Work, Economy and Organizations Commons^™

Gender, Vulnerabilities, And How The Other Becomes The Otherer In Academia, Esme Franken, Fleur Sharafizad, Kerry Brown

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article draws on the work of Judith Butler, particularly the notion of vulnerability in/as resistance, to explore the gendered experiences of women in Australian academia. Through employing an arts-based research method, Draw, Write, and Reflect, with women academics in Australia, we explore the ways in which vulnerabilities are identified and navigated in the context of academia. Our study identified three key forms of vulnerabilities: the expectation paradox, the body, and age and experience. Such vulnerabilities appeared to be navigated through acts of othering, denying, and overcoming. We return to Butler's call for the creation of gender trouble in making …

Towards Safer Recruitment Of Ethiopian Women Into Domestic Work Abroad: Early Findings From The Meneshachin ‘Our Departure’ Qualitative Study, Joanna Busza, Zewdneh Shewamene, Cathy Zimmerman

Gender Equality and Equity

This report presents preliminary findings from the first phase of data collection of the Meneshachin ‘Our Departure’ qualitative study conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in collaboration with the Population Council in Ethiopia and the Freedom Fund, with support and funding from the U.S. Department of State. The study aims to inform the development of feasible, responsible recruitment measures that could reduce the risk of labor exploitation and trafficking experienced by Ethiopian migrant women seeking domestic work abroad. The research focuses on the role of different actors in arranging Ethiopian women’s migration to the Middle East …

Wealth Accumulation By Hypogamy In Own And Parental Education In China, Cheng Cheng, Yang Zhou

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objective: This study examines how household wealth accumulation varies by different types of hypogamy on the basis of couples' own and parental education. Background: Educational hypogamy (wives having more education than their husbands) is increasingly relevant in many societies, given the reversal of the gender gap in education. Prior research has studied how marital sorting on couples' own education shapes their individual earnings trajectories. Few have examined the implications of marital sorting on parental education for family-level economic well-being. Method: Using data from the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies and multilevel growth curve models, this study examined how household wealth …

Improving Networking Supports For Women In The Workplace, Karen E. Pennesi, Javier Alvarez Vandeputte, Zsofia Agoston, Rawand Amsdr

Anthropology Publications

This report describes findings from research on networking activities and strategies among women in executive and leadership positions in Canadian organizations. The project was carried out by graduate student researchers in collaboration with the Women's Executive Network. Networking is defined as the creation and maintenance of a community of diverse interests, through in-person and online engagements, that can be mobilized for the benefit of oneself or other members of one’s network. We found that the shift to primarily online networking activities due to COVID-19 removed some existing barriers related to age, gender and location, while introducing others related to family …

The State Of The Unions 2021: A Profile Of Organized Labor In New York City, New York State, And The United States, Ruth Milkman, Stephanie Luce

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns generated vast job losses across the United States. The New York City metropolitan area, where the pandemic’s impact was felt earlier than elsewhere in the country, suffered severe job losses in 2020. The decline in employment among women workers was greater than among men — in sharp contrast to the Great Recession, which hit men’s employment harder. The State of the Unions 2021, A Profile of Organized Labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States, presents data on gender, union membership, and job losses in the COVID-19 economic downturn …

Selling A Resume And Buying A Job: Stratification Of Gender And Occupation By States And Brokers In International Migration From Indonesia, Andy Scott Chang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study examines how state and commercial actors construct gender, occupation, and nationality hierarchies in guest worker programs by comparing the migratory procedures for female domestic workers and male industrial operators from Indonesia. Based on 19 months of multi-sited ethnography and 86 interviews in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore, I introduce the notion of multilateralism to theorize the stratification of global migration processes. In multilateral labor markets, governments, brokers, employers, and migrants in multiple countries contend for labor and employment. The homecare market is governed under the rubric of “selling a resume,” whereby Indonesian regulators and labor suppliers pass on recruitment …

When Losing Your Job Feels Like Losing Your Self, Aliya Hamid Rao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

I interviewed Todd, a marketing professional, in 2014 for my forthcoming book, Crunch Time: How Married Couples Confront Unemployment, which focuses on the unemployment experiences of highly educated, married professionals with children in the U.S. Like dozens of other professionals I interviewed, Todd’s employment is key to his sense of self, determining how he measures his social status and self-worth. Yet, this self-worth is constantly threatened, because professionals like Todd have become recent casualties of a pervasive labor market uncertainty that existed long before the coronavirus pandemic.

