How Women in Late Midlife Become Caregivers for Their Aging Parents

Approximately 52 million Americans provide informal (unpaid) care to a family member or friend who is disabled or ill. The most common informal caregiving relationship is that of an adult child providing assistance to an aging parent. This article describes a qualitative study examining how adult daughters between the ages of 50 and 65 become caregivers to their parent or parent-in-law. Data were collected through in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 15 female caregivers. Analysis revealed that assistance provided to parents was initiated by one or more triggering event, after which participants became caregivers in either an emergent or deliberate manner.     

On the auspices of female migration from Mexico to the United States

In this paper we examine the circumstances and determinants of female migration between Mexico and the United States. Using data from the Mexican Migration Project, we considered the relative timing of males' and females' moves northward. We then estimated logit and probit models to study the determinants of male and female out-migration; among women we also estimated a multinomial logit model to uncover differences in the process of migration for work versus not for work. We found that women almost always followed other family members, either the husband or a parent; only a tiny minority initiated migration independently. Although males also are quite likely to be introduced to migration by a parent, nearly half of all male migrants left for the United States before or without a wife or a parent. Estimates of the determinants of migration suggested that males move for employment, whereas wives generally are motivated by family reasons. Daughters, however, display a greater propensity to move for work, and the determinants of their work-related moves closely resemble those of sons and fathers.     

Work values,attitudes and performance of industrial workers in Bangladesh

This study wasundertaken to assess and compare workers' attitudes and values towards work, and find out the relationships between their work performance, attitudes and values. The study was conducted on a sample of 60 (30 male and 30 female) garment workers. The results show that the rate of production of the male workers is significantly higher than that of the female workers. The results further reveal that the worker's performance is positively related to his/her work ethic, attitudes towards mastery and competitiveness in work. But the performance has not been found related to the worker's money beliefs and attitudes towards savings.     

Nurse's Aides in Nursing Homes:

Nurse's aides, primarily women, provide the majority of care to residents, primarily older women, in nursing homes. This pilot study deals with an understudied area: characteristics and perceptions of nurse's aides. The data in this exploratory study are drawn from extensive semi-structured interviews with 27 randomly selected nurse's aides in three skilled care nursing homes in central Arkansas. The study provides a glimpse into facets of life, work, and caregiving from the aide's perspective. The data address what is most and least satisfying about the aides' work and how they rate themselves as caregivers. Clearly the aides' attitudes, expectations, and behaviors are connected to the well-being of the residents they serve.     

The role of education in the reconciliation between female occupation and family responsibilities at mid-life: the Italian case

This study, based on the data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, deals with the labour market participation of mid-aged women and the reconciliation with family responsibilities. The analysis focuses on Italy, a fast ageing country with a very low female occupation rate. By performing a comparison with Sweden and France, we set three European models, different in terms of welfare system and gender roles, against each other. Women’s educational attainment is shown to be the most important factor associated with being in the labour market between 50 and 59 years old in all the countries analysed. Our findings suggest a couple-oriented approach to study women’s balancing of career and family: for married women, husbands’ education plays an ambivalent role concerning women's participation in the labour market, according to its combination with wives’ resources. The depressive effect on female employment of living close to a parent in poor health holds especially in Italy, suggesting the need to invest more on welfare policies in this country.     

Working in caseload midwifery care: The experience of midwives working in a birth centre in North Queensland

BackgroundPregnancy, birth and child rearing are significant life events for women and their families. The demand for services that are family friendly, women focused, safe and accessible is increasing. These demands and rights of women have led to increased government and consumer interest in continuity of care and the establishment in Australia of birth centres, and the introduction of caseload midwifery models of care.AimThe aim of this research project was to uncover how birth centre midwives working within a caseload model care constructed their midwifery role in order to maintain a positive work–life balance.MethodsA Grounded Theory study using semi-structured individual interviews was undertaken with seven midwives who work at a regional hospital birth centre to ascertain their views as to how they construct their midwifery role while working in a caseload model of care.FindingsThe results showed that caseload midwifery care enabled the midwives to practice autonomously within hospital policies and guidelines for birth centre midwifery practice and that they did not feel too restricted in regards to the eligibility of women who could give birth at the centre. Work relationships were found to be a key component in being able to construct their birth centre midwifery role. The midwives valued the flexibility that came with working in supportive partnerships with many feeling this enabled them to achieve a good work–life balance.ConclusionThe research contributes to the current body of knowledge surrounding working in a caseload model of care as it shows how the birth centre midwives construct their midwifery role. It provides information for development and improvement of these models of care to ensure that sustainability and quality of care is provided to women and their families.     

