Scaling Back and Finding Flexibility: Gender Differences in Parents' Strategies to Manage Work–Family Conflict

Studies show that fathers report work–family conflict levels comparable to mothers. The authors examine gender differences in work‐related strategies used to ease such conflicts. The authors also test whether the presence of young children at home shapes parents' use of different strategies. They address these focal questions using panel data from the Canadian Work, Stress, and Health study (N = 306 fathers, 474 mothers). The authors find that mothers with young children are more likely to scale back on work demands when compared with fathers with young children, but mothers and fathers with older children are equally likely to pursue these strategies. Furthermore, women with young children and men with older children are more likely to seek increased schedule control as a result of work–family conflict when compared with their parent counterparts. The authors situate these findings in the vast literature on the consequences of work–family conflict.     

Maternal Employment,Community Contexts,and the Child‐Care Arrangements of Diverse Groups

Integrating family and child data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort with contextual data from the census, this study examined associations among maternal employment, aspects of communities related to child‐care supply and demand, and the early care and education arrangements of 4 year olds in Mexican‐origin, Black, and White families. Children with employed mothers were more likely to be in informal care arrangements than in early childhood education, regardless of racial/ethnic background. For children in Mexican‐origin families, selection into informal care over early childhood education was more likely in zip codes with greater demand for care as measured by higher female employment. Utilization of parent care versus early childhood education was also more likely for children in Mexican‐origin and Black families in zip codes with higher female employment. Constraints associated with maternal employment thus hindered children from enrolling in early childhood education, and community contexts posed challenges for some groups.     

Families,Resources, and Suicide: Combined Effects on Mortality

Important resources from family support systems, employment, and educational attainment inhibit the risk of death. Independently, these factors are particularly salient for suicide, but how they combine to affect mortality is less clear. Analyses of National Health Interview Survey data from 1986 to 2004 (N = 935,802), prospectively linked to mortality through 2006 (including 1,238 suicides), reveals a process of compensation in the way work status and family combine to affect adult suicide: Individuals who are not working experience more suicide defense from more protective family support systems than do working adults. But a process of reinforcement occurs in the combination of education and family: More education associates with more protection from the family than does less education. The findings demonstrate how families and resources combine to affect mortality in unique ways.     

“Behind Every Great Man…”: The Male Marriage Wage Premium Examined Qualitatively

Studies across diverse national contexts reliably show that married men earn more than unmarried men, but the mechanisms responsible for this are still disputed. This article explores the male marriage wage premium from a new perspective, using longitudinal qualitative data from Russia (N = 94). Qualitative research is particularly suited to identifying underlying processes and, by analyzing men's accounts of the influence of their marital trajectories on their work, the authors were able to reexamine existing hypotheses and develop new ones. They propose 4 mechanisms that they hypothesize can influence men's work motivation and performance: premarital planning, 2 distinct “breadwinner” effects using expectancy and self determination theory, and monitoring by wives. They integrate these mechanisms within gender theory, arguing that the treatment aspect of the male marriage wage premium is an outcome of the “coproduction” of masculinity within marriage. Their recontextualization of existing theory also enables them to reveal weaknesses in the specialization hypothesis.     

高校少数民族毕业生就业问题及对策研究——以西南民族大学为例

大学生就业问题近年来成为社会各界关注的热点问题,少数民族大学毕业生的就业问题因其既具有共性,又带有特性,更应成为关注的焦点。本文基于对西南民族大学少数民族毕业生就业问题的调研,发现当前成都地区高校少数民族毕业生一定程度存在热衷大城市就业,沟通能力相对不足,从事工作与所学专业不对口,易受到不公对待等就业问题。究其原因,我们认为与少数民族大学毕业生的传统择业观、汉语水平、学校的专业设置以及用人单位的不当认识有关。为此,本文提出政府应加大对少数民族大学毕业生就业的关注程度;学校应提高少数民族大学生的综合素质;社会应创造公平公正的就业环境;少数民族大学生应提升自身能力、转变择业观念等相关对策建议。     

以就业为导向的计算机基础教学解析

计算机基础课程是整个大学阶段所有专业的必修课程之一,而在计算机基础教育方面,并未跟上当前信息技术发展的主流方向和趋势,远远不能达到目前市场对高技能人才的计算机能力要求。教学内容停滞、教学方法和考核方法过于保守等问题日益突出。因此,计算机基础的教学目的应从过去的应试教育转变为对计算机的操作技能和理解能力的培养。文章通过对计算机基础的教学方式、教学内容和考核体制这三方面的探讨,阐述了计算机基础教育改革的必要性,以及相关的方法和措施。     

高师院校不同学制毕业生就业竞争力比较研究

毕业生就业竞争力是衡量人才培养质量的一个重要指标,加强对不同学制毕业生就业竞争力研究,有利于提升办学质量。对不同学制毕业生的就业竞争力分析可从初次就业率、就业现状满意度、毕业半年后的月收入、工作与专业相关度、职业吻合度和半年内的离职率等方面进行比较。利用非参数检验法对某高师院校毕业生就业状况调查报告中的有关数据对比分析,发现五年制专科毕业生的就业竞争力与三年制专科毕业生无显著性差别。结果表明:五年制专科毕业生具有明确的专业定位、专业技能较强等优势,可适当扩大五年制专科招生规模。     

Understanding the High Rates of Employment among Low‐educated Women in Portugal: A Comparatively Oriented Case Study

This article addresses the question of why Portugal is an exception among southern European countries in having a high rate of female employment. Cross‐national data show an even greater gap between Portugal and its southern European neighbours in the employment rates for low‐educated women. This article presents case‐based evidence on the work orientations, gender relations and reconciliation strategies of low‐educated women working in the clothing industry in Portugal. The analysis reveals that while economic need plays an important role in their attachment to employment, their work decisions are forged by a complex set of attitudes regarding employment and the family. Traditional values regarding the role of women in the family co‐exist with more modern values regarding their employment participation. Moreover, the institutional arrangements of childcare and reconciliation also appear to be more supportive than might be expected in a southern Europe welfare state. By focusing on a particular group of low‐educated women, the findings suggest that the same welfare policies may have different impacts on the reconciliation strategies of women of different socioeconomic groups.     

Predictors of employment among sheltered homeless women

The effect of homelessness on the psychological and physical health of women is damaging and long lasting. Understanding of the personal factors that enable homeless women to secure employment and re-enter mainstream society is of utmost importance. A sample of homeless women residing in a US Midwestern nonprofit treatment and transitional living shelter for homeless women and their children were surveyed regarding the extent to which life satisfaction, social self-efficacy, and hopeful thinking predicted women's expected capabilities to obtain employment above and beyond social support provisions, while controlling for participants' age, ethnicity, and education level. Findings failed to reveal that social psychological (i.e., life satisfaction and social self-efficacy) and intrapersonal (i.e., hope) variables predicted homeless women's job procurement self-efficacy above and beyond perceived social support. The social support provision of social integration and younger age significantly predicted women's self-efficacy to secure employment. Implications of results for social justice initiatives and interventions are discussed.     

Apron strings of working mothers: Maternal employment and housework in cross-national perspective

This paper asks whether maternal employment has a lasting influence on the division of household labor for married women and men. Employing multi-level models with 2002 ISSP survey data for 31 countries, we test the lagged accommodation hypothesis that a long societal history of maternal employment contributes to more egalitarian household arrangements. Our results find that living in a country with a legacy of high maternal employment is positively associated with housework task-sharing, even controlling for the personal socialization experience of growing up with a mother who worked for pay. In formerly socialist countries, however, there is less gender parity in housework than predicted by the high historical level of maternal employment.