Suchergebnisse

How do women juggle earning a paycheck with parenting? What creative ways have women devised to shore up these families? How do they incorporate men into their child-centered families? This book provides answers to all these questions, offering an account of how middle class women have managed to make single parenthood work for them.

Institutional change has a human face. This paper explores how a select group of women in China and India experienced economic and political turmoil and why they chose to become change agents. Through in-depth interviews with 40 women from NGOs, government agencies and private business, four broad moments in the evolution of a change agent are identified and discussed: (1) awareness of a double-bind; (2) reframing the tension induced by that double-bind; (3) becoming an agent of change; and (4) building a vibrant network. To highlight these key features, four women's narratives are discussed in greater depth from recognizing injustice to taking a non-traditional stand. The paper concludes with a call for further comparative work on the role of personal narratives in shaping a movement for change.

A review essay on books by (1) Mary Blair-Loy, Competing Devotions: Career and Family among Women Executives (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press, 2003); (2) Phyllis Moen (Ed), It's about Time: Couples and Careers (Ithaca, NY: Cornell U Press, 2003); (3) Harriet B. Presser, Working in a 24/7 Economy: Challenges for American Families (New York: Russell Sage, 2003); & (4) Janet C. Gornick & Marcia K. Meyers, Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment (New York: Russell Sage, 2003). 9 References.

Interview data collected in 1993-1995 from 95 dual-earner couples & 1995-1997 from 52 single, unwed mothers, who have actively placed family at the center of their lives, reveal that the strategies they adopt to navigate the work world depend on their position in the labor market as well as marital status. Some dual-earner families jointly calculate scheduling & job trajectories while utilizing benefits from both of their employees; others reluctantly coparent because of underemployment. Single mothers who have professional or technical skills try to make special accommodations with bosses, or they become contract workers, while less-skilled single mothers need benefits to avoid having to work several jobs. In addition, some single mothers have developed extensive networks & advocate for more community support of childrearing. Most working parents committed to keeping their families at the center have pursued nontraditional career paths. Ideologies about families & parenting may shape strategies about employment more often than workplace norms or work-family policies. 21 References. Adapted from the source document.