Production,Reproduction, and Education: Women,Children, and Work in a British Perspective

This article reviews findings of studies by the author and colleagues on relationships between women's work and the reproduction of the British population based on data for female birth cohorts 1922–70. The studies address three questions: (1) How do children affect women's paid work and lifetime earnings? (2) How does women's employment affect the quantity of children born? (3) How does women's employment affect the “quality” of children? The answers are affected by the woman's educational attainment. On question 1, childrearing may often halve lifetime earnings, but seldom for the well educated. By contrast, any effects from employment to childbearing are most apparent in the late motherhood of the well educated. Child quality, as assessed by indicators of child development, benefits from maternal education and suffers little from maternal employment. The economic advantages for children in dual‐career families are thus unabated. A widening gulf between mothers will tend to polarize the life chances of their children, unless there are more options to combine employment and childrearing, especially including good‐quality child care for those who cannot afford the market price. Education is a powerful influence, but does not alone solve all issues of equity, whether between families or between sexes.     

Gender Differences in Caregiving: A Case in Chinese Canadian Caregivers

ABSTRACT

This study examines the gender differences in Chinese-Canadian family caregivers providing care to elderly Chinese care receivers. A random sample of 339 Chinese-Canadian caregivers for elderly care receivers completed a telephone survey. Most of the Chinese family care-givers were females. No major gender differences were reported in the amount and types of caregiving tasks. The level of caregiving burden and predictors were generally similar for both gender groups. Contrary to common belief that sons and daughters-in-law are the key family caregivers in the Chinese culture, the daughters played a more important role in family caregiving. In addition to providing support and services to Chinese female caregivers, strategies to enhance Chinese males' involvement in family caregiving are needed and discussed in the paper.     

An Interview-Based Exploration of the Motivations and Occupational Aspirations of Chronic Care workers

A shortage of nurses' aides at a time of dramatically increasing demand for nursing home care makes it imperative to study the occupational motivations and aspirations of those aides who currently work in long-term care. Motivations for choosing this type of work were found to be related to aides' commitment to continue or leave the job at one year, or to combine part-time work and education. Recommendations are made for improved recruitment and retention of workers in long-term care.     

Cross-National Differences in the Association Between Parental Work Hours and Time with Children in Europe: A Multilevel Analysis

This study investigates cross-national differences in the association between parental work hours and parent–child interaction time and explains differences in this individual-level association on the basis of country characteristics. It extends prior research by testing the moderating effects of country characteristics through multilevel analyses and by considering the possibility of selection effects. The presumption was that parents employ strategies to protect family life from work encroachments and that these strategies are enhanced by reconciliation policies, stronger parenthood ideologies, access to part-time work and higher income levels. Multilevel analyses were based on a subset of 5.183 parents in 23 countries from the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey that was complemented with country-level data. The negative association between parental work hours and parent–child time indeed varied significantly across countries and was weaker in countries where formal child care coverage was higher, part-time work was less prevalent, and earnings were lower. The effects of part-time work and earnings mainly applied to mothers. These findings suggest that child care coverage limits the availability of children and that differences in parent–child time between parents who work short and long hours are more pronounced when part-time work is more accessible and affordable.     

Profiles of women who help us to age in place

ABSTRACT

As our population ages and people overwhelmingly prefer to age in place, the need for home care workers is steadily increasing. Unfortunately, due to the low value society places on caring work, filling these positions and retaining workers is a challenge. Drawing on a pilot study involving in-depth interviews with eight female home care aides, this brief report profiles three categories of worker perceptions of their jobs: “satisfied” (n = 3), “need more support” (n = 3), and “on my way out” (n = 2). Study participants liked their work but believed their jobs needed to be improved. Policy implications based on study findings are explored.     

Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola is currently one of the most discussed female filmmakers in Hollywood and one of the most prominent “indie” directors working over the last decade. Coppola has also divided critics, especially with her third and fourth features, Marie Antoinette and Somewhere both drawing heavy criticism. This article draws on a range of popular and scholarly sources in order to chart the different narratives that construct Coppola's public image, including the style of her filmmaking. I focus on perspectives of Coppola's work, investigating how the director's biographical details have become bound up with the reception of her films in ways that dismiss her films as too preoccupied with frivolity and privilege. Coppola's important position as a female director of independent features, specifically her unique position as a successful woman working in the masculinized arena of independent Hollywood, and her place within a lineage of women's cinema, is frequently elided in discussions of her success and style. It is the question of Coppola's status as a female director, the ambivalent process by which this status is acknowledged and disavowed in the reception of her work, that is most compelling for feminist film theory.     

Trends in women' work participation

The changes which have taken place in 15 countries of the Western world during the first half of this century with regard to the proportion of economically active to total females, have been studied ; some countries record a rise, others a fall. Further analysis shows that the participation of women in non-domestic work for pay has risen with only a few exceptions. The proportion of married women who are at work has also risen substantially in most of the English-speaking countries, as well as in Sweden.

