Women's employment is one of the most widely-discussed and often-misunderstood issues of modern society. Are women today oppressed, or do they have the best of both worlds? Do women have to go out to work to gain equality with men, or do they already do more than their share of domestic work, caring work and voluntary work as well as work in the informal economy? Do women seek careers on the same terms as men, or are they content to be dependent wives or secondary earners taking jobs on a short-term basis? How important is job segregation in explaining the 20% pay gap between men and women? Have equal opportunities laws had any real impact? Are women in Europe lagging behind, or are they at the forefront of developments in modern societies? This new updated edition of Catherine Hakim's classic text addresses all the key issues currently debated in relation to women's work - in the domestic sphere, as well as paid employment. Dr Hakim tests the power of patriarchy theory and preference theory against economic theories. Sex discrimination, work-life balance, part-time work, flexible hours, homeworking, career patterns across the life cycle, labour mobility, labour turnover, the returns to education, occupational segregation, the pay gap, the glass ceiling, and the impact of European Union policies are all considered. Analysis of historical developments over the twentieth century, based on censuses, is complemented by case studies of people working in occupations undergoing dramatic change. Throughout the book, comparisons are drawn between the USA, Britain, other European countries, Canada, Australia, and also China, Japan and other Far Eastern societies. The analysis draws on sociology, economics, psychology, labour law, history and social anthropology to conclude that the diversity of women's life goals and lifestyle preferences is increasing. This explains the growing polarisation of women's employment and many contradictory recent research results.

This book brings together the latest European and North American research on a series of key topics in the field of women's employment. Drawing on published and easily accessible statistics, it sets the topics in the appropriate policy contexts and systematically appraises them from the viewpoint of the challenges for the management of human resources. The book explores: occupational segregation the pay gap work-life balance part-time working women, work and pensions women in professional occupations equality and diversity management women and trade unions. This is a highly useful book suitable for a wide range of courses including business studies, sociology, social policy and gender studies.

The 20th century was a period of unrivalled change in the British labour market. Covering topics from lifetime work patterns and education to unemployment and the welfare state, this volume charts the transformation of work and pay across the 20th century. It provides the labour focused history of Britain.

Social exclusion is a key problem for policy makers, researchers and professionals worldwide. Despite this, the debate lacks a dominant disciplinary focus. This innovative handbook covers evidence from key research and policy to offer cross-disciplinary perspectives on major areas of social exclusion. Focusing on central policy domains including education, healthcare and crime, it is structured so as to relate evidence to the state of social exclusion and the mechanisms by which it can be tackled. It book will be an unrivalled reference for academics and practitioners working across disciplines including housing, education, psychology, political science, healthcare, sociology and law.

This comprehensive volume focuses on the world's religions and the changes they have undergone as they become more global and diverse in form. It explores the religions of the world not only in the regions with which they have been historically associated, but also looks at the new cultural and religious contexts in which they are developing. It considers the role of migration in the spread of religions by examining the issues raised for modern societies by the increasing interaction of different religions. The volume also addresses such central questions as the dynamics of religious innovation which is evidenced in the rise and impact of new religious and new spirituality movements in every continent.

This text examines the changes in family practices and paid work in the 21st century. Its main focus is highly qualified working mothers with very young children, but also takes into account the views of fathers.

The number of women in senior management remains stubbornly low. Women Who Succeed examines the real life experiences of forty-six senior women who have 'made it' into senior management. It considers the strategies that these women adopted, the support they received and the relationships they formed in building their careers.