Does Marriage Discourage Female Labor Force Participation? Empirical Evidence from Thailand

Abstract

In labor supply theory, marriage can be one of the obstacles making it less likely for a woman to participate in the labor market. However, the relationship between marriage and a female’s working outside the home can vary according to a country’s stage of economic development. This paper therefore aims to investigate the impact of marital status on labor force participation of women in developing countries by using Thailand as a case study. Using sex ratios at the provincial level as an instrumental variable for marital status gives different results from previous empirical research focusing on developed countries. Married women in a developing country like Thailand are more likely to participate in the labor market and work more hours than are unmarried women, especially those who are younger, less educated, not household heads, and with fewer family members to care for. Therefore, policy recommendations for developing countries should aim to support those young and less educated married (and poor) female workers by including extended maternity leave, flexibility of working hours, and establishment of childcare facilities in the workplace, including child allowances for married women who have children.     

Who Experiences Leisure Deficits? Mothers' Marital Status and Leisure Time

The authors used the 2003 to 2012 American Time Use Survey to examine marital status variation in mothers' leisure time. They found that never‐married mothers have more total leisure but less high‐quality leisure when compared with married mothers. Never‐married mothers' leisure is concentrated in passive and socially isolated activities that offer fewer social and health benefits. Black single mothers have the highest amount of socially isolated leisure, particularly watching television alone. Results suggest that differences in the context and type of leisure are salient dimensions of the divergent and stratified life conditions of married, divorced, and single mothers.     

Is Good Science Bad Sexual Politics? Commentary on ”Mothers' Role in Incest

No abstract available for this article.     

Is Household Wealth Sustainable? An Examination of Asset Poverty Reentry After an Exit

This paper analyzed the influence of financial behaviors on the duration out of asset poverty while controlling for households’ life cycle and demographic characteristics. We found evidence for the existence of structural barriers to asset acquisition. Asset accumulation at or above levels equal to nine-months worth of income at the income-poverty level was important for improving a household’s odds of permanently escaping asset poverty, but a linear relationship between asset accumulation and the likelihood of returning to asset poverty did not emerge. Moreover, minimizing debt and diversifying the asset portfolio to include more productive assets were positively related to maintaining assets; but households should also consider the risks associated with portfolio allocations.     

Two? Two and One-Half? Thirty Months? Chronometrical Childhood in Early Twentieth Century America

Child-rearing books and manuals from the early twentieth century indicate that pediatricians and developmental psychologists were prone to divide the life course of children into increasingly precise chronometrical stages, e.g., focusing on changes from one month to the next rather than one year to another. Little is known, however, of whether parents also chronometricalized their children's lives. Working with 206 advice-seeking letters written by fathers and mothers in the 1920s and 1930s to nationally known educator and author Angelo Patri (1876–1965), we develop a text-based measure of chronometrical childhood, employ it in a multivariate analysis, and find that an urban environment heightened parents' tendencies toward chronometricity, while the financial strain of the Great Depression did just the opposite. Our results show how age can be viewed as a social construction, subject to the influence of ideology and economics, and that the scheduling of children's lives can vary in different locales and at different historical moments.     

Who Lacks Support and Why? An Examination of Mothers' Personal Safety Nets

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 12,140 person-waves) to identify characteristics associated with mothers' having or lacking "personal safety net" support from family and friends. We focus on characteristics that are likely to increase the importance of having support available but may also interfere with the maintenance of supportive ties: poverty, poor physical and mental health, and challenging child rearing responsibilities. By capitalizing on distinctions among these types of personal disadvantages and among types of personal safety nets (financial, housing, child care, and emotional), we help to explain why personal disadvantages are associated with weaker support. Our paper contributes to the literature emphasizing the importance of reciprocity in support relationships and introduces the idea that families that are more difficult to help will have less support available.     

Labor Force Participation of Immigrant Women in the Netherlands: Do Traditional Partners Hold Them Back?

Female labor force participation (FLFP) rates often vary across ethnic groups. This study examined the role of the partner's labor market resources and gender role attitudes for FLFP in different ethnic groups. Cross‐sectional data of women in partnerships from the four biggest immigrant groups in the Netherlands and from a native Dutch control group were analyzed. Traditional gender role attitudes of partners were negatively related to FLFP and partly explained ethnic differences therein. Moreover, across all groups, the relation between partners’ labor market resources and FLFP was more negative for traditional women and rather absent for egalitarian women.     

What's Fair Is Fair? Role of Justice in Family Labor Allocation Decisions

ABSTRACT

The theoretical basis on which wives and husbands in the United States evaluate the fairness of the division of household labor is explored. Based on distributive justice theory, separate interviews with wives and husbands are conducted to identify and define the household inputs or contributions that are valued as well as the underlying justice principles that guide household labor allocations. The findings suggest considerable variation in the value placed on household chores and the underlying justice principles used when allocating housework. Gendered expectations also play an important role in these allocations.     

Disaster and Development Paradigms: Too Close for Comfort?

