Education,Work and Family Decision Making: Finding the “Right Time” to Have a Baby*

Cet article étudie les liens entre les choix d'études et de carrière, et la décision d'avoir des enfants chez un échantillon de femmes ayant un diplôme universitaire. La recherche présentée ici tente d'inter-préter les résultats tirés d'une étude longitudinale sur les diplô-mées des universités de l'Alberta et du recensement de 1991, selon lesquels les femmes qui travaillent dans les secteurs traditionnels tels que l'éducation et les sciences infirmières sont plus nombreuses à avoir des enfants dans la trentaine que les diplômées dans des domaines plus nouveaux. L'article décrit les expériences d'un échantillon de femmes envisageant ou vivant la maternité dans divers milieux de travail, traditionnels ou non. Tout en reconnais-sant les effets probables de la socialisation des rapports entre les hommes et les femmes sur les choix professionnels et familiaux, l'article suggère que l'organisation du travail influe concrètement sur la décision d'enfanter. This paper examines the relationship between educational and occupational choices, and decisions about having children, among a sample of university-educated women. The research described here attempts to interpret the finding, evident in a longitudinal panel study of Alberta university graduates as well as in the 1991 Census, that a higher proportion of women in traditional fields like education or nursing have children by their thirties than do graduates of more non-traditional fields. The paper reports the experiences of a sample of women as they deal with the possibility, or the reality, of motherhood in a variety of traditional and non-traditional workplaces. While acknowledging the probable effects of gender socialization both on occupational choices and on family intentions, the paper suggests that the organization of work also materially affects reproductive decision making.     

Family comes first or open all hours?: How low paid women working in food retailing manage webs of obligation at home and work

This paper draws on qualitative findings from a study exploring work-life balance issues amongst female employees within food retailing. Whilst female employment is fundamental to this sector, there is limited evidence on employees' experiences of reconciling relatively low-paid work and the particular demands of food retailing with domestic and caring responsibilities. Managing competing discourses and demands at home and work is a feature of many women's lives. For those in low-paid jobs, with fewer material resources to fall back on, such webs of obligation, often stretching over the lifecourse, may be particularly difficult to navigate or escape. In food retail work, as in caring/domestic emergencies, timeframes may be tight and demands made on workers at short notice and outwith the standard working day. The study showed that sustaining their moral identities both as good mothers/daughters/family members ('family comes first') and as good and reliable workers ('the store must be staffed') was, therefore, an everyday practical accomplishment for these food retail employees. We explore women's accounts against the backdrop of particular familial, workplace and socio-cultural expectations and constraints, identifying overlapping sets of values between home and work as well as points of contradiction and tension.     

Moments in the Methodology of Meso History

Meso history is that branch of the history of sociology that focuses on social relations, that is, patterns of connection among groups, group members, and group meanings, as explanatory factors in the shaping of sociology. The methodology of meso history consists of strategies for discovering, documenting and patterning connections. This paper explores those strategies in terms of three moments generic to the research process in social science– moments of movement from intellectual curiosity to conceptualization, from research question to data collection and from data to presentation of findings–focusing on the distinctive permutations on this research process that occur in the practice of meso history.     

Electoral Politics, Ideology and American Social Policy

This article addresses the politics of social policy in the context of the 2004 American presidential election. It examines the divisions in American society and their distinctive agendas. It also explores the record of the Bush administration on key social policy issues and shows how it relates to the broader conservative tradition as well as to the Clinton administration's reform of welfare. Finally, it examines the election results. The article argues that the Bush administration has a distinctive agenda on social policy issues and that its approach is likely to reduce further the role of the social government in the provision of social policy, by emphasizing market forces and philanthropy as well as cutting taxes. It also notes, however, that the Bush administration has taken a strong stance on traditional moral values and that its opposition to abortion and homosexuality is an important part of its political strategy.     

Making Sense of New Orleans Flood Trauma Recovery: Ethics, Research Design, and Policy Considerations for Future Disasters

This article details the justification and plans of a research team for studying and helping evacuees of Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans to recover by encouraging experimental participants to disclose information about their related experiences in guided interview sessions. Team members' consideration and practice of ethical principles as researchers dealing with the potentially traumatized victims of a disaster are portrayed. Finally, related recommendations for researchers and policy makers are offered.     

A Confucian War over Childcare? Practice and Policy in Childcare and Their Implications for Understanding the Korean Gender Regime

We ask about the development of childcare policies in Korea and what these mean for our understanding of the gender assumptions of Korean governments. Women's labour market participation has been increasing rapidly, with married women now much more likely to be in the labour market. The provision and regulation around support for women's employment, and especially for mothers’ employment, is a key issue and problem for Korean women and for governments. A number of policies give the impression that the Korean government is moving rapidly towards a policy for reconciling work and family based on a dual‐earner model of the family. But we argue that a close inspection of these policies suggests that the state is still playing a residual role, legislation is not effectively implemented, and government is giving way to the private sector and to the family in responsibility for childcare. Mothers’ accounts of their lives centre on a childcare war played out beneath the apparently harmonious Confucian surface, with resisting husbands supported by powerful mothers‐in‐law, and daily struggles over the management of services. The Korean government and its policy‐makers, far from moving rapidly towards a dual‐earner model of the family, are still rooted in Confucian ideals.