Gender and Feminization in Health Care Professions

Within health care, there has long been a gender division of professional labor: men have predominated in higher-status, higher-paying professions like medicine and dentistry, while women’s health care work has been clustered in so-called support occupations such as nursing. Historically, health care professions were gendered, and beliefs about gender came to be embedded in professional work. Recently, however, traditional gender divisions of labor are being challenged by the feminization of professions in the United States and Canada. Women’s participation is expanding in traditionally male-dominated professions. This article explores the nature and causes of this feminization and considers whether feminization is changing the significance of gender to health care employment.     

Measuring the Effect of System Size on the Administrative Occupations of Macro Systems: A Reappraisal

Abstract

Organizational theory and empirical research suggests that the size of a system is an important determinant of its administrative sector. In this perspective, the key occupations that provide coordination and integration are as follows: (a) managers and administrators since they provide decision-making, (2) professional and technical experts because they evaluate information flows critical for decision-making, and (3) clerical workers since they contribute written messages resulting in communication. Recent research demonstrates that this approach may be successfully extended to more macro systems such as counties, cities, states and nations. In applying this theory, we argue that the size/administrative occupation relationships can be more completely understood than in previous studies by focusing on the detailed suboccupations found in each of the three broad occupation categories. Data from the fifty American states in 1970 indicate that the relationship between size and suboccupations may be positive, negative, or statistically non-significant depending on which suboccupation is examined. The paper concludes that administrative occupations are affected by size in a much more complex way than previously reported.     

Using occupational structure to measure employability with an application to the Brazilian labor market

We propose measuring individual employability as a weighted average across occupations of a worker’s predicted wage for each occupation. Weights are given by the individual occupational probability distribution. Under this measure, a worker is more employable than another if she has a greater chance to obtain a better paid occupation. After normalization, expected employability corresponds to the population correlation between occupational predicted wages and the chance to obtain employment in these occupations and serves as a measure of the allocative efficiency of labor market. We apply the methodology to Brazil and found that employability increased and became less unequally distributed from 2002 to 2011. We used a decomposition method to investigate the causes of these changes. Although average normalized employability is weakly positive, it has increased for the period, which suggests that there is room for efficiency gains in the allocation of workers to occupations in the Brazilian labor market.     

Psychodynamic theory within the politics of social work theory

Abstract

It is argued that social work theory has a politics in which supporters of theoretical perspectives are in discourse. The political position of psychodynamic theory has varied in each of three phases of social work theoretical development: the pre-influence, dominance and alternatives phases. In the dominance phase social work theories usually derived from psychoanalysis, psychodynamic ideas permeated basic social work practices and non-psychodynamic perspectives were influenced by it. In the alternatives phase, these influences continued, psychodynamic theory became a player in a wider discourse, was incorporated into or incorporated other perspectives and continued its dominance in specific settings. However, intensity of criticism of it, non-therapeutic approaches in much of social work, restricted training programmes, poor media of professional communication, the novelty of newer perspectives and poor transfer of new developments in psychodynamic theory have implied an insecure position for psychodynamic theory. But many of these problems are shared by alternative perspectives and its historical strength, strength in related occupations its adaptiveness and inclusiveness and the development of post-qualifying training offer continuing avenues to strengthen its political position within social work theory     

Constructing markets for temporary labour: employment liberalization and the internationalization of the staffing industry

Abstract Temporary staffing has joined the ranks of the globalizing service industries. The largest agencies have now established a presence in more than sixty nations, where they are placing employees in temporary positions across a range of occupations, from clerical, cleaning and light industrial work through to accountancy, law and IT. The opening up of new occupational and geographical markets around the world has been driven by the imperative to sustain growth in sales volumes, in this business of tight margins and fierce competition. The most lucrative of the staffing industry's ‘emerging markets’ are found in the actively deregulating economies of the global North ‐ including Spain, Germany, Italy and Japan. While exploring how the staffing industry has been active in the construction of these markets, we argue that this fast‐growing business has become an important agent of labour market liberalization.     

Patterns of Growth in Welfare Bureaucracies*

This longitudinal study of the growth of forty-six state welfare departments takes as a point of departure a closed system model of organizational growth. The various components (central office size, managerial components, caseworker component, clerical component) are analyzed in terms of (1) the relationship between the initial size of a component and its growth rate; (2) a comparison of different rates of growth for different components; and (3) the influence of increased work load and environmental complexity on the growth of components. The findings indicate that, for the central office, managerial, and clerical components, the initial size and growth rate are negatively related. The casework component accounts for the greatest amount of total organizational growth and is directly affected by increased work load. Finally, the growth of the managerial component is directly influenced by both increased work load and environmental complexity (i.e., urbanization).     