Navigating Cultures And Development: An Account Of A Female Peace Corps Volunteer In Morocco, Renee Palecek

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

Little is known of how the “doers” of development may navigate regarding her community’s culture and her job in international development. This lack of knowledge leads to the erasure of experiences, felt both by the volunteer herself, as well as the community members she works with. Through autoethnographic methodology, and analysis, I retell my experiences and entanglements as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco with Moroccan institutions and culture, with my own identities and prior American socialization. I examine three questions: (1) How does the female PCV in Morocco make sense out of and create value from life events, relationships, …

From Professionals To Professional Mothers?: How College-Educated, Married Mothers Experience Unemployment In The Us, Aliya Hamid Rao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Unemployment influences life experiences and outcomes, but how it does so may be shaped by gender and parenthood. Because research on unemployment focuses on men’s experiences of unemployment, it presents as universal a process that may be gendered. This article asks: how do college-educated, heterosexual, married mothers experience involuntary unemployment? Drawing on in-depth interviews with unemployed mothers in the US, their husbands, and follow-up interviews, this article finds that the experience of job loss is tempered for mothers as they derive a culturally valued identity from motherhood which also anchors their lives. Husbands’ support emphasises that employment is one of …

Leadership And Behavioral Integrity In The Restaurant Industry: The Moderating Roles Of Gender, Anthony Gatling, Denise H. Ramirez Molintas, Timothy T. Self, Cass Shum

Hospitality Faculty Research

This study examined the effect of follower’s gender on the relationship between leaders’ enacted behavioral integrity (objective manipulation), follower’s perception of leaders’ behavioral integrity (subjective behavioral integrity), and subsequent trust in the leader. It is proposed that female followers are more sensitive to and have stronger trust reactions to leaders’ behavioral integrity. Data was collected from 257 supervisors working in the restaurant industry using a scenario experiment. Results indicated that females have a stronger perception of the leaders’ behavioral integrity relationship and a stronger trust in the leader than their male counterpart. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings were …

The Influence Of Gender On Female Business Owners In Ho Chi Minh City, Abby Busis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ho Chi Minh City is commonly referred to as a developing business hub, largely due to the rapidly increasing number of private enterprises. Since the implementation of the Doi Moi in 1986, Vietnam’s private business sphere has grown tremendously, and women have played a large role in this development. Today, women own just under a quarter of formal enterprises in Vietnam, but this impressive statistic does not consider the many challenges these women have faced.

Through in-depth interviews with female business owners themselves, along with an online survey, this study determines how gender influences these business owners’ professional experiences. Gender …

Spatial Variation In U.S. Labor Markets And Workplace Gender Segregation: 1980–2005, Tiffany Taylor, Brianna Turgeon, Alison Buck, Katrina Bloch, Jacob Church

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Many studies of workplace inequality have examined why workplace gender segregation still exists and how gender segregation affects workplaces (Cohen, Huffman, and Knauer 2009 Work and Occupations 36(4):318; Huffman, Cohen, and Pearlman 2010 Administrative Science Quarterly 55(2):255). Yet, fewer studies have examined how space might affect gender segregation. In this paper, we investigate two types of space, normative space and industrial space, and their influence on gender workplace segregation within geographic space. We use data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and mixed models to examine how normative and industrial spaces affect workplaces within geographic space. We find …

Women's Experiences On The Path To A Career In Game Development, Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josee Legault

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This chapter seeks to identify whether there is a dominant, presupposed career pipeline to a career in game development and then looks for women and women’s experiences at each stage of that pipeline. It concludes that a dominant pipeline does exist and that this pathway both disadvantages women who attempt it and marginalizes other pathways. Along the way women deal with obstacles that can delegitimize their choices and experiences and/or make the assumed pathway inhospitable. This chapter relies on published literature as well as data from the 2014 and 2015 Developer Satisfaction Surveys (DSS) conducted by the International Game Developers …

Shaped By Changing Space: Exploring Gender And The Discourse Of Empowerment In Sikles, Nepal, Rachel Yanover

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Development work as it relates to women in Nepal is an ongoing topic of debate and discussion that may never have a concrete end. In the late 1970’s Indian women took a stand in defending their livelihood against commercial logging operations with authorities. This event was known as the Chipko movement and is often cited within the history of women and development as it caused people to “engage the question of gender and gendered livelihoods in the Himalayas” (Gurarani and Berry, 2015). It was women who served as the backbone of this movement in organizing nonviolent demonstrations against commercial deforestation. …

Balika Fact Sheet: Highlight On Livelihoods, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

There are few income-earning opportunities for adolescent girls in the Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income, and Knowledge for Adolescents (BALIKA) study area, and livelihoods opportunities vary considerably by economic status and education. The ability to acquire livelihood-relevant skills, networks, and work experience during adolescence can be an important predictor of productive capacity later in life. However, across the study districts, the proportion of adolescent girls who are working is low. Most girls work as tutors or are engaged in the agricultural and poultry sector. Better-educated girls are more likely to be engaged in paid work. This BALIKA “Highlight on …

