Domestic help and the gender division of domestic labor during the COVID-19 pandemic: Gender inequality among Japanese parents

The enduring COVID-19 pandemic has gradually transformed our everyday lives. This study focuses on changes in work and family arrangements, with particular focus on changes in domestic help, and examines its impact on the division of domestic labor. Using a social survey of work and the family conducted in November 2020 and May 2021, the results show that from January 2020 (pre-pandemic) to May 2021, approximately 40% of respondents experienced a reduced gender gap for housework and childcare, while a large gender gap is still observed in the absolute frequency of undertaking domestic labor. Some lifestyle changes triggered by the pandemic, such as an increase in the use of takeaways or delivery meals, and the expansion of working from home, are found to be able to contribute a shift toward more equal sharing of domestic labor. However, the fact that the access to such lifestyle changes is more common among those with a relatively high income or high educational background suggests that the lifestyle changes imposed by the pandemic may exacerbate class disparities in the gender gap in domestic labor. Furthermore, the results show that decreased kinship support results in a greater childcare burden being placed on women.     

Insecure times? Workers' perceived job and labor market security in 23 OECD countries

By examining the association between employees' perceptions of job security and central labor market policies and characteristics, this paper seeks to understand the mechanisms through which institutions generate confidence and positive expectations among individuals regarding their economic future. The analyses distinguish between different facets of perceived job security and different institutional mechanisms. My multilevel analyses of a data set that contains information on 12,431 individuals and 23 countries show that some labor market policies and characteristics are more likely than others to provide workers with subjective security. Unemployment assistance in particular is an effective means of reducing workers' worries about job loss. Dismissal protection, by contrast, only unleashes its psychologically protective effects under certain conditions. The paper's main conclusion is that the effectiveness of policies varies and that different types of labor market institutions serve as complements rather than as substitutes.     

贵州社会管理创新:经验、问题与出路

近年来,贵州社会管理创新取得了一些成效,其主要经验是强化中国共产党在社会管理创新中的领导地位,发挥政府在社会管理创新中的主导作用,创新内容要关注民生。尽管如此,贵州社会管理创新还存在社会矛盾化解机制不健全、基层政府社会管理力量薄弱、社会组织培育机制不健全等问题,应通过完善源头治理机制、改革基层社会管理体制、优化社会组织培育机制等途径来解决。     

Putting Her on the Shelf

This article analyzes discourse around pop stars Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj as fragrance spokeswomen. It mobilizes the term “post-feminist entrepreneurialism” to describe business strategies for female recording artists representing themselves as workers and capitalist subjects through the endorsement of mass-produced, hegemonically feminine consumer products that exploit individual brands to engender feelings of proximity and empowerment in consumers. Because such entrepreneurial efforts extend female pop stars' industrial viability, post-feminist entrepreneurialism is defined through a critical reclamation of “shelf life,” or the timespan that a commodity can be stored before it spoils. This concept is meaningful for female celebrities who embody the passage of time in complex ways and defend themselves against industrial and cultural perceptions of their own disposability. Post-feminist entrepreneurialism describes the contradiction between empowerment and the erasure of agency for such media professionals. Thus “shelf life” metaphorizes the affective registers embedded within the consumption of endorsed products and the demands placed on female pop stars to sell normatively feminine ancillary properties.     

传统性别分工对选用女性干部的影响——基于湖南省某市两次干部考试的思考

当今各级政府干部选用,性别因素在一定程度上起着一定作用,从而导致女性参政处于不利地位。究其原因最为关键的是传统性别分工所带来的影响所致,这种影响主要表现在两个方面：一是它导致了性别刻板角色的形成;二是它强化了带有偏见的社会性别文化。     

图书馆的知识管理与可持续发展策略

新世纪图书馆具有与过去迥然不同的特征,在知识经济的背景下,图书馆要拓展发展空间,实现可持续发展,就必须与时俱进,积极实施知识管理,不断提高知识创新和知识服务能力。本文从管理观念创新、管理模式创新、管理体制创新、管理内容创新四个方面论述了知识经济时代图书馆管理创新的重要性。并阐述了图书馆可持续发展的重要性及实现图书馆可持续发展的具体措施。     

西部开发、劳动力流动与少数民族教育

为了推动西部大发展 ,我国政府开始实施西部大开发战略 ,各种体制改革不断深化 ,地区劳动力流动更为频繁。处在这一背景下的西部各民族特别是少数民族面临着严峻的就业挑战。本文分析了西部劳动力的结构、就业特点 ,希望能通过具体的教育措施提高少数民族劳动力的竞争能力 ,为保持西部地区繁荣、稳定做出贡献。     

Female Labor Supply,Human Capital,and Welfare Reform

We estimate a dynamic model of employment, human capital accumulation—including education, and savings for women in the United Kingdom, exploiting tax and benefit reforms, and use it to analyze the effects of welfare policy. We find substantial elasticities for labor supply and particularly for lone mothers. Returns to experience, which are important in determining the longer‐term effects of policy, increase with education, but experience mainly accumulates when in full‐time employment. Tax credits are welfare improving in the U.K., increase lone‐mother labor supply and marginally reduce educational attainment, but the employment effects do not extend beyond the period of eligibility. Marginal increases in tax credits improve welfare more than equally costly increases in income support or tax cuts.     

An Examination of How Supervisors Influence Their Subordinates to Engage in Environmental Behaviors

Employee engagement in environmental behaviors is an important topic in operations management. Drawing upon stakeholder, commitment, and organizational support theories, this study creates and tests an empirical model of how store managers (i.e., supervisors) influence their direct reports (i.e., subordinates) to become engaged in environmental behaviors. Based on a dataset derived from supervisors and their subordinates who are employed at the same grocery store location across a large retail grocery chain, we test our study's nomological model and find support for the linkages proposed. Key research and managerial implications are discussed.     

Keep Your Friends Close? Supply Chain Design and Disruption Risk

In this article, we evaluate the relationship between supply chain design decisions and supply chain disruption risk. We explore two supply chain design strategies: (i) the dispersion of supply chain partners to reduce supply chain disruption risk versus (ii) the co‐location of supply chain partners to reduce supply chain disruption risk. In addition, we assess supply chain disruption risk from three perspectives: the inbound material flow from the supplier (supply side), the internal production processes (internal), and the outbound material flow to the customer (customer side) as a disruption can occur at any of these locations. We measure disruption risk in terms of stoppages in flows, reductions in flow, close calls (disruptions that were prevented at the last minute), disruption duration (time until normal operation flow was restored), and the spread of disruptions all the way through the supply chain. We use seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) to analyze our data, finding that lead times, especially supply side lead times, are significantly associated with higher levels of supply chain disruption risk. We find co‐location with suppliers appears to have beneficial effects to the reduction of disruption duration, and, overall supply side factors have a higher impact when it comes to supply chain disruption risk than comparable customer side factors.