A social policy model for the reconciliation of employment and family life from a gender equality perspective

The issue of family–employment reconciliation has rapidly evolved from being ignored to a certain dejá vu perception in public debate, as a result of its media success during the last decade. This is even more the case in Spain, where it was only in the late 1990s, when a law was passed to regulate and extend parental and other leave for workers with close relatives in need of care, that reconciliation policies began to be generally discussed and considered. In a context of quick population aging as a consequence of low fertility, concern on labor force supply in the middle term is high on the agenda. Women are increasingly considered to be necessary both as workers and mothers (of future workers), thus raising awareness of the importance of social policies to make their double presence in both worlds possible. There is now general agreement from the right to the left on the urgency to develop family–employment policies. But what is not generally addressed is the impact of such policies on gender equality, a dimension which tends to be either ignored or taken for granted. Not all reconciliation measures have the same effects on the women and men relationship. Some of them push forward equality, whereas others go backwards. Efficiency in making job and family responsibilities compatible does not always go hand in hand with increasing equality. The paper presents a theoretical model for the reconciliation of work and family life from a gender equality perspective. The three main kinds of instruments available in social policy – services, leave, and cash – are examined in four different cases: care of under-threes, care of sick children, coordination of work and school schedules, and care of children during school holidays. Each case is looked at considering its effects on social and gender equality, as well as child welfare. The model includes as active agents of the system the State (promotes and regulates), families and individuals (those directly implicated), and the market as labor market, on the one hand, and supplier of private services, on the other.     

Exponential random graph models of preschool affiliative networks

Exponential random graph models were used to assess the relevance of reciprocity, popularity, transitivity controlling for effects based upon ego and alter sex, and sex homophily, on the formation of affiliative ties in 19 Portuguese preschool peer groups. The number of times two children were recorded as nearest neighbors in focal samples was used as an indicator of the relationship's strength. Independent parameter estimates of the different models (one for each group) were summarized, separately for the three age groups (“3-year-olds”, “4-year-olds” and “5-year-olds”) using a multi-level approach to meta-analysis. Results showed that affiliative ties between children were sex segregated, highly reciprocal, more likely to be directed to a restricted number of children and with a tendency to create transitive triads. The structural processes underlying the formation of affiliative ties were quite stable between classrooms.     

Long-Term Care for Elder Women in Spain: Advances and Limitations

In Spain, elder women are the largest group in need of long-term care. Significant improvements in this issue took place between 2007 and 2011, thanks to the Dependency Law (2006). But severe limitations showed the difficulty of overcoming the historical backwardness of Spanish social policy. This article describes the situation of Spanish people with dependency in activities of daily living. It analyzes changes driven by this law, especially in their impacts on elder women. It assesses the extent to which those changes can alter the traditional model of care. There are three major findings: First, measures promoted by the law have improved the previous situation but are incapable of developing a new model. Care for elders still relies on family, with lack of professionalism, little socialization, and expanding commodification. Second, the current care model is fundamentally detrimental to older women and women caregivers. Third, this kind of model hinders the overcoming of gender inequalities in intrafamily, generational, and social relations.     

Gendering the Organization of Home‐based Work in Turkey: Classical versus Familial Patriarchy

This article examines the link between industrial homework and family dynamics in Turkey by asking how and why varied patterns emerge in the organization of industrial homework. I develop a framework for the analysis of gendered organization of industrial homework by comparing labour practices in extended family and nuclear family households. In extended family households, subcontracts are made between industrial enterprises and male family members. Women carry out piece‐rated work at home under the supervision of male family members and have very little contact with people outside their family. In nuclear family households, subcontracts are made between women homeworkers and industrial enterprises or middle persons. Women work at residential streets and neighbourhood homework stores, as well as at home. They have control over their income as well as their working hours. To explain the divergent practices of industrial homework, I show that enterprises incorporate distinct patterns of patriarchy into the subcontracting arrangements through gendered organization of industrial homework.     

