was the case for White women. Policy implications regarding affirmative action are discussed. No relationship was found between marital history and access to jobs with family-friendly benefits when taking into account other sociodemographic and employment-related characteristics.     

Marriage and Women's Earnings from Work

Abstract

Marital status and earnings from work for women are studied using the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS), Young Women's Cohort. The study focuses on how being continuously married affects the earnings of women from young adulthood through their pre-retirement years. Earnings from work are measured by average annual wages between 1968 and 1999. Bivariate findings suggest that marriage and family are associated with lessening the wage-earning potential of women over the life course but multivariate analysis shows no effect beyond that of other measures accounted for in the study. Education and number of hours worked are positively related to earnings outcomes and the number of dependents has a negative effect. Policy makers who are calling for an increase in marriage-promoting activities for TANF recipients are using marriage as a primary solution for eliminating poverty and thereby ignoring real ways to help women earn more for themselves and their families. The use of TANF funds for encouraging marriage in general is also of questionable economic advantage to non-welfare women.     

Factors Associated with Drug Treatment Entry Patterns Among Hispanic Women Injection Drug Users Seeking Treatment

SUMMARY

This paper examines patterns of drug treatment entry and factors that are associated with these patterns among 1,849 Hispanic women injection drug users (IDUs). The data analyzed originates from a statewide drug-treatment database covering seven years, 1996–2002. Through the use of logistic regression analyses, the study identified significant differences in predisposing, need and enabling factors in the use of detoxification only, residential treatment, or methadone maintenance. Compared to other Hispanics, Puerto Rican women were 40 percent less likely to use only detoxification services and one and a half times more likely to use methadone maintenance. Having health insurance was an especially important factor associated with methadone treatment utilization. Two of the most important factors associated with residential treatment use were history of mental health services utilization and involvement with the criminal justice system. This article discusses specific social work practice implications including the need for social work practitioners to promote services such as residential treatment, to be trained in treatment of co-occurring mental health disorders, especially among women in residential treatment, and the need to establish close linkages with the mental health and criminal justice systems.     

A Survey of Factors Contributing to Gay and Lesbian Domestic Violence

Gay and lesbian domestic violence is still a relatively new topic of study; work has been done in this area only since the early 1980s. Thus, little formal research has been published regarding this issue. This article presents a qualitative study of gay male and lesbian perpatrators of domestic violence. By using demographic profiles from 288 clients who had been referred for perpetrator treatment, the author sought to understand whether self-abusive behaviors, involving drugs, alcohol, food and sex are predominant among perpetrators, as well as to explore the prevalence of intergenerational abuse patterns. Analysis revealed a high incidence of personal histories of abuse experiences among gay/lesbian adult perpetrators, as well as a high incidence of secondary abusive behaviors within this sample.     

Women's Job Loss and Material Hardship

SUMMARY

This research uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to explore the relationship between unemployment and material hardship for women who were employed at the beginning of the 1996 survey panel. Using two-stage logistic regression analysis, we find that, controlling for demographics and initial poverty status, having been or currently being unemployed increases the relative odds of experiencing one or more of six hardship measures by half and doubles the relative likelihood of lacking telephone service or failing to receive needed medical care. Experiences of food insufficiency, inadequate dental care, and loss of or inability to pay for housing increase more than sixty percent with unemployment. Those previously or currently unemployed are also substantially more likely to have difficulty maintaining utility service than the continuously employed. The article concludes with a discussion of policies that would enhance employment tenure and help avoid hardship during unemployment.     

Older Persons Parenting Children Who Have Lost a Parent Due to HIV

ABSTRACT

This article reviews scholarship regarding older relatives raising minor children in order to highlight the situation of caregivers raising minor children who have lost a parent because of HIV. HIV-af-fected families are a relatively new type of intergenerational grouping which deserve a closer examination. It is likely that the phenomenon of HIV-affected custodial caregiving grandparents will increase, and it is vital that policy makers, practitioners, and researchers explore their needs and assets. The particular challenges of HIV-affected grandfamilies are explored, then policy and practice issues are addressed in light of their particular relevance for HIV-affected surrogate parents.     

Everyday Conflict and Stress Among Older African American Women

Abstract

Older African American women are at high risk for morbidity due to anger suppression and stress. Yet sources of everyday stress and conflict in the lives of older African American women have not been documented. Such information is essential for developing health promotion programs. A focus group study was conducted with older African American women on everyday stress and conflict. Everyday stress stemmed from worries about functional disability and about accessing transportation. Everyday conflicts occurred with adult children, teen-aged grandchildren, and older neighbors or peers. Conflicts with adult children centered on how the adult child was raising his/her children. Conflicts with grandchildren centered on social respect. Conflicts with neighbors/peers centered on perceived rudeness or past transgressions. Participant strategies for dealing with stress and conflict tended to be avoidant. A training program in constructive conflict strategies for older African American women is presented that draws on information gained in the focus groups.     

Urbanization,Proximity, and the Intra-State Context of Women's Representation

ABSTRACT

The impact of context on women candidates has been vigorously studied using comparisons of state-level data and found to be substantial. Many of the variables used in this research were measured at the state level even though their influence is theorized at the district level and observed to vary within states. This essay tests these intra-state contextual influences using regression analysis of state House of Representatives district-level contextual data in four states from 1982-1990. The findings confirm contradict, and provide mixed results for particular state-level results.