The Division of Household Labor in Germany and Israel

We compare the patterns of household division of labor in Germany and Israel—two countries that share key elements of the corporatist welfare regime but differ in their gender regimes—and evaluate several hypotheses using data from the 2002 International Social Survey Program. Although time constraints and relative resources affect the division of household labor and women’s housework in both societies, we find that in Germany the gender order of household labor is more rigid, whereas in Israel the spouses’ linked labor market status exerts distinctive effects. We also find significant relationships between gender ideology and the division of household labor. We discuss the theoretical advantages of approaching the comparative study of gender inequality from the vantage point of family and gender regimes.     

The Contribution of Internal and External Resources to Emotional Adjustment: A Comparison of At-Risk and Normative Adolescents

The article discusses the differences between normative and at-risk adolescents with regard to the contribution of background variables (gender and age), internal resources (mastery and emotional maturity), and external resources (parental support and peer support) to their emotional adjustment. The results indicate lower levels of mastery, emotional maturity, parental, and peer support among the at-risk adolescents, than the normative adolescents, and the former display more emotional symptoms. The findings also show that gender does not contribute to emotional adjustment in either research group. In the normative group, the age of the adolescent was found to have a small contribution. With regard to internal resources, while both mastery and emotional maturity were found to contribute significantly in the at-risk group, only the emotional maturity of the adolescent was found to contribute in the normative group. Of the external resources, contrary to the research hypotheses, the contribution of peer support was not found to be higher in the normative group. In both groups, and particularly the normative one, parental support contributed to emotional adjustment. The discussion suggests explanations for the research findings and their implications, as well as recommendations for further research.     

Perceived Equity in the Gendered Division of Household Labor

Despite huge imbalances in the division of housework between women and men, previous studies have found perceptions of equity on the part of women to be much more frequent than feelings of injustice. Taking a comparative perspective on the basis of International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2002 data (N = 8,556), we find that, on the individual level, the explanatory frameworks that have been found to influence the actual inequality of household division of labor (time availability, resource dependence, and gender ideology) contribute to the explanation of perceptions of equity, in that they interact with the inequality of the household division of labor. On the country level, the gender‐wage ratio and the average level of inequality are important predictors.     

Preelection Polls in Israel: Structural Constraints on Accuracy

This article examines the last two Israeli election campaignsof 1981 and 1984, and suggests that structural variables greatlyaffect the accuracy of reported preelection polls. Pollsters'quest for more detail and refinement driven by competition andmass media pressures for highly processed predictions is liableto result in less accurate reports. The kind of errors in polls'projections are situation-bound and greatly depend on the natureof the floating vote in the system. Interpollster accuracy,however, is mainly determined by pollster–sponsor dependencies.Pollsters working for political parties projected results morefavorable to their sponsors or less favorable to their sponsors'opponents. Moreover, the stronger the pollster–sponsorstructural dependencies, the greater the inaccuracy.     

Work-family conflict in comparative perspective: The role of social policies

This study focuses on the role of social policies in mitigating work-family incompatibilities in 27 countries. We ask whether work-family conflict is reduced in countries that provide family-friendly policies and flexible employment arrangements, and whether women and men are similarly affected by such policies. The study, based on the ISSP 2002, demonstrates considerable variation among countries in the perceived work-family conflict. In all but two countries, women report higher levels of conflict than men. At the individual level, working hours, the presence of children and work characteristics affect the perception of conflict. At the macro level, childcare availability and to a certain extent maternity leave reduce women's and men's sense of conflict. Additionally, the availability of childcare facilities alleviates the adverse effect of children on work-family balance for mothers while flexible job arrangements intensify this effect.     

Does valuing androgyny and femininity lead to a female advantage? The relationship between gender-role,transformational leadership and identification

The notion of ‘think manager–think male’ has been demonstrated in many studies. The current study examines whether leaders are perceived as more effective when they have ‘feminine’, ‘masculine’ or ‘androgynous’ characteristics, and how this relates to the leader's and followers' sex. Using carefully matched samples of 930 employees of 76 bank managers, we studied the relationship between managers' gender-role identity (perceived ‘femininity’, ‘masculinity’ and ‘androgyny’) and how this relates to leadership effectiveness in terms of transformational leadership and personal identification with the leader. Our findings show that among both male and female leaders, ‘androgyny’ was more strongly related to transformational leadership and followers' identification than ‘non-androgyny’, and that leaders' ‘femininity’ was more strongly related to leadership effectiveness than ‘masculinity’. Furthermore, the results show that women paid a higher penalty for not being perceived as ‘androgynous’ (mixing ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’), in comparison to men with regard to personal identification. When examining same- versus cross-sex relationships, we found that ‘non-androgynous’ male managers were rated higher by their male employees than by their female employees. Our findings suggest that women and men who are interested in being perceived as effective leaders may be well advised to blend ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ behaviors, and even more so when they are in situations of non-congruency (i.e., women in leadership roles and leading in cross-sex relationships). We discuss the implications of these findings for both theory and practice.