Active Ageing Index in Korea – Comparison with China and EU countries

The evidence‐based policymaking relies on the use and robustness of the available data. Many conceptual and operational difficulties restrict this process, not least in making use of evidence to identify policy priorities. The Active Ageing Index (AAI), developed originally for the 28 European Union countries, offers a strong motivation in this respect. This paper reports on the development of the AAI for Korea, a country where speed and level of population aging is among the highest in the world. Drawing on the comparative analysis of the AAI results for Korea, China, and European countries, we find that Korea's AAI (35.3) is higher than the average of the AAI for all EU countries (33.9) but lower than China (37.3). Fitting Korea into the overall ranking with the EU countries and China (ranked 7), Korea is ranked 11, just behind Germany (10). The AAI results in Korea show that the employment domain performs extremely well compared with the EU countries, but other domains, especially “Social participation” and “Independent, healthy and secure living,” are achieving less favorable outcomes. High employment among the current cohorts of older workers in Korea can be attributed largely to the constraints of low pension income status.     

社会分层与健康不平等的性别差异:基于生命历程的纵向分析

本研究考察在社会分层与性别分层的交互作用下,生命历程中的两个竞争性理论--“累积优势/劣势理论”和“年龄中和效应理论”,哪一个更能解释中国男性和女性所经历的健康不平等。本研究利用“中国健康与营养调查”（CHNS）追踪数据和成长曲线模型发现,性别对社会分层导致的健康不平等及其发展有独特的影响。与男性相比,女性在各个年龄阶段都处于健康劣势,这一劣势是因为女性从教育和收入所获得的健康回报比男性低。此外,女性之间因为教育和收入导致的健康不平等程度随年龄的增长而缩小,男性之间的健康不平等程度并不随年龄的增长而改变,因此,本研究不支持健康不平等的“累积优势/劣势假说”,而是在女性群体中支持“年龄中和效应理论”。     

儿子养老还是女儿养老？：基于家庭内部的比较分析

本文使用2010年中国家庭追踪调查数据,通过家庭内部比较,从经济支持和生活照料两个方面对儿子和女儿的赡养行为进行系统的比较研究。结果发现,在当代中国家庭中,儿子在赡养父母时的总效应依然显著大于女儿,这主要是因为他们更可能与父母同住。一旦控制子女与父母的居住方式,儿子的直接效应就仅在经济支持方面大于女儿。在生活照料方面,女儿的直接效应已经显著超过儿子。从城乡对比来看,这种“儿子出钱、女儿出力”的性别分工模式主要出现在农村。在城市,女儿在经济支持和生活照料两个方面的直接效应都超过儿子。所以,中国传统的以儿子为核心的赡养方式虽然没有彻底瓦解,但已发生明显变化,快速的人口转变和女性社会经济地位的提高是导致这些变化的重要原因。     

Agricultural economic reforms,gender inequality and poverty in Senegal

In Senegal, as in many developing countries, the agricultural sector plays a key role in the economy. In addition to supplying food, agriculture is the most important source of employment, especially for women. Through the Plan for an Emerging Senegal (PES), the Senegalese government is implementing an ambitious financing plan to improve the productivity of the agricultural sector and enhance employment opportunities for women. Our study assesses the impact of two PES measures (investment subsidies and an increase in production subsidies for the agricultural sectors) on economic growth, women's employment, poverty and inequality using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model linked to a microsimulation model. The results show that both policies have generally positive effects in reducing poverty and gender inequalities. However, investment subsidies in the agricultural sectors have stronger impacts in reducing gender inequality and poverty in the long term.     

Do Mediterraneans really do it better? Explaining the lower gender wage gap in southern European countries

This article sets out to help provide a more detailed explanation for the narrower gender wage gap in Mediterranean countries. Two explanatory hypotheses are put forward and compared empirically using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU‐SILC). The most widely accepted hypothesis is that gender wage gaps across countries are negatively correlated with gender employment gaps. The second hypothesis, however, is supported by evidence that the narrower wage gap in Mediterranean countries could be due to the differences in demand for labour in EU countries as a result ultimately of decisions by major corporations concerning the location of the activities in their value chain.     

