“But we still try”: affective labor in the corporate mommy blog

This article studies three “mommy blogs,” online platforms catering to (in these cases) American mothers of various sub-demographics, through an affective labor framework. Using digital labor and Althusserian subject formation to inform my reading of the common rhetorical gestures made in these blogs, I ask how they conceive of their readership and contributors. I argue that mommy blogs should be understood as sites of digital labor because of the ways in which their publishing conditions and rhetorics establish labored expectations of the “mommy” subject. Contestations of the nature of affective labor in motherhood are reflected by anxieties around digital labor, which play out via ideological conflicts that manifest rhetorically in the blogs under discussion. This analysis is informed by affect theory, Althusser and Butler’s work on subject formation, and the existing feminist literature on digital labor and the mommy blog.     

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.     

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。     

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.     

如何从生命周期理解我国的收入不平等

文章从生命周期的角度入手,以期为理解收入不平等提供一个不同的视角.基尼系数本质上衡量的是结果的不平等,收入所得税等政府政策也侧重对结果不平等的调整,但收入结果的不平等起源于机会的不平等,强化于过程的不平等,最终才表现为结果的不平等.机会不平等、过程不平等和结果不平等对应不同的生命周期阶段,需要不同的政策措施.对于机会不平等,政府应着眼于消除户籍制度等对不同人群的制度性歧视,减少我国区域发展水平的差距;推动幼儿和青少年教育与医疗服务的均等化,为他们创造一个公平的养教环境.对于过程不平等,一个重要的方面是建立对各种所有制员工和不同雇佣关系职工都公平的城乡统一的市场环境,消除劳动力市场中同工不同酬等歧视现象,尤其是取消国家制度和政策造成的劳动力市场分割.对于结果不平等,要兼顾公平和效率,在现有个人所得税、最低生活保障制度等基础上,逐步建立城乡统一、公平公正的收入调节和社会保障体系.     

劳动力市场需求非均衡理论下高校就业策略

文章以中国劳动力市场需求非均衡化现象作为分析依据,通过研究目前大学生就业以及劳动力市场需求的悖逆和矛盾为突破口,提出强化企业作用、发挥校友优势、实施专业预警机制、加强核心竞争力培养等建议,以实现高校就业与劳动力市场需求的合理对接。     

失地农户生计策略多样化研究

利用九江和襄阳两地的失地农户调查数据,刻画失地农户生计策略多样化特征;并利用广义线性模型和广义线性混合模型,分析生计资本对失地农户生计多样化的影响。主要研究结论包括：1）失地前后农户的生计多样化与收入水平、兼业程度和劳动力流动具有某种关联;2）失地农户实施生计多样化的能力依赖于一定的生计资本,生计资本的提高有助于扩展失地农户实施生计多样化的能力;3）生计多样化虽然是失地农户发展生计的重要途径,但当生计资本超过某个临界点后农户不再将生计多样化作为其最优的选择。