Prospects for Change? Structural,Cultural and Action Dimensions of the Careers of Pioneer Women Priests in the Church of England

Like other organizations the Church of England has adapted to the greater and increasing involvement of women in paid work and other parts of the public domain. However, this has been a gradual, strongly contested and painful process for the Church. In 1986, it allowed women to enter the lowest rank of the clerical profession as deacons, and after many years of hard and bitter struggle the vote was won in the General Synod to ordain women to the priesthood. ¹ The first women priests were ordained in 1994. This article reports a study of 31 of the most senior and experienced Church of England women priests from dioceses across the whole of England. Women entering previously male‐dominated, or male exclusive occupations as in the case of the priesthood, are necessarily engaged in a process of change. The women priests in this study were active agents for change, they wanted to change the organization, both structurally and culturally. This article examines the question of whether these women ‘pioneers’ in the Church of England stand any chance of changing the organization and the occupation, or whether and to what extent they are changed themselves by needing to ‘fit in’. It will look at the structural and cultural factors, which may inhibit their agency or support it.     

‘In the beginning was the work’ Reflections on the genesis of occupations

One of the most curious omissions in the sociology of work and occupations is what would seem to be one of the most basic questions: When is an occupation an occupation? While there have been recent attempts to explore the issue by examining the history of census categories, ¹ these represent the end-point of the process at which new occupations receive official recognition and legitimation. My purpose in this paper is to discuss how occupations form and come to be recognized as such. The creation of health visiting between 1850 and 1919 will be taken as a case study.     

Occupational variations in drinking and psychological distress: a multilevel analysis

The relationship between alcohol intake and psychological distress has been overlooked in studies on the working population. Using a multilevel multivariate model, this study reports results obtained from a sample of 8812 workers nested in 387 occupations. Results show that alcohol intake and psychological distress vary significantly at the worker and occupation levels, but they do not show a large variation at the occupation level. Occupational socioeconomic status appears to be a common factor explaining the correlation between alcohol intake and psychological distress at the occupation level. Semi-professionals, middle management, foreman and semiskilled clerical-sales-services occupations are particularly at risk. Gender is related to both outcomes, while work schedule and number of weekly working hours are associated only with psychological distress. Implications and limitations of these results are discussed.     

Dreams meeting reality? A gendered perspective on the relationship between occupational preferences in early adolescence and actual occupation in adulthood

On the basis of longitudinal data from Sweden (n = 15,211), the article offers a gendered perspective on the relationship between occupational preferences during early adolescence and actual occupations in adulthood. Theoretically the study is based on socialisation theory and devaluation theory. The analyses show that preferences for one’s future occupation were stronger among those who came to make gender-typical choices, than among those who chose a gender-atypical occupation. However, a gender difference was also found in that girls who came to choose a male dominated occupation showed a stronger preference for their future occupation in adolescence, than boys who came to choose a female dominated occupation. Results also showed that at a general level, the occupations in adulthood were even more gender segregated than the preferences in adolescence. This was particularly true for girls, who in adolescence expressed a stronger preference to work in a male dominated occupations, than they would later actually do.     

The Attitude of the Shari'a Courts to Parental Alienation Syndrome: Understanding the Dynamics of the Syndrome in Arab Society

In addition to the many factors leading to parental alienation syndrome (PAS), including the narcissistic injury felt by the abandoned parent, or the custodial parent's personal difficulty, there are further factors unique to Arab society—including strong influence by the extended family on the child. Although all the components of PAS exist and are well known to the shari'a courts, no parallel concept is found in the Arab legal lexicon. This article presents 1 case of a shari'a court hearing that illustrates this phenomenon. The conclusions indicate that the shari'a court considers this a serious phenomenon and sees coping with the situation as an essential and preliminary condition to the custody hearing.     

The Relationship between Social Dominance Orientation and Child Sexual Abuse Credibility Assessment

ABSTRACT

Allegations of child sexual abuse (CSA) across various contexts have often been denied or ignored by a multitude of people, including those who do not personally know the alleged perpetrators or victims. The lack of belief of children’s CSA reports is problematic, as this may affect the child’s adjustment, the consequences for the alleged perpetrator, and the likelihood of other victims reporting abuse that they experienced. One plausible explanation for low credibility is the variable of social dominance orientation. In the current study, a diverse sample (N = 60) read a hypothetical vignette of a CSA allegation, rated the credibility of the child, and completed the Social Dominance Orientation-7 scale (SDO-7). Results supported that high social dominance orientation predicts low credibility ratings of the child’s CSA allegation. Findings may impact how clinicians and investigators approach the assessment of credibility of CSA allegations, how they appraise the opinions of others about such credibility, and jury selection in the court system.     

Migration and the “Second Wife” in South China: Toward Cross‐Border Polygyny1

Rapid industrialization in southern China has brought together two types of migrants: young women from towns and villages seeking work and upward mobility and affluent men from Hong Kong sojourning in the coastal provinces to supervise or service export‐oriented industries. The result is that many married Hong Kong men who cross the border regularly on business have taken “second wives” or mistresses in China. We analyze this phenomenon using government statistics, selected court cases, and personal interviews. We show that the emergence of the “second wife” phenomenon among migrants in southern China is consistent with recent studies on the causes of polygyny, and we make some predictions about the likelihood of this type of polygyny among migrants.     