Social Policy and the Politics of Hispanic Aging

Abstract

This study examines the contributing factors to job satisfaction and commitment among lower-income, older (age 55 and over), part-time employees (N = 164). Job satisfaction index (JSI) scores were relatively high for all subjects and did not differ significantly for age, gender, or Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) status. While not particularly low, white employees were significantly less satisfied with their employment experiences than Hispanic or African American workers. The scarcity of fringe benefits was the least satisfying aspect of employment. Older Hispanics, whites, and men reported less interference between job, family, and home life than African Americans and women. Multiple regression analysis revealed that race/ethnicity, skill utilization opportunities, perceived views of elders held by younger workers and supervisors, availability of fringe benefits, and suitable work days explained the majority of variance in JSI scores. Opportunities to interact with others and stay active were more important than financial supplementation in these elders' assessment of the benefits of part-time employment. Findings provide further understanding of those elders likely to be placed successfully in part-time employment.     

Should mothers work? Age and attitudes in Germany,Italy and Sweden

Welfare states are constructed around values and political and economic preferences, creating social relationships between the genders. As women increase their labour market participation, new patterns of conflict within families and around policies arise. In this article, attitudes towards family and gender relations among men and women in different age groups in Germany, Italy and Sweden are analysed. The findings show that national policies seem to influence the level of attitudes among men and women. Despite the differences between the countries, an overall pattern emerges in which both age and gender influence people's understanding of women's paid work within and between the three countries. Finally, some implications of changing attitudes on welfare state policies for gender equality are discussed.     

浅析老年女性个案工作的方法与技巧

在老龄化进程中，老年妇女问题在老年问题中慢慢凸显，她们承受着性别与年龄的双重歧视，生活质量普遍比男性老人低。笔者拟从社会工作和社会性别视角来分析老年女性个案工作的方法与技巧，以帮助老年女性树立新的希望，得到更多的支持和理解。充分享受晚年生活。     

浅析女大学生就业难

就业是民生之本,现阶段总体就业形势严峻。随着高校的大规模扩招,毕业生总体供大于求。大学生就业难仅仅是一般劳动就业问题,女大学生就业难除了劳动就业问题以外,还附带有劳动力市场上的性别歧视问题。本文首先对女大学生的现状进行分析,然后对女大学生就业难提出具体有针对性的对策,以便消除女大学生就业中的"性别歧视",实现男女大学生的平等就业,充分发挥女性人力资源的重要作用。     

The Meaning of Gender While Aging With Paralytic Polio

The purpose of this article is to report the influence of gender on aging with childhood onset paralytic polio. The hermeneutic phenomenological exploration of gender was done using multiple qualitative interviews with 25 women, age 55 to 75 years of age, who had polio since before 14 years of age. We noted three themes: (a) the movement of her body, (b) integrating body and gender, and (c) gender discrepancies. Findings are discussed in the context of gendered expectations and the women's bodies.     

Does gender ideology explain differences between countries regarding the involvement of women and of men in paid and unpaid work?

Women spend more time doing household work than men, and men spend more time working at paying jobs outside the home than women. But studies also show that there are major differences between countries regarding the degree to which women and men involve themselves in different kinds of labour activity. The main aim of the article is to analyse the significance of gender ideology when studying differences between countries regarding the involvement of women and men in paid and unpaid work. The analysis is based on national random samples from ten OECD countries that were collected within the framework of ISSP 1994. The conclusions are: (a) gender ideology has an impact in all the studied countries on the degree to which women and men involve and engage themselves in labour and (b) gender ideology partially explains the differences between countries regarding women's and men's involvement in paid and unpaid work.     

