Gender differences in the canadian economy, with some comparisons to the United States (Part II: Earnings, low incomes, and the allocation of time)

In this sequel to our previous paper, we again look at gender comparisons for the Canadian economy, which we again compare and contrast with the analogous comparisons for the United States economy. Once again, we attempt to ascertain, how different are the various gender comparisons in the two countries. Once again, our principal data sources are Statistics Canada, particularly the two excellent volumes on Women in Canada, for the Canadian figures and Joyce Jacobsen’s fine compilations in her text (1998) for the U.S. figures. In this part of the study, we look principally at income-related matters, such as the gender wage gap and various decompositions of this phenomenon, such as earnings by age of earner and the incidence of low incomes. The second major section of this paper explores questions of time usage and, in particular, how the two genders search for employment when unemployed. Our final section states some tentative conclusions, including our speculative thoughts on why most gender comparisons are so similar on the two sides of the Canadian-American border. Ronald G. Bodkin was professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa from 1975 to June 2001. A revised and shortened version of this paper was presented at the Ottawa Meetings of the Canadian Economics Association, May 1998, and at the 1999 IAFFE Conference on Feminist Economics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, June 1999.     

You're like ‘why not?’ The quotative expressions of Glasgow adolescents

The sociolinguistic study of discourse features is still at a very elementary stage, so there is very little evidence available on which to trace changes in the use of such features. One feature that has received attention is the use of non-traditional quotatives in the U.S., particularly by younger speakers, in the past twenty years. The use of be like as a quotative has spread from its presumed origin in California to other parts of the U.S. and also to Canada and England. This paper examines the further spread of non-traditional quotatives to the speech of adolescents in Glasgow and how these forms might have been transmitted.     

The Problem with Tragic Narratives: Lessons from the Los Angeles Uprising

This article considers the different media narratives about the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, in order to explain how the genre of tragedy became the most powerful representational form for talking about race and civil society during the 1990s. Three narrative mechanisms were used to shift discussions of race and civil society toward the tragic frame: (1) a change in temporality, (2) the rhetorical failures of politicians, and (3) the emplotment of new events into the dominant tragic narratives. Because most crises get their dramatic power from the tension between romance and tragedy, the shift to tragic discourse led to cynicism, skepticism, resignation, and inaction. The article concludes by arguing that the search for genre imbalance is an important tool for those interested in studying culture and ideology during times of crisis.     

Inter‐agency Cooperation and New Approaches to Employability

This article examines the role of inter‐agency cooperation, which is one form of ‘partnership’, in new approaches to employability in the UK. The article articulates a ‘model for effective partnership working’ on employability. This model is applied first in a general review of employability policy and then to discuss case study research on the recent ‘Pathways to Work’ and ‘Working Neighbourhoods’ pilots. It is argued that successful partnerships need a clear strategic focus based on a necessity for inter‐agency cooperation and institutional arrangements that allow for shared ownership, trust and mutualism, and flexibility in resource‐sharing. While some of these factors are apparent in UK employability services, an over‐reliance on contractualism and centralized organizational structures may undermine partnership‐based approaches. Many of the success factors associated with effective partnership working appeared to be in place, even though the role of the Public Employment Service was fundamentally different in each case (as a key actor in implementing the first pilot, but largely withdrawing from the implementation role in the second). The article concludes by outlining the relevance of this model and the case study findings to discussions of the future development of employability policies and related partnership working.     

Distance as a barrier to using a fitness-program benefit for managed Medicare enrollees

This study evaluated the effect of distance on the likelihood of initiating and maintaining regular use of a fitness-program benefit in a population of managed Medicare seniors. We studied 8,162 participants and nonparticipants in a managed-care fitness-program benefit: a structured group exercise program or an unstructured health-club membership. Participants in both programs lived significantly closer to facilities than nonparticipants did (structured, p < .001; unstructured, p = .017). Participants living closer to unstructured-program sites attended more frequently than those farther away (p = .008). Distance was not correlated with frequency of use in the structured program (p = .49). Collectively, these analyses demonstrate that distance is related to uptake and, in some cases, continued use of a fitness-program benefit. Health systems providing fitness-program benefits as a way to increase physical activity levels of their plan members should consider location of program facilities in relation to members' home addresses to maximize use of the benefit.