Identification of the covariance structure of earnings using the GMM estimator

In recent years there has been a rapid growth in the number of studies that have used the GMM estimator to decompose the earnings covariance structure into its permanent and transitory parts. Using a heterogeneous growth model of earnings, we consider the performance of the estimator in this context. We use Monte Carlo simulations to examine the sensitivity of parameter identification to key features such as panel length, sample size, the degree of persistence of earnings shocks and the specification of the earnings model. We show that long panels allow the identification of the model, even when persistence in transitory shocks is high. Short panels, on the other hand, are insufficient to identify individual parameters of the model even with moderate levels of persistence.     

Effects of a multimodal exercise program in pedal dexterity and balance: study with Portuguese older adults of different contexts

This study investigated the effects of a multimodal exercise program (MEP) on pedal dexterity and balance in two groups of older adult participants (65–92 years of age) from a psychiatric hospital center (HC), a residential care home (RCH), and a daily living center (DLC). The experimental group (EG) trained three times per week for 12 months, and the control group (CG) maintained their normal activities. The Mini-Mental State Examination and the Modified Baecke Questionnaire, as well as the Pedal Dexterity and the Tinetti tests, were applied to all subjects before and after the experimental protocol. Furthermore, the foot preference was controlled using the Lateral Preference Questionnaire proposed by Coren [10]. In the EG, the results from the Pedal Dexterity test showed that both males and females from the RCH and DLC improved their performances after the MEP. In the HC, the males slightly decreased their performance with both feet, contrarily to females. Both males and females from the CG decreased their pedal dexterity performance, namely, with the non-preferred foot. Concerning the Tinetti test, the EG of both males and females from the HC, the RCH (males were better than females regarding the gender factor), and the DLC improved their balance after the MEP. In the CG, no significant effects or interactions were found for any of the context groups.     

Parent–Child Communicational Characteristics: A Comparison Study between Subjects from Post-Divorce and Intact Nuclear Families

ABSTRACT

The occurrence of divorce seems to have impact on parent–child communication, with subsequent implications on the children well-being and development. The present study aims to analyze the influence that divorce has on parent–child communication comparing 102 participants from post-divorced families and 100 participants from intact nuclear families. Measures consisted of a sociodemographic questionnaire and Perception Scale of Parenting Communication. Despite literature indicators, the main findings reveal the absence of significant statistical differences between both family structures, concerning to parent–child communication. Overall, it was registered some statistically significant differences concerning to specific divorce variables. These findings demystifying the idea that post-divorce families establish less positive communication patterns when compared with intact nuclear families.     

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,Dissociation, and Neuropsychological Performance in Latina Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse

This study compared the memory, attention/concentration, and executive functioning of 12 women with histories of child sexual abuse with a control group of 12 women without childhood abuse. Participants completed a neuropsychological test battery and various instruments assessing post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociation. The child sexual abuse group had lower performance than the control group on long- and short-term visual and verbal memory and presented more limited performance on executive functioning tasks. Functioning in these areas showed a negative correlation with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative symptoms. These findings suggest that child sexual abuse is associated with memory and executive functioning deficits and supports the idea that people with trauma histories and increased post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociation symptoms may have alterations in neuropsychological functioning.     

Galvão among the cannibals: The emotional constitution of colonial power

Colonial domination was not a simple act of violence. Rather, it was written into the bodies and the hearts of the people—"white,” “black,” or whatever other combination might be held to exist. Using the example of the Portuguese African colonies in mid‐twentieth century, this paper aims at illuminating the emotional constitution of colonial power by exploring the uses of the trope cannibalism. In order to do that, recourse is taken to a reading of the non‐fictional writings of Henrique Galvão—one of the most active Portuguese intellectuals and Africanist politicians of the period. Subaltern persons were attributed terrible and mysterious tendencies that escaped simple rationality (they were zombified). In this way, a phantasmagoria of subalternity was constituted that, through fear, transformed domination into a structure of emotions. Thus, the repressive attitudes of colonial power were made to appear natural and unavoidable.