Functional Independence of Community-Dwelling Older Adults in China and South Korea

ABSTRACT

Population aging is occurring at an unprecedented pace in China and South Korea. This study intended to identify and compare factors associated with older adults’ functional status in China and South Korea using data from 2 national surveys. The study sample consisted of adults aged 65 to 79 years old drawn from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (2005; n = 4,898) and the Korean Longitudinal Study on Aging (2006; n = 4,152). The outcome variable, functional status, was defined as dependence in self-care tasks. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to assess the explanatory contributions of sociodemographics, health conditions, and health behaviors and activities to functional status. These Asian older adults shared certain commonalities in maintaining functional independence in their communities, and absence of diseases and higher cognition were associated with functional independence in both countries. Rural residence and outdoor activity were significant for Chinese older adults; for their South Korean peers, gender, employment status, drinking, and exercise were important. This study adds to a slowly growing body of knowledge of ways to improve the functional independence of community-dwelling older persons in these 2 Asian countries and beyond. More research is needed to identify cross-cultural and/or cross-country differences.     

Incarcerated Mothers: Trauma and Attachment Issues

ABSTRACT

Although men comprise the largest portion of the prison population in the United States, the number of women in prison has increased more than 800% during the past three decades. More than 60% of these women are mothers of children under 18 years of age. There continues to be a gap in our knowledge base regarding mothers who are incarcerated. In this study, unresolved issues of trauma and attachment are explored for 28 incarcerated mothers involved with the child welfare system. Data were collected using the Trauma Attachment and Belief Scale (TABS) and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Findings from the TABS revealed scores of average and high average in beliefs related to five need areas that are sensitive to the effects of traumatic experiences, namely self-safety, self-trust, self-esteem, self-intimacy, and self-control. Most participants were classified as disorganized/disoriented based on their narrative responses to questions from the AAI protocol. Implications for the results are discussed.     

Gender Equality Policies and Practices in Croatia – The Interplay of Transition and Late Europeanization

This article contributes to understanding change in gender regimes in post‐communist countries. Using Croatia as a case, it juxtaposes the observed change in key indicators of the position of women in various walks of life with the context of the European gender agenda and the positions of actors involved in the national political arena and policies introduced throughout the transition period. The article reviews the previous enlargement waves and indicates that the gender agenda was added to the negotiation process rather late – primarily via the EU accession conditionality requirement. Although narrow in scope and often limited in impact to just ‘paper compliance’ with EU legislation, it opened discussions in the gender equality area in post‐communist countries and empowered women's organizations. In all the countries, the implementation of the European agenda was heavily influenced by the power and discourses of the main actors involved. The article provides a map of social actors involved, together with gender‐related policies as they have changed in three distinct periods in Croatia. The final analysis of observed practices and structures indicates very slow change and the crucial impact of structural and institutional developments as well as economic cycles, but little association of observed developments with dominant discourses or policies implemented over the past two decades.     

Sickness and disability policies: Reform paths in OECD countries between 1990 and 2014

We analysed sickness and disability policies for the working‐age population in a number of OECD countries, between the years 1990 and 2014. Existing evidence suggests that there has been a broad shift in focus from passive income maintenance to employment incentives and reintegration policies. We have updated detailed policy scores provided by the OECD to estimate model‐based country clusters. Our results indicate that countries have pursued different types of reforms consisting of a combination of integration and compensation measures. The reforms of recent decades have led to the emergence of a distinct cluster of Northern and Continental European countries characterised by a combination of strong employment‐oriented policies and comparatively high social protection levels. An analysis of recent reforms shows a continued expansion of measures that foster employment as well as instances of retrenchment in the compensation dimension. Diversity of policy settings across country groups, however, remains substantial.     