The familiar distinctions between the disaster and development paradigms have become increasingly blurred. Yet, conceptual and policy dilemmas continue to pose challenges for the integration of the two paradigms into a single framework. Drawing on the literature and Ethiopia's Institutional Support Project, this article argues that the increased convergence of the two constructs may be too close for comfort, thus rendering the assertion that disaster‐risk reduction can help achieve sustainable development and vice versa mere rhetoric. Unless there is a shift from focusing on the hazard event to also recognising that disasters are not politically neutral, there is a danger of being locked into the hazard paradigm, despite the different labels, titles or metaphors that may be assigned to it.     

Recession and Migration: A New Era for Labor Migration?

The current recession, the worst in a half century, is likely to affect international migration differently than past recessions. In 1973–1974 and 1981–1982, rising oil prices led to recessions in oil‐importing countries and economic booms in oil‐exporting countries, enabling some migrants to shift from bust to boom areas, as from Europe to the Middle East. The 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis did not spread globally, and was followed by a relatively quick resumption of economic and job growth that attracted migrant workers. The 2008–2009 recession is most severe in countries that had the most severe debt excesses, including the U.S., Spain, and Eastern Europe, and in countries most dependent on trade, including many Asian countries. New deployments of migrants are likely to slow, but what is not yet clear is how many migrants who lose jobs will remain abroad.     

How Does Juvenile Offending Relate to Mothers' Aspirations and Expectations for Their Sons?

Mothers of 317 first‐time juvenile offenders (M = 15.35 years old) were interviewed over 2.5 years about their expectations and aspirations for their sons' futures. Mothers' expectations were lower than their aspirations, reflecting a discrepancy between what mothers felt was important for their child's future and what they considered likely to happen. As their children continued to engage in delinquent acts, mothers' expectations for their sons' future success diminished. Youth age moderated the association between delinquency and maternal expectations, such that when perceived delinquency was high, expectations were lower for mothers of young sons compared to mothers of older sons. These findings carry implications for practice and intervention, as parent expectations and aspirations are both directly and indirectly associated with youth achievement.     

Domestic Labor and Marital Satisfaction: How Much or How Satisfied?

Abstract

Using questionnaire data from 96 couples, we examined the relationship between respondents' domestic-labor performance, domestic-labor satisfaction, and marital satisfaction. We analytically separated the dimensions of domestic labor (i.e., household tasks, emotion work, and childcare) and ran separate analyses for men and women. We found that the amount of labor performed is associated with satisfaction with emotion work and childcare arrangements, but not the household task arrangement. Satisfaction with domestic-labor arrangements mediated the relationship between actual domestic-labor performance and marital satisfaction, and the central role of emotion work emerged in our analysis.     

Too Many Preachers? Black Participation in the Ministry in Northern U.S. Cities during the Great Migration

Past studies have claimed that during the Great Migration the church participation of southern black migrants in northern cities was weakened by the circumstances of urban life. The present study, building on theories of subculture formation and the ethnic niche, challenges this claim by examining the participation of blacks in a religious occupation: the ministry. An analysis of Census data suggests that, in those northern cities with relatively large black populations, a critical mass of blacks created by in-migration helped to support the entry of blacks into the ministry. The findings are consistent with the assertion that the Great Migration stimulated the church participation of blacks in these cities. They are also in agreement with the argument that the size and distinctive cultural traditions of an ethnic minority group may, together, sustain some of the group's members in a special occupational niche.     

Too Strict or Too Lenient?: Examining The Role of School Strictness With Educational and Juvenile Justice Outcomes

Abstract

Although there is research exploring how school punishment practices are influencing academic and juvenile justice outcomes, how strict or lenient school punishment practices are related to aspects of education such as grade retention and dropping out, as well as juvenile justice contact, remains unknown. This study draws from the Texas Education Agency’s Public Education Information Management System to investigate the relationship between strict and lenient school punishment practices, academic progress or failure, and juvenile justice contact. Results indicate that schools with more strict punishment practices can contribute to higher grade retention and juvenile justice referral rates; however, it also appears that lenient punishment practices also exacerbate these same outcomes as well as higher referral rates. The importance of fair, just, and balanced school punishment practices is discussed.     

Are There Two Liberalisms? The Partisan and Demographic Influences on Two Dimensions of Political Belief

Abstract

Recent analyses suggest that a new kind of liberalism has emerged in the American system. “Social liberalism,” in this view, is organized by issues that are relatively new to the political agenda: abortion, homosexuality, marijuana use, pornography. This dimension of belief occupies an ideological domain clearly separate from traditional “New Deal” issues involving government spending and the management of the economy. Some scholars argue, furthermore, that partisan and social divisions on the basis of New Deal-style economic issues have declined in importance, and that the relatively young and the better educated are now more liberal on both dimensions of belief. Evidence presented here indicates that mass opinions on social issues and traditional views on government spending form distinct ideological dimensions. However, this analysis also reveals clear and persistent patterns of conflict characteristic of economic issues.