Measuring components of family planning program effort

The measures of family planning program effort developed by Lapham and Mauldin have played a key role in family planning program analysis, but surprisingly little is known about them. This article investigates the measurement of family planning program effort based on data reflecting conditions circa 1982 in 100 developing countries. Using confirmatory factor analytic techniques, it tests some hypotheses implicit in the work of Mauldin and Lapham. Since the data do not fully support these hypotheses, an alternative conceptualization is proposed that consists of eight rather than four components. The discussion focuses on the expanded set of components and includes an assessment of the empirical indicators associated with them.     

Clinical observations on interferences of early father absence in the achievement of femininity

In clinical work, we have observed that the loss of the father through divorce has a significant effect on the young girl's developing sense of feminity. This paper briefly reviews the research findings from sex-role development theory and psychoanalytic theory, and presents clinical discussions of latency aged girls whose parents divorced during their daughter's early and oedipal years. The most common defensive or coping patterns seen in these child patients during latency are identified, with clinical material presented to illustrate both the existence of these patterns and implications for treatment.     

Human capital, social capital, entrepreneurship and disability: an examination of some current educational trends in the UK

Influenced by European policy, human capital and social capital are currently of interest in UK education policy and practice, expressed particularly in the concepts of lifelong learning and entrepreneurship. Human capital and social capital ideas are shown to be flawed by not taking disability into account. The characteristics of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education are examined for relevance to young people with disabilities or learning difficulties and it is concluded that more could be done to develop opportunities for entrepreneurship. The position of people when work is not an option is considered, leading to the question of whether there is a 'disability industry', and an acknowledgement of the importance to the economy of disabled people as consumers and producers. A wider definition of entrepreneurship, which includes people with disabilities and learning difficulties, is sought and the paper concludes by discussing the wider implications for the learning community.     

Innovation, workers skills and industrial relations: Empirical evidence from firm-level Italian data

The shifting of labour demand toward relatively more skilled workers has been a hot issue in the economic field for many years. A consolidated explanation for the upskilling phenomenon is that technological–organisational changes have driven the labour demand with detrimental consequences for less skilled workers (skill-biased technological–organisational change). In order to upgrade the skill workforce the firm has at least two main channels at its disposal: the external labour market strategy, mainly based on hiring and firing mechanisms; the internal labour market strategies, which improve the skill base of the employees through training activities.The main objective of the present work is to verify the relations between innovative strategies and both the workforce composition and the training activities, within an integrated framework that also leads us to consider the role of specific aspects of the industrial relations system.The firm level analysis is based on original datasets which include data on manufacturing firms for two Italian local production systems, located in the Emilia-Romagna region.The results suggest that the firms use both the two channels to improve their skill base, which is actually related to the innovation activities, although there is weak supporting evidence of the use of external labour markets to upgrade the workforce skills: the upskilling phenomenon seems to be associated to specific innovative activities in the technological sphere, while specific organisational aspects emerge as detrimental for blue collars. On the side of internal labour market strategies the evidence supports the hypothesis that innovation intensity induces the firms to implement internal procedures in order to upskill the workforce, confirming the importance of internal labour market strategies. Moreover, we have recognized the important role of firm level industrial relations in determining the training activities for the blue collar workers.     

Open Road or Blind Alley? Welfare Reform, Mothers, and Children with Disabilities

Welfare reform was examined for 39 Michigan families whose children have significant health or intellectual and behavioral disabilities. As a group, these families received little specialized assistance or services to address their unique needs. Family-cited barriers to self-sufficiency included poorly trained welfare caseworkers, limited public transportation, and inadequate child care. Having an older child was the only discriminating variable between working and non-working mothers. However, working mothers only had temporary positions with no benefits and low pay. All families, whether employed or not, lived below the poverty line.     

The Quality of Life in Some Local Metropolitan Labour Markets in Italy

This study forms part of a general programme of territorial research in Italy developed by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). In particular we have studied the metropolitan communes, both with regard to movements within the city and to the attraction cities exert over the communes in the surrounding areas. Based on the daily work-related flows, we have identified the Local Labour Systems (LLSs). The LLSs having as their hub the twelve metropolitan communes constitute the Local Metropolitan Systems (LMSs). Among these we have chosen to analyse in detail the quality of life in the Systems of Milan, Genoa and Palermo, which have been singled out as exemplary cases of current socio-economic differentiations.     

Third Shift Women in Business-Owning Families

Using data from the 1997 National Family Business Survey (NFBS), this study identifies factors associated with married women’s employment involvement in business-owning families. While focusing on married women in a third shift situation—working for the family business, for the marketplace, and for managing the household—this study compares business and family characteristics by women’s employment status. The results of multinomial logit regression analysis indicated that family cash flow problems, presence of children age under 6, age of women, business assets, age of business, home-based family business, establishment of business, and industry type were significant predictors of women’s employment decision. The results of the study have further implications for women in a third shift situation among business-owning families.Yoon G. Lee, Utah State University, 2905 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-2905, USA; e-mail: yoonlee@cc.usu.edu.Gong-Soog Hong, The Ohio State University, 1787 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1295, USA; e-mail: ghong@hec.ohio-state.edu.Barbara R. Rowe, Utah State University, 2949 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-2949, USA; e-mail: browe@ext.usu.edu.     

Doing Gender unto the Other: Fiction as a Mode of Studying Gender Discrimination in Organizations

Although ‘doing gender’ has been recently defined as an accomplishment, an element of social practice, this understanding of the concept needs to be extended to coercive action such as subtle workplace discrimination. Even though great effort has been invested in revealing the dynamic of such social practices, the researcher's task is not easy for a variety of reasons. This type of study is difficult to conduct by following traditional research design and many alternative approaches have been tried. This article presents the possibility of using fiction as one possible and relatively unexploited venue of research.     

Life Years Lost at Hazardous Waste Sites: Remediation Worker Fatalities vs. Cancer Deaths to Nearby Residents

We present a hypothetical case study using the Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) metric to compare cancer risks incurred by residents living near a Superfund site to occupational fatality risks incurred by workers employed in that site's remediation. Since cancer occurs late in life, and because we assume its mortality rate is 60%, each case results in 8.8 YPLL. Each occupational fatality, which typically occurs earlier in life, results in 38.1 YPLL. In our case study, the residential population of 5000 incurred 1.3 YPLL, compared to 5.7 YPLL incurred by the 500 workers. Several uncertain assumptions may influence our calculations; moreover, occupational risks may be viewed as more "voluntary" than risks incurred by residents. However, because the magnitude of the YPLL incurred by workers and residents may be comparable, risk managers should consider occupational risks when evaluating remedial alternatives.