Staying with People Who Slap Us Around: Gender,Juggling Responsibilities and Violence in Paid (and Unpaid) Care Work

Little is actually known about women's occupational health, let alone how men and women may experience similar jobs and health risks differently. Drawing on data from a larger study of social service workers, this article examines four areas where gender is pivotal to the new ways of organizing caring labour, including the expansion of unpaid work and the use of personal resources to subsidize agency resources; gender‐neutral violence; gender‐specific violence and the juggling of home and work responsibilities. Collective assumptions and expectations about how men and women should perform care work result in men's partial insulation from the more intense forms of exploitation, stress and violence. This article looks at health risks, not merely as compensable occupational health concerns, but as avoidable products of forms of work organization that draw on notions of the endlessly stretchable capacity of women to provide care work in any context, including a context of violence. Indeed, the logic of women's elastic caring appear crucial to the survival of some agencies and the gender order in these workplaces.     

‘If I Had a Family,There Is No Way That I Could Afford to Work Here’: Juggling Paid and Unpaid Care Work in Social Services

Drawing on three case studies in each of Australia, New Zealand and Scotland, this article explores how care workers employed in the social services sector negotiate their unpaid care responsibilities in the context of lean work organization and low pay. For younger workers, the unrelenting demands of service provision and low pay made any long‐term commitment to working in social services unrealistic, while many female workers experienced significant stress as they bent their unpaid care responsibilities to the demands of their paid work. However, male workers, less likely to have primary caring responsibilities, appeared less troubled by the prioritizing of paid over unpaid care work and less likely to self‐exploit for the job. At the same time, there is a widespread acceptance across different national and organizational contexts that the work/family juggle is a personal responsibility rather than a structural problem caused by the demands of underfunded and overstretched organizations.     

HIV testing in pregnancy: Using women's voices to inform policy

BackgroundIn Canadian provinces with opt-out policies for maternal HIV screening, pregnant women are told HIV screening is routine and are provided with the opportunity to refuse. In Newfoundland and Labrador an opt-out screening policy has been in place since 1997.PurposeThis research study aimed to (1) obtain an increased understanding of the information women receive about HIV/AIDS during the opt-out screening process and (2) to advance the policy related dialogue around best practices in HIV screening within the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.MethodsTwelve women who were between 14 and 35 weeks gestation participated. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and a thematic analysis was carried out.FindingsThe major themes are that women have difficulty obtaining clear information about maternal HIV screening, are often not told they have the right to refuse maternal screening, and experience paternalism from physicians.ConclusionWe recommend that physicians and other health care providers in be reminded that that current opt-out testing requires women's consent and that women must be given the option to refuse the test.     

Misplaced Loyalties: The Role of Military Culture in the Breakdown of Discipline in Peace Operations*

Cet article a comme objet les manquements a la discipline au cours des opérations de paix de l'armée canadienne en Somalie et dans l'ex-Yougoslavie. L'auteure montre d'abord comment la cohésion et la loyauté - deux aspects importants de l'efficacité au combat - sont renforcées par la culture militaire canadienne, plus particulière-ment par le systeme régimentaire de l'armée canadienne. Puis elle décrit la façon dont les liens affectifs puissants propres aux normes du combat créent des unités trés cohésives qui peuvent nuire au fonctionnement d'ensemble de l'organisation. This paper examines the breakdown of discipline in two Canadian peace operations in Somalia and in the former Yugoslavia. The author shows how cohesion and loyalty, which are considered important components of combat effectiveness, are reinforced by Canadian military culture—particularly the Regimental system of the Canadian Army. The author then goes on to describe how strong affective ties, which are encouraged by combat norms, create highly cohesive units that can actually impede the good functioning of the overall organization.     

Multivariate meta-analysis for data consortia,individual patient meta-analysis,and pooling projects

We discuss maximum likelihood and estimating equations methods for combining results from multiple studies in pooling projects and data consortia using a meta-analysis model, when the multivariate estimates with their covariance matrices are available. The estimates to be combined are typically regression slopes, often from relative risk models in biomedical and epidemiologic applications. We generalize the existing univariate meta-analysis model and investigate the efficiency advantages of the multivariate methods, relative to the univariate ones. We generalize a popular univariate test for between-studies homogeneity to a multivariate test. The methods are applied to a pooled analysis of type of carotenoids in relation to lung cancer incidence from seven prospective studies. In these data, the expected gain in efficiency was evident, sometimes to a large extent. Finally, we study the finite sample properties of the estimators and compare the multivariate ones to their univariate counterparts.     

BRIEF FAMILY-FOCUSED INTERVENTION ON THE PEDIATRIC CANCER UNIT

Behavioral problems that frequently occur in pediatric cancer treatment settings, such as food refusal and the resistance to treatment, have been successfully treated utilizing family therapy techniques. The theoretical background that supports this mode of intervention and several case studies are presented.     

The impact of funding sources and board representation on consumer control of service delivery in organizations serving low-income communities

This article examines the influence of funding sources and board members on the degree to which an organization enhances consumer control of the organization or limits access to services for some groups of clients. Based on a study of decision making in organizations serving three low-income communities, a limited degree of board influence on an organization's choice of service strategies can be traced to both the power of donors to demand service strategies that reflect their interests and the efforts of staff members to limit the ability of the board to engage in policy-making. The high degree of dependence of low-income communities on external funding restricts the development of boards as decision-making bodies that effectively reflect community interests.     

Crusading Journalism: Changing Public Attitudes and Policy-Making Agendas

This is the third in a series of studies on the agenda-settingeffects of news media investigations of social issues. Researchershad access to a local five-part television investigation ofrepeatedly brutal police officers before it was broadcast inthe February 1983 sweeps period. Using random-digit-dialingto select a sample of Chicago area viewers, researchers surveyed428 members of the general public on their attitudes towardvarious social issues, including the conduct of city policeofficers. We hypothesized that respondents exposed to the serieswould change their responses to questions about police brutality,which they did in statistically significant numbers. A similarsurvey of so-called elites, policy makers or persons with aprior interest in police behavior, also was undertaken beforeand repeated after the series was broadcast. Although no statisticallysignificant change in elite opinions of police behavior occurred,small but statistically significant changes in knowledge ofspecific police acts were recorded. Researchers discuss thefindings of study three and speculate about the different agenda-settingeffects of the three series.     

The mental health of the never-married

Although the interaction between mental health and marital status has been the object of much social scientific research, little is known about the mental health of never-married people. This article reviews research relevant to mental health and marital status as it pertains to never-marrieds. Methodological problems and current gaps in such research are pointed out. The mental health of never-marrieds is examined from three popular models of mental health—the social protection, social reaction, and social selection models. Each model offers competing explanations for differences in rates between married and unmarried people and between unmarried men and women. Suggestions are offered for improvement in researching the mental health of this neglected group.