These comparative studies by internationally-known scholars in the United States, Hungary, Germany, and the Netherlands provide a cross-national examination of substantially differing circumstances--in hours, earnings, job level, childcare availability, parental leave, and the like--of women