Foodwork Or Foodplay? Men’S Domestic Cooking, Privilege And Leisure, Michelle Szabo

Publications and Scholarship

Market research documents a rising passion for cooking among men. Yet, some feminists argue that men see cooking as ‘leisure’ in part because they have distance from day-to-day care obligations. However, empirical research on men’s home cooking is still limited. This article investigates the relationship between cooking and leisure among 30 Canadian men with significant household cooking responsibilities. Drawing on interview, observational and diary data, and poststructural conceptualizations of leisure, I ask, to what extent do these men understand cooking as leisure and why? Opposing the notion that women’s cooking is ‘work’ and men’s, ‘leisure’, I find that these men …

Informality And Labor Market Dynamics During Economic Downturns: Evidence From Egypt, Rania Roushdy, May Gadallah

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This working paper investigates the evolution of the Egyptian labor market during the world financial crisis period. There has been a mild decline in unemployment, combined with a slight increase in both labor force participation and employment to population ratio. Some subgroups of workers have been more vulnerable than others during the crisis period. The results of this paper concur with the historical experience, which suggests that young, old, unskilled and female workers are more likely to bear the brunt of an economic downturn.

Time For Myself, Time For Others: Gender Differences In The Meaning Of Retirement, Kate L. Lanning

Sociology Honors Projects

Research has demonstrated that work is a meaningful activity that contributes to peoples' identities. This meaning, however, may depend on the stage of the life course that one is in, and may be gendered. To contribute to understanding the social meaning of work and potentially gendered life-course transitions, I examine the experiences of older adults with work and retirement. Through interviews with both retired and working older adults, I examine whether and how older men and women differ from each other in the workplace and in retirement. Men and women face different challenges if they continue to work and when …

Factors Of Career Mobility In Egypt By Gender, May Gadallah

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This Population Council working paper describes the opportunity cost of women’s participation in the labor market in Egypt, a critical determinant of not only participating in the labor market, but also of continuing in it. The paper observes career mobility and job-to-job turnover by gender; it also looks at career development over a period of time and analyzes the impact of different factors on career development. The importance of the results increases with the privatization trend in the Egyptian economy. Findings show that 90 percent of women work in the public sector where career paths are similar regardless of gender; …

Creating And Responding To The Gen(D)Eralized Other: Women Miners’ Community-Constructed Identities, Kristen Lucas, Sarah J. Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

An analysis of interviews with mining families reveals that gender identity construction is a collaborative process that draws upon broader community discourses. Male miners and non-mining women created a generalized other for women as "unfit to mine" (i.e., women are physically too weak to mine, are easy prey, and are ladies who do not belong in the mines). Female miners responded with gendered discourses that distanced themselves from and linked themselves to the generalized other.

Corporate And Individual Influences On Managers' Social Orientation, Joachim W. Marz, Thomas L. Powers, Thomas Queisser

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper reports research on the influence of corporate and individual characteristics on managers' social orientation in Germany. The results indicate that mid-level managers expressed a significantly lower social orientation than low-level managers, and that job activity did not impact social orientation. Female respondents expressed a higher social orientation than male respondents. No impact of the political system origin (former East Germany versus former West Germany) on social orientation was shown. Overall, corporate position had a significantly higher impact on social orientation than did the characteristics of the individuals surveyed.

Technocratic Teamwork: Mitigating Polarization And Cultural Marginalization In An Engineering Firm, Jerry K. Daday, Beverly B. Burris

Sociology Faculty Publications

Many corporations attempt to establish a unified corporate culture as a way of orienting employees toward corporate goals and objectives. However, a technocratic organizational structure has been found to exist in many high-tech corporations, which divides employees into an expert and non-expert sector based on differences in credentials and technical expertise. Because of this division, employees working within these two sectors experience differences in corporate rewards, worker autonomy, and creative freedoms. These factors have been found to lead to a polarized, divided, and discontented workforce. To understand how a technocratic structure influences and affects a dominant corporate culture and organizational …

What Sex Is Your Parachute? Interest Inventory/Counseling Models And The Perpetuation Of The Sex/Wage Segregation Of The Labor Market, Helen A. Moore, Jane Ollenburger

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This article explores the “gender model” of job research instruments that are based on the Holland Occupational Classification scheme. The six Holland “environments” constitute a ubiquitous base for tests and measures in career counseling and research. Analysis of the 1973 Quality of Employment Survey provides evidence that the Holland Classification scheme replicates the segmentation of women into certain occupations that generate low pay, even after controlling for worker education, job tenure, and age. Comparable data for male wage earners show a significant segregation away from low-income, predominantly female occupations. Thus the Holland occupational scheme and the instruments based upon it …