Children’s educational attainment,occupation, and income and their parents’ mortality

Using data from Finland, this paper contributes to a small but growing body of research regarding adult children's education, occupation, and income and their parents' mortality at ages 50+ in 1970–2007. Higher levels of children's education are associated with 30–36 per cent lower parental mortality at ages 50–75, controlling for parents' education, occupation, and income. This association is fully mediated by children's occupation and income, except for cancer mortality. Having at least one child educated in healthcare is associated with 11–16 per cent lower all-cause mortality at ages 50–75, an association that is largely driven by mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Children's higher white-collar occupation and higher income is associated with 39–46 per cent lower mortality in the fully adjusted models. At ages 75+, these associations are much smaller overall and children's schooling remains more strongly associated with mortality than children's occupation or income.     

Fertility and social mobility among teachers

Social mobility is defined as the teacher's present position in the professional hierarchy relative to his father's occupation, and fertility as the average number of children per married male teacher after 10 years of marriage. A sample of all male teachers in gran-earning schools in England and Wales was used for the study. The hypothesis examined is that put forward and tested in one form or another by numerous authors, that upward mobility is associated with relatively low fertility; and Berent's finding, that among persons of equal social status social origin is negatively correlated with size of family of procreation.

The study of teachers fails to reveal any relation for either of the hypotheses. This also holds when account is taken of the wife's social origin and size of family of origin of the teacher. The latter analysis suggests, however, that this was a factor in the teacher's own rise in the social scale. The question remaines why teachers do not conform to the national pattern shown to exist by Berent. It is argued that while teachers' socal origin still affects their choice of marriage partner, its influence is gradually obliterated by the overriding and homogenising influence pattern of the teacher's life. This suggests that care must be exercised in applying a general finding to selected populations and calls for more detailed study of other occupational groups to explain the forces at work in the process of social mobility.     

Consuming colonial imaginaries and forging postcolonial networks: on the road with Indian travellers in the 1950s

Drawing on an extended road trip from England to India undertaken by two Indian travellers in the 1950s, this paper challenges the dominant travel stories and Eurocentric academic accounts that persistently privilege western tourists. Focusing upon the literary desires that shaped their British itinerary and a dramatic encounter in Egypt, we highlight two distinctly different experiences that emerged during their journey. We demonstrate how a swirl of larger historical events and processes marked the time in which they travelled, with the encounters, places and incidents they experienced informed by the dissipation of colonial alliances and the emergence of postcolonial connections.     

Effects of population policy and economic reform on the trend in fertility in Guangdong province,China, 1975–2005

An analysis of data mainly from China's 1990 and 2000 censuses and 2005 mini-census shows how fertility decline between 1975 and 2005 in the province of Guangdong has been influenced by both fertility policy and economic and social development. Guangdong's development since 1975 has been very rapid and has attracted huge numbers of migrants from other provinces. The analysis of the province's fertility trend from 1975 shows clearly the influence of fertility policy on the trend. The analysis also shows that economic development has brought about large changes in population composition by urban/rural residence, education, occupation, and migration status, which, together with large fertility differentials by these characteristics, have contributed substantially to Guangdong's fertility decline, in large part through changes in proportions currently married.     

Truth or Dare

The performative identities of both Black and queer characters in film have been noted by academics in “Black queer diasporic theory” (Rinaldo Walcott) and artists such as Cheryl Dunye and Isaac Julien, with particular focus on the ways in which these identities have been constructed from both within and outside of their respective communities. Australian Indigenous and lesbian filmmaker Sonja Dare took the discourse one step further, however, in her 2007 release Destiny in Alice, a twenty-seven-minute mockumentary film which parodies a David Attenborough-style search for the rare “desert lesbian” of Alice Springs in Australia's outback. Her film actively pursues the intersection of cultural and sexual expressiveness and suppression, interrogates notions of belonging and exclusion within these communities, and challenges marginalisations of all subaltern identities in the evolving criticality of performing race, sex and gender in modernity.     