The regulatory challenge of occupational safety and health in the online platform economy

The online platform economy raises a range of intricate legal questions connected to labour law and social security protection. In particular, the atypical forms of labour relationships used by many online platforms (e.g. multilateral, hyper‐temporary, off‐site, autonomous), often contractually defined as independent contracting, have challenged the application of labour and occupational health and safety law in many countries across the world, as the application of these norms tends to be dependent on the existence of an “employment relationship”. These developments are compounding the general increase in atypical employment, especially as a result of the 2007–08 financial and economic crisis. It has mostly fallen to courts to resolve the disputes between online platforms and their online platform workers, but some European Union (EU) Member States (such as France) have taken specific legal measures in response to these difficulties. Also, the EU‐level as such is becoming increasingly involved, with the Court of Justice’s ruling in the case of Uber providing some guidance on the “employment question”, and a pending legislative initiative on a Directive for Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions which may provide minimum labour protection for online platform workers in the EU. This article analyzes the problem of labour law in the online platform economy and surveys the various responses by courts and policy‐makers across the EU, which may furthermore set the tone for developments outside the EU in this area.     

Mothers and Fathers in the Workplace: How Gender and Parental Status Influence Judgments of Job-Related Competence

We investigated the influence of gender and parental status on employment decisions. The shifting standards model predicts that parenthood polarizes judgments of women and men such that mothers are held to stricter employment standards than fathers. Social role theory predicts that parenting role, rather than gender, guides judgments of mothers and fathers. One hundred ninety-six undergraduates at two universities evaluated a job applicant; the applicant was either male or female and was either single or married with two children. Results showed that parents were judged less agentic and less committed to employment than non-parents. Parental status also interacted with gender, indicating that fathers were held to more lenient standards than mothers and childless men. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.     

人口老龄化对中国经济的长期影响

生育率迅速下降和预期寿命的延长使中国人口正在经历快速的老龄化。本文试图对中国人口老龄化的长期经济影响做出分析,依次讨论人口老龄化对劳动力供需关系和就业率、国内消费需求、社会保障体制和公共财政、人口城乡迁移和城市化、中国经济在国际市场的比较优势和产业结构变迁的可能影响。在此基础上,作者提出逐步放宽生育控制政策、把人口政策的重点放到提高人口素质上、推迟法定退休年龄和深化对城乡社会保障体制的改革,提高社会保障的公平性和效率等政策建议。     

Evaluating social investment in disability policy

Disability policy in European countries is displaying a shift towards social investment: increasing human capital and access to the labour market. The reasoning that underlies this transition is that disabled persons would benefit from mainstream employment, but are impeded in traditional policy by deficiencies in labour supply and demand. However, the shift towards more activating policies in many countries is accompanied by a decline in social protection. It is unclear whether social investment may effectively promote the employment chances of disabled persons within this context. The present research examines this question through a quantitative, cross-sectional, multilevel analysis on microdata from 22 EU countries. Our findings suggest greater activation to predict lower employment chances, while reducing passive support shows mixed effects. Conversely, measures for facilitation in daily life predict greater employment chances, as do measures for sheltered work. These findings raise questions over the value of social investment for disabled persons—and underline the need to overcome broader barriers in the labour market and in society.     

The impact of tourism and finance on women empowerment

The Goal-5 of United Nations Development Agenda for gender equality and women empowerment through equalizing the ratio of girls and boys enrolment in primary education remains suffered in almost every part of the globalized world, which does not even violate the basic human rights while it is the mandatory foundation for global peace and prosperity. The contribution of international tourism development to empower women is the key initiative of the developed world to provide an equal opportunity to the women to sustain their livelihoods. This study focused on the role of international tourism development on women empowerment through mediating a number of financial factors in a panel of 24 selected European countries, over a period of 1990–2015. The results show that financial intermediaries act as a catalyst to empower women through international tourism. More specifically, tourism and financial factors promote (i) gender parity in tertiary enrollment, (ii) gender parity in primary and secondary school enrollment, (iii) female employment, and (iv) women’s share in non-agriculture wage employment, while the results further support the (i) growth-led tourism, (ii) finance-led growth, (iii) growth stimulate women empowerment, and (iv) tourism-induced women’s empowerment hypothesis across countries.