Occupational pursuits of free women in early America: An examination of eighteenth-century newspapers

The revival of social and family history during the past two decades has resulted in major revisions of conventional explanations of the processes of social change. Scholarship concerning the status, roles, and contributions of early American women has been especially important in this respect. This paper is based on original findings from a systematic survey of the occupational pursuits of early American women (N=2,572) and a stratified sample (N=1,949), both derived from eighteenth-century newspaper advertisements. Our findings focus on the distribution of occupations available to women, important trends during the period, and factors contributing to changes in the occupational structure of early America.     

The menstrual cycle and personal space

Sixty undergraduate women were individually tested for interpersonal distance preferences by either a male or female confederate who approached each subject from six different directions using a procedure reported by Kinzel (1970). Randomly, each participated during either the four days prior to menstrual flow (premenstrual), the four days beginning with the first day of flow (menstrual), or the four days midway between the onset of their last period and the estimated beginning of the next (midcycle). Unexpectedly, interpersonal distance preferences were greater for males than for female testers only during the midcycle phase. Moos Menstrual Distress Questionnaire scores were not reliably correlated with interpersonal distance preferences, nor were questionnaire items tapping extent of sexual experience, usage of birth-control pills, or concern about menstrual odor. Ratings of the attractiveness of the person doing the testing was inversely related to the preferred interpersonal distance with the exception of midcycle subjects. Both negative affect and sexual interest interpretations of the effects of menstrual cycle on personal space are discussed.Edgar C. O'Neal is professor of psychology at Tulane; he received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Missouri at Columbia. Janet Schultz is a M.S.W. candidate at Tulane's Graduate School of Social Work; she received her B.A. with honors in psychology from Newcomb College of Tulane University. Terry E. Christenson is associate professor of psychology and biology at Tulane and received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. Address reprint requests to the first author, Department of Psychology, 2007 Percival Stern Hall, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118-5698.     

A model for national planning policies

This paper attempts to develop a multiobjective model to help policy-makers choose the most appropriate mix of economic policies concurrent with the elimination of serious gaps. Each individual policy attempts to achieve a specific goal or a set of subgoals; but it may hinder the achievement of some other subgoals. To differentiate between the importance of different objectives, the analyst assigns different priorities to each of the given set of subgoals. Three sets of results are provided by three separate computer runs of this model. Each set of results corresponds to one of the three priority structures, and each run indicates quite differing underachievements or over-achievements of individual subgoals. A detailed explanation for each of these deviations (gaps) from the targeted subgoals is attempted in an overall framework and some interactions between various gaps (savings gaps, foreign exchange gap, domestic growth gap, GNP gap, etc.) are also identified.     

Occupational pursuits of free American women: An analysis of newspaper ads, 1800–1849

Recent studies have challenged a long-prevailing notion that free women held unusually high economic status in colonial America. The present study tests a corresponding idea that the 19th century afforded American women fewer occupational opportunities, with a resulting loss in freedom and status. Drawing from a large and broad sample of newspapers, we examine the distribution of occupational pursuits and changes in this distribution over time, and then compare these findings with observations from an earlier study for the 18th century. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the ideology of separate spheres, increasing divorce patterns, and the growth of the midwestern frontier.An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in August 1991.     

Biopharmaceutical applications of group sequental designs

Methods are described for calculating the properties of a general class of group sequential designs. The procedures are based on direct enumeration of a11 possible outcomes thereby giving exact results. The test regions of these designs are closed, may be one- or two-sided and may include a variable number of groups or stages. The methods described can be applied in experimental situations where the responses can be dichotomized or ranked. Specific examples which are given to illustrate the procedures include drug screening, laboratory evaluation, and clinical trials.     

Assessing Performance Consequences of Changes in Educational Policy: Toward Systematic Experimentation

This paper argues that schools of social work should determine the empirical consequences of risk-taking changes in educational policy. A commitment to systematic experimentation rather than random innovation is urged in order to promote effective curriculum designs, establish an empirical basis for educational policy decisions, and provide quasi-theories about educational policy change. CSWE is seen as a potential coordinator and repository of data about the effects of changes in educational policy. Furthermore, most schools have the resources to carry out significant studies. With these commitments, we can make policy changes that are predictive of desired outcomes.     

The Impact of Variability and Patient Information on Health Care System Performance

In the delivery of health care services, variability in the patient arrival and service processes can cause excessive patient waiting times and poor utilization of facility resources. Based on data collected at a large primary care facility, this paper investigates how several sources of variability affect facility performance. These sources include ancillary tasks performed by the physician, patient punctuality, unscheduled visits to the facility's laboratory or X‐ray services, momentary interruptions of a patient's examination, and examination time variation by patient class. Our results indicate that unscheduled visits to the facility's laboratory or X‐ray services have the largest impact on a physician's idle time. The average patient wait is most affected by how the physician prioritizes completing ancillary tasks, such as telephone calls, relative to examining patients. We also investigate the improvement in system performance offered by using increasing levels of patient information when creating the appointment schedule. We find that the use of policies that sequence patients based on their classification improves system performance by up to 25.5%.     

A comparison of applications of microcomputers in production

Earlier research has established that the full potential of microcomputers is not being achieved by production management in small companies. Moreover, questionnaire results and in-company interviews were used to support suggested reasons for this situation. This paper reports further work carried out to examine the issues raised in far more detail. Collaboration took place with nine separate companies over a range of applications. Three of these case studies are presented in detail, and general conclusions drawn relating both to these specific studies and to the total collaboration.     

Substance-abusing child welfare parents: treatment and child placement outcomes

The authors present findings from their study of 167 child welfare parents referred for substance abuse assessments. Relationships between gender, prior treatment, court-ordered intervention, significant others' support, and treatment and placement outcomes are examined. Findings indicate significant others' support positively influences all outcomes while court-ordered intervention is not predictive. Prior treatment is associated with continued substance abuse. Gender differences exist for assessment completion and several client characteristics. Implications for practice are drawn.