White-nonwhite differentials in occupational mobility among men in the United States, 1962–1972

Intercohort shifts between 1962 and 1972 in the occupation distributions of white and nonwhite men are analyzed and compared at ages 35-44, 45-54, and 55-64. Both white and nonwhite occupation distributions were upgraded over the decade, but among nonwhites the shifts away from the lowest-status occupations were expressed partly in increasing rates of absence from the labor force. There are indications of especially rapid shifts in the occupation distributions of nonwhite men at ages 35-44. Among whites and nonwhites intercohort shifts in the occupation distribution can be attributed primarily to changing patterns of movement from first full-time civilian jobs to current occupations, rather than to changing occupational origin distributions or patterns of movement to first jobs. The white and nonwhite occupation distributions did not show a clear pattern of convergence over the decade. They became less similar at ages 35-44 and more similar at older ages. White and nonwhite distributions were most likely to converge in those occupation groups where the share of whites was stable or declining, rather than in groups whose share of the occupation distribution was increasing. Later cohorts of nonwhites would have a much more favorable occupational distribution if they had enjoyed the mobility patterns of whites in earlier cohorts. In 1972, as in 1962, the inferior occupational chances of nonwhites are due primarily to their disadvantageous patterns of occupational mobility, rather than to impoverished social origins.     

Going solo: Findings from a survey of women aging without a partner and who do not have children

Greater longevity in the UK population has led to the increasing diversity of women experiencing aging in a multitude of ways. Internationally, gender inequalities in aging are still relatively invisible within both government policy and everyday life for particular groups of women. This article explores the concept of women growing older “solo”—by which we mean women who find themselves nonpartnered and aging without children as they move into later life. We report on the findings from a mixed-methods survey of 76 solo women in the UK aged 50 years and over, used to provide a broader overview of the issues and challenges they face as they move into later life. Qualitative data from the survey captured respondents’ perspectives about the links between their relationships status and well-being in later life and highlighted specific cumulative disadvantages emerging for some women as a result of their solo lifestyles. We discuss two key themes that were identified, “solo-loneliness” and “meaningful futures,” in conjunction with the relevant literature and make suggestions for future research within gender and aging studies that could enhance more positive approaches to solo lifestyles.     

The Emotional Significance of Affective Inequalities and Why They Are Important to Women in Old Age

Affective inequality is neglected in the study of old age. Using an egalitarian analysis, this article shows how affective inequalities matter to older women. Findings from the first author's PhD study explain the emotional significance of affective inequalities for Irish women. Twenty-one in-depth interviews were conducted to obtain data about experiences and perceptions of inequalities and how they had an impact on older women's well-being. Thematic analysis revealed that women experienced inequalities in old age as devaluation, obligations, exclusion, and misrecognition (DOEM), and they experienced injustices in areas of their lives that were largely outside of their control. Affective inequality implications are discussed.     

Pre- to Post-Migration Occupational Mobility of First Generation Immigrants to Sweden from 1970–1990: Examining the Influence of Linguistic Distance

The article examines the influence of linguistic distance on the labor market outcomes of a sample of 5,041 first generation immigrants in Sweden between 1970 and 1990. The article exploits register data from the Swedish Longitudinal Database, examining a population of individuals from 11 non-Nordic countries of origin. The analysis focuses on the transition to the Swedish labor market, comparing the last occupation before migration with the first occupation after, measured by the ISEI score. Using OLS regression, the results finds important differences in the initial labor market outcomes that are linked to the individual’s linguistic distance. More specifically, individuals proficient in languages belonging to the same language family as Swedish and familiar with the Latin alphabet are found to enjoy an advantage in the initial transition to the Swedish labor market. This finding exists net of the influence of the individual’s region of origin, and is particularly accentuated among formally highly skilled males. This appears to confirm the comparatively large demands for destination-specific skills in high-status occupations, favoring linguistically more proximate individuals. Among females, no consistent advantage among the linguistically most proximate can be observed among the formally highly skilled, potentially explained by differing selection mechanisms into the labor market. In general, however, the mechanisms through which linguistic distance affects the individual’s initial occupation in Sweden appear to operate similarly along gender lines.     

When it hurts I think: Now the baby dies. Risk perceptions of physical activity during pregnancy

BackgroundA decrease in the level of physical activity from pre-pregnancy to pregnancy seems to be a general problem, despite the obvious health benefits of physical activity. Quantitative studies indicate that pregnant women's fears might explain why they reduce their level of physical activity, but still no qualitative research has investigated the experiences influencing these women.QuestionTo explore healthy women's perceptions of risk associated with physical activity during pregnancy.MethodAn interpretive narrative approach was used to gain insight into pregnant women's personal stories and lived experiences. Five Danish pregnant women aged 26–36 years participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews between September and December 2010. The analysis method was based on two types of narrative inquiry: (1) a narrative analysis to cover the story, and (2) a paradigmatic analysis to cover the themes.FindingsMost of the pregnancy stories highlighted a specific experience, which made the women anxious. These experiences were: previous miscarriages, fertility treatment and shortened cervix. Also bodily challenges and pain scared the women, such as hypertonic pelvic muscles, Braxton Hicks contractions, abdominal pain, exhaustion, and shortness of breath. The stories also described the impacts of women's relatives and friends on their perceptions of risk.ConclusionSpecial consideration should be given to pregnant women who have had negative experiences in previous pregnancies and bodily challenges, which make them anxious and discourage them from being physically active. Healthcare professionals could also pay attention to the fact that women's relatives and friends play a major role in women's perceptions of risk.     

Family reunification and the immigration multiplier: U.S. immigration law,origin-country conditions,and the reproduction of immigrants

This paper reports estimates of the total numbers of actual legal immigrants to the United States that result from the family reunification provisions of U.S. immigration law. These immigration multipliers are estimated separately for major visa categories and by gender and are obtained in the context of an analysis of how individual characteristics of immigrants and their origin country conditions affect (a) the decision to migrate to the United States and (b) once admitted, their propensity to remain and to become U.S. citizens. The analyses combine longitudinal data on the 1971 cohort of legal immigrants and data from the 1970 Census Public Use Tapes. The results suggest that the actual multipliers differ importantly by visa category and that they are substantially lower than the potential multipliers and lower as well than previously supposed.     

Older Women's Body Image and Embodied Experience: An Exploration

ABSTRACT

This paper presents and analyzes findings from unstructured interviews with women aged 61 to 92 regarding their perceptions and feelings about their aging bodies. The data are discussed in light of the existing literature on women's body image which has largely ignored the experiences of women in later life and which has tended to focus on adolescent and middle-aged women. Given the fact that beauty is equated with youthfulness and thinness in our society, older women face unique challenges as they strive to construct and maintain positive evaluations of self. The women in the study exhibit the internalization of ageist beauty norms even as they assert that health is more important to them than physical attractiveness and comment on the ‘naturalness’ of the aging process.     

From Beatles Fans to Beat Groups

While much is written about the cultural influence of the vocalist-driven girl groups and female singers of the early-to-mid-1960s, an air of mystery continues to shroud this era's all-girl rock bands—in the UK, US, and worldwide—that performed, recorded, and often wrote their own material. Influenced by the Beatles and the British beat boom that followed, these bands are an important missing link in rock music history, as they epitomize a less overtly gendered, if short-lived, period of the genre. In an era between Betty Friedan's 1963 Feminine Mystique and the changes to come with 1970s second-wave feminism, a handful of musically minded young women were determined to transform their Beatles fandom in order to become co-creators of what was not yet a resolutely masculinist music scene.     

Mediating Feminism

This study attempts to understand how A-level media studies plays a role in girls' navigation through today's postfeminist media culture. Of particular interest in this article is to identify the ways in which students cultivate a feminist (as opposed to postfeminist) sensibility through their experiences in media studies. Classroom observations were conducted across three UK institutions. Further data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with fifteen girls and four educators. Findings suggest that students adopt a feminist voice when discussing young girls' relationships with media and when articulating their own desires for a career and for equality in the domestic sphere. A postfeminist voice, however, persists in their understandings of natural sexual difference and the reclamation of adult women's sexual subjecthood. Interviewees express hesitation to adopt the feminist label, and educators rarely address feminism as a main topic in the classroom. Though the media studies classroom is a site which improves the awareness of existing gender inequalities, suggestions for updated classroom content are considered to improve the development of girls' feminist sensibility, including a clearer and more detailed exploration of transitions from girlhood to womanhood, and a clarification of the media's role in naturalising gender differences.     

Musical chairs: The occupational experience of migrants to Alberta, 1976–80

This research questions whether the economic benefits gained by Canada's interprovincial migrants justify the associated costs, even during an economic boom. A re-analysis of data collected by Statistics Canada as part of the December 1980 Labour Force Survey examines the experiences of recent migrants to Alberta and gives rise to a mixed assessment. On the one hand, migrants who came to Alberta and stayed did enjoy a solid reduction in their pre-migration unemployment, despite higher labour market participation. On the other hand, migrants who came and stayed changed their industry and occupation in large numbers, but most of this was just ‘musical chairs’: exchange mobility, rather than structural mobility. Women were more likely than men to experience structural mobility but they were primarily downgrading rather than upgrading their status. Neither for women nor for men do we find much evidence of upward mobility across the manual-non-manual line. Thus for the most part migrants are entering jobs that may require the learning of new skills but, since they exist within the same status level of pre-migration jobs, deliver no more apparent rewards than the jobs they left. The costs of migration and readjustment are not, according to these data fully justified by the available rewards. The paper ends by recognizing that additional information is needed on the characteristics of pre- and post-migration jobs, before we can judge conclusively that the migration costs outweighed the benefits.     