Sociological Research and the American Working Class*

Postwar literature reveals that sociologists disagree on the composition of the working class and neglect to specify relationships among its manual, clerical, and service workers. Contrary to Marxist thought, evidence on the deskilling of working-class occupations is inconclusive. Marxist and non-Marxists agree that management has not succeeded in dictating the control of work. The literature foils to locate connections between technology, work alienation, job dissatisfaction, and the societal alienation of workers. Weakest theory and research deal with the political mobilization of the working class, which is hampered by its internal stratification and cleavages. Paradoxically, labor unions are more effective in promoting consumer interests than those of their members or other workers.     

Targeting occupations with varying reputations to increase tax revenue

If the government's goal is to raise tax revenue in a cost-effective manner, which (if any) occupation categories could be targeted with a higher probability of an audit to yield increased revenue? Looking beyond mere opportunity to evade (e.g., self-employment) and starting from the premise that taxpayers in certain occupations evade more than others, the issue is whether these taxpayers respond to a change in the audit rate. Theory suggests that compliance increases in response to higher audit rates; the occupations with the higher evaders could therefore be targeted. This theory is tested by drawing a connection between occupation, reputation, and tax compliance. We assume that taxpayers in occupations with high need for reputation respond to a lower extent to increased tax audits than taxpayers whose achievement does not depend on reputation. The results support the effectiveness of raising tax revenue by targeting specific occupations, non-managers, with a higher probability of an audit.     

Structural changes in the receiving country and future labor migration--the case of Kuwait

This article describes changes in the volume, age and sex composition, retention, productivity, types of occupation, and economic sector of the labor force in Kuwait. The focus is on the structural changes in the indigenous labor force. Data were obtained from censuses and labor force surveys during 1965-93. Policies after the 1990 invasion pertained primarily to security of public employment sector among natives. Over 98% of private sector employment is among non-Kuwaitis. Government programs support high fertility. Female illiteracy has declined, and the proportion of women with a higher education has increased. Natives comprised 20.4% of the total labor force in 1993. About 90% of native males work in the public sector. 45% of total male employment is in the production sector. Around 50% of non-Kuwaiti males have been employed in production work over the decades. Over 90% of Kuwaiti females in 1993 worked in professional or clerical work. Over 50% of total female labor force participation is in the service sector. Concentration in the public sector increased for Kuwaitis and declined for non-Kuwaitis. Labor force participation declined with increasing age. Retirement benefits encouraged early retirement. The private sector is experiencing the departure of long-term migrants and more rapid turnover of labor. Hours of work are longer in the private sector. Kuwait is still dependent on foreign workers in the production and service industries. It is likely that native male workers will replace foreign workers in professional work and administrative/clerical work. Policies that will assure future reliance on imported labor include the assurance of government jobs for Kuwaitis, retirement rules, and the profitability of the trade in labor.     

How are nurses at risk?

The effectiveness of occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) can be understood through analysis of surveys such as the experiences of exposure to occupational hazards by Australian nursing occupations. How effectively OHSMS are implemented in the Australian health industry is unclear as few studies describe current hazard exposure patterns or the impact of OHSMS in the Australian health industry. This paper concludes from the analysis of an Exposure Survey of Australian nursing occupations that nursing occupations perceive themselves to be "at risk" of injury and/or management of OHS risk in work duties is affected by the patterns of hazard exposure, occupation group as well as employee attributes, perceptions, patterns and situations of work. The results highlight the top-rated hazards and imply that the perceptions of hazards in the workplace are different to actual risk experience (e.g. injury patterns). There is an unacceptable level of exposure to diverse hazards in Australian nursing occupations workplaces in regard to regulatory and performance obligations. Stronger strategies to achieve more effective risk treatment, integrate with hospital accreditation and quality programs are discussed to benefit system performance and the welfare of those in nursing occupations.     

Changes in the Labor Market and Occupational Prestige Scores

Abstract  In spite of the great changes in the structures of industry as well as work and occupation in postwar Japan as a result of rapid industrialization, occupational prestige scores as an index of people's evaluation of occupations did not reveal the corresponding changes. They maintained consistent stability since the mid 1950s aside from parallel upward movements, which might be a result of the permeation of an egalitarian ideology. Three kinds of occupational prestige scores calculated from data in the SSM survey of 1955, 1975 and 1995 had very high correlation with each other. The scores also showed a strong correlation between levels of education and income for each occupation, and no relation with labor market situation. And the unchanged order of occupations in Japan might be one of the reasons for the stability. The fact that people's evaluation of occupations revealed by prestige scores has scarcely changed and such scores has been associated with differences in the level of education makes us suspect that Japan's "credentialism" might be weakened in the near future.     

Skills,control, and the mass professions

Since members of the mass professions are employed mainly by large organisations in the public sector, they are increasingly ‘managed’. What is happening to their skills, their control over their own work, and their professionalism, are matters of concern as revealed by recent disputes. These are precisely questions at the heart of the labour process debate relaunched by Braverman. The insights generated by this stream of writing, already profitably applied beyond blue collar work to clerical occupations may be extended to embrace elements of the service class. There the notion of indetermination goes beyond the notion of discretion. Changes in public ideology have effects analogous to those arising from technological innovation in manufacturing. Yet professionals, whilst attending to technological aspects of their work, typically ignore the wider social issues. In this respect they are vulnerable to deskilling and erosion of control over their work.