Changes in population structure cannot explain these developments. The influence of economic factors is not simple to assess, but the main explanation for the rise in women's work participation appears to be full employment and the development of new industries, increasing the demand for labour, and at the same time helping to raise women's earnings relatively to those of men and thus encouraging women to take up paid work.

t is anticipated that female work participation will increase in the underdeveloped countries, where it is generally at a low level, and will remain high in the advanced countries, involving the continued employment of a substantial minority of married women. This calls for a reconsideration of social policy, since a single-earner grant to families where the woman's full-time attendance at home is required for the care of small children, might become more important than child endowment.     

Women's financial planning for retirement: the impact of disruptive life events

Providing care for an aged parent has immediate financial, emotional, psychological, and physical consequences for the primary caregiver. This pilot study of 138 middle aged and older females analyzes the long term financial consequences of providing care to aged relatives for female caregivers. The impact of this disruptive life event (e.g., caring for an aged relative) on retirement planning among middle aged and older adult women was analyzed using quantitative data collected from women residing in the Midwest region of the United States.     

Do We Think Children Need a Mom and Dad?: Understanding How Gender Ideology Impact Attitudes Toward Same-Gender Parent Family Rights

Research and opinion polls demonstrate that attitudes toward same-gender parent families have been improving in recent years among Western countries; however, the history of oppression toward, and misconceptions about, same-gender parent families continue to be demonstrated in Australian family rights policies. Common misconceptions include the belief that children need both male and female role models, and this could be influencing peoples’ support for same-gender family rights and having a wider impact on legislation change. Yet a dearth of research exists exploring a connection between gender role beliefs and support for same-gender family rights using a broad international sample, including Australia. To investigate this connection, a sample (N = 615) from 18 English-speaking countries responded to a series of questions to determine the importance of gender norm beliefs on same-gender family prejudice. Regression analysis demonstrated that people with traditional beliefs about gender norms were more likely to endorse a negative attitude toward same-gender marriage and same-gender parenting. Findings suggest a link between socially prescribed gender norms and prejudice toward same-gender parent families that may be fueling arguments against same-gender family rights policies. The implications of these findings on same-gender parent families and their rights require future investigation.     

South-Asian women’s experiences of earlier additional,fetal monitoring to reduce stillbirth: An exploratory qualitative study

BackgroundIn an attempt to reduce the rates of stillbirth at term among South-Asian born women, Victoria’s largest maternity service, Monash Health, implemented a new clinical guideline in 2017 that recommended additional earlier, twice weekly monitoring to assess fetal wellbeing from 39 weeks for South-Asian women. In acknowledging the importance of woman centred, culturally responsive care, this study aimed to understand South-Asian women’s, experiences, of the additional earlier fetal monitoring.MethodsAn exploratory qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured phone interviews six weeks postpartum, across June and July 2021, with South-Asian born women who underwent the earlier monitoring from 39 weeks. Women were asked questions regarding their understanding of the monitoring, their experiences of the monitoring process and any impact the monitoring or results had on their pregnancy, labour and birth. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using a thematic approach and an inductive coding strategy.ResultsSeventeen women from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan were interviewed. the main themes were i: gaining peace of mind, need for better communication, did the women really have a choice? and comparisons to maternity care in the country of origin. Women experienced positive reassurance of their baby’s well-being from the monitoring and were happy with the earlier, extra care. However, women described receiving variable explanations of the purpose of the monitoring. Ineffective communication and logistical barriers were highlighted to negatively impact women's ability to engage in shared decision making and their overall experience of the earlier monitoring.ConclusionsThe additional monitoring is reported by these women to have an overall positive impact on their maternity care. Future work should explore the experiences of non-English speaking South-Asian women and those who declined monitoring.     

The assessment of parental stress and support in the neonatal intensive care unit using the Parent Stress Scale – Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

ProblemParental stress in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has been reported, however identifying modifiable stress factors and looking for demographic parent factors related to stress has not been well researched.AimThis study aims to identify the most stressful elements for parents in the neonatal intensive care unit.MethodsParents of babies in an Australian neonatal intensive care unit (N = 73) completed both the Parent Stress Scale – Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and a survey of parent and baby demographic and support experience variables (Parent Survey) over an 18-month period.FindingsOlder parental age, very premature birth and twin birth were significantly associated with a higher Parent Stress Scale – Neonatal Intensive Care Unit score. Having a high score in the Relationship and Parental Role scale was strongly associated with attendance at the parent support group.ConclusionThese results indicate the variables associated with stress and this knowledge can be used by teams within hospitals to provide better supportive emotional care for parents.