Measuring the occupational segregation of Australia's indigenous workforce: A census-based analysis

This purpose of this paper is to describe the occupational status of Australia's indigenous population and measure the extent to which this differs from that of all other Australians. For this purpose, inter- and intra-occupational segregation indexes are calculated using 1986 Census data. This reveals for the first time the precise occupational mix which characterises the indigenous workforce. At the broad level of major occupations, there is some indication that the degree of employment segregation between indigenous and other Australians has decreased over time, although the lack of time series data based on consistent occupational classification renders this analysis inconclusive. At the more disaggregated occupational unit level, clear patterns of relative employment concentration and exclusion in particular occupations are in evidence with gender as a major differentiating factor. Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO)-linked occupational prestige scores are applied to the employment distributions as a basis for comparing socioeconomic status.     

Socially disadvantaged women's views of barriers to feeling safe to engage in decision-making in maternity care

BackgroundAlthough midwifery literature suggests that woman-centred care can improve the birthing experiences of women and birth outcomes for women and babies, recent research has identified challenges in supporting socially disadvantaged women to engage in decision-making regarding care options in order to attain a sense of control within their maternity care encounters.ObjectiveThe objective of this paper is to provide an understanding of the issues that affect the socially disadvantaged woman's ability to actively engage in decision-making processes relevant to her care.Research designThe qualitative approach known as Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to gain an understanding of maternity care encounters as experienced by each of the following cohorts: socially disadvantaged women, registered midwives and student midwives. This paper focuses specifically on data from participating socially disadvantaged women that relate to the elements of woman-centred care-choice and control and their understandings of capacity to engage in their maternity care encounters.FindingsSocially disadvantaged women participants did not feel safe to engage in discussions regarding choice or to seek control within their maternity care encounters. Situations such as inadequate contextualised information, perceived risks in not conforming to routine procedures, and the actions and reactions of midwives when these women did seek choice or control resulted in a silent compliance. This response was interpreted as a consequence of women's decisions to accept responsibility for their baby's wellbeing by delegating health care decision-making to the health care professional.ConclusionThis research found that socially disadvantaged women want to engage in their care. However without adequate information and facilitation of choice by midwives, they believe they are outsiders to the maternity care culture and decision-making processes. Consequently, they delegate responsibility for maternity care choices to those who do belong; midwives. These findings suggest that midwives need to better communicate a valuing of the woman's participation in decision-making processes and to work with women so they do have a sense of belonging within the maternity care environment. Midwives need to ensure that socially disadvantaged women do feel safe about having a voice regarding their choices and find ways to give them a sense of control within their maternity care encounters.     

Exploring the Relationship Between Employment History and Retired Women's Social Relationships

This study explores the relationship between retired women's employment history and their social integration and social support networks in retirement. Employment history is defined by former occupation (professional, paraprofessional, nonprofessional) and job continuity (discontinuous and continuous). The sample consists of 330 retired women ranging in age from 50 to 83 years, with diverse occupational histories, who were retired an average of 3.5 years. Results indicate occupational status may influence women's social integration, part-time employment, caregiving tasks, and satisfaction with social support. Continuity of employment appears to only marginally influence social integration with no impact on social support or satisfaction with social support.     

Reexamining China's Fertility Puzzle: Data Collection and Quality over the Last Two Decades

China's fertility level has become a matter of considerable debate since the early 1990s. Despite the widespread concern over data quality, a review of the literature reveals little systematic examination of how fertility data are collected, what specific problems they pose, and how they have been used in demographic research. This article examines five major fertility data sources and identifies problems in producing and using fertility data and discusses their implications. Issues relating to China's controversial 2000 census results and the reported low fertility are examined. The analysis concludes that the prevalent uncertainty about fertility levels may not only be related to the problem of data quality, but could also arise from misinterpreting fertility data and exaggerating the problem of undercounting.