Are all jobs created equal? A cross-national analysis of women's employment and child malnutrition in developing countries

Using multi-level models, the analysis examines female employment and child stunting across 49 developing countries. At the country level, female labor force participation is not associated with malnutrition after controlling for economic development. At the individual level, a binary measure of employment is not significantly associated with malnutrition. However, a more nuanced measure of seven occupational categories shows that certain types of employment improve malnutrition. Professional, clerical, sales, and domestic jobs are associated with reduced stunting. These effects are only partially mediated by wealth, perhaps suggesting that some jobs may bring benefits to the household beyond the sheer acquisition of tangible resources. Agricultural jobs are associated with increased malnutrition. Manual labor and service work do not have an effect on malnutrition, compared to unemployment. Thus, women's employment is not necessarily a mechanism for empowerment and wellbeing. Not all jobs are created equal, and many of them do not confer the benefits that are typically associated with working outside the home.     

The association between social support networks and maternal employment: a comparison of western German,eastern German,and migrant mothers of preschool-aged children

A lack of adequate childcare can delay mothers’ return to the labor market after childbirth. This paper examines whether social support with childcare by kin and friends facilitates maternal employment in the first 72 months after childbirth. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) 1993–2009, a comparison of natives (n?=?1409) and migrants (n?=?411) in corporative-conservative western Germany with mothers in former socialist eastern Germany (n?=?528) shows that kinship support is positively associated with maternal employment when public childcare is limited. Western German and migrant mothers return to work sooner if they are surrounded by kin. But kin do not provide support for maternal employment in eastern Germany, where public childcare is more easily accessible and continuous female employment is a prevalent social norm. Friendship networks, by contrast, are most valuable for maternal employment if they complement public childcare.     

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: A Policy Solution to Rural Poverty in India?

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was developed by the Indian government to reduce rural poverty through 100 days of guaranteed employment per year. Using focus group methods, we explore whether this scheme has provided rights' based social protection through guaranteed employment for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. We found that the experiences of participating in MGNREGA varied depending on how MGNREGA wages compared to market wages in the region, as well as local implementation of the program. Although MGNREGA offered some basic employment for marginalized groups, it did not provide substantial help to the most vulnerable. However, there was some evidence of small but significant shifts in labour relations. Higher wages, more opportunities for work, better implementation and a greater recognition of the caregiving responsibilities of women will be required for this policy to fully meet its goals.     

Precarious lives and resistant possibilities: the labour of people with learning disabilities in times of austerity

This paper draws on feminist and queer philosophers? discussions of precarity and employment, too often absent from disability studies, to explore the working lives of people with learning disabilities in England in a time of austerity. Recent policy shifts from welfare to work welcome more disabled people into the job market. The reality is that disabled people remain under-represented in labour statistics and are conspicuously absent in cultures of work. We live in neoliberal-able times where we all find ourselves precarious. But, people with learning disabilities experience high levels of uncertainty in every aspect of their lives, including work, relationships and community living. Our research reveals an important analytical finding: that when people with learning disabilities are supported in imaginative and novel ways they are able to work effectively and cohesively participate in their local communities (even in a time of cuts to welfare). We conclude by acknowledging that we are witnessing a global politics of precarity and austerity. Our urgent task is to redress the unequal spread of precaritization across our society that risks leaving people with learning disabilities experiencing disproportionately perilous lives. One of our key recommendations is that it makes no economic sense (never mind moral sense) to pull funding from organisations that support people with intellectual disabilities to work.     

Disability and employment policy in the Israeli welfare state: between exclusion and inclusion

Based on the social model(s) of disability, this article seeks to analyse the historical development of Israeli employment policy toward disabled people during the first decade and a half of its existence (1948–1965). Findings from primary and secondary sources suggest that throughout this period disabled people, mainly immigrants, found themselves at the lowest echelons of Israeli society and the labour market. Furthermore, the Israeli welfare state offers an interesting case study of the gap between a welfare state’s stated adherence to social justice and the more limited, and even contradictory, outcomes of its policies. Our discussion suggests that a valuable way of reframing our findings can be found in the critique of de-commodification as an inadequate concept and in the use of related concepts such as re-commodification and quasi-commodification.     

高校招生、培养、就业相关性研究

从高等教育的发展规律看,招生、培养和就业是互相关联、互相影响的。随着毕业生就业的市场化及高等教育的大众化,高校培养的人才与社会需要脱节的问题逐渐暴露出来,影响到高校的生存和发展。为此,高校要准确定位,加强市场研究,做好人才需求预测,科学制订招生计划;加强师资队伍建设,创新人才培养模式,提高培养质量;建立全方位的就业体系,加强思想政治教育,做到招生、培养、就业并举,培养适应经济建设和社会发展需要的毕业生。     

唐代士人的社会心态与隐逸的嬗变

隐逸是一种具有深厚历史积淀的文化现象,它对中国社会文化特别是士人文化心理建构有着深远的影响。唐代隐逸风气兴盛,对其历史嬗变的研究,是深入了解唐代文人的行为心态、人格理想以及价值取向的不可或缺的内容,而且对其递嬗缘由的追问,也是深入剖析唐代社会政治和学术思想的一个重要层面。概而言之,初唐承继魏晋隐逸遗风,盛唐在隐逸中贯注入世因素,中唐淡化了士人的担当精神,晚唐以隐居避祸全身。     

城市化进程中失地农民就业保障的政策选择

解决失地农民的就业问题是我国现阶段新农村建设中的一个重要内容。近年来失地农民的就业基本情况有转移就业压力大,无就业和隐性失业等工作不稳定的状态,因土地征用而产生收入下降、生活得不到保障、助长社会不良现象的问题。影响失地农民实现就业的因素有土地征用制度、再就业安置措施、失地农民自身素质、就业歧视。今后必须重视失地农民的就业问题,完善土地征用补偿机制和就业安置方式,完善法律保障和社会保障体系,加强就业培训,转变就业观念等方面完善失地农民就业保障的政策。     

改进高校毕业生就业率统计的思考

高校毕业生就业率统计对评价高校办学、把握人才需求、改进人才培养模式、加强就业服务、完善市场配置体系等方面具有积极意义。但当前就业率统计存在指标体系不完善、统计主体单一、统计时点不合理等问题。实现就业率的效用应采取完善统计指标体系、建立多层次统计系统、创新统计方式、实行网络化实名制就业制度、建立监督核查机制等措施,以进一步改进就业率统计。     

转型期我国职工下岗问题的社会学分析

企业职工大规模下岗是我国转型期特有的经济社会现象.从社会学视角看,下岗实质上是失业,必然产生多重社会效应.再就业工程作为政府动员社会资源解决下岗失业问题的应急措施,不可能长期搞下去,必须着眼于劳动力市场的发育和完善,寻找市场、政府和社会三方面的结合点,这是解决下岗失业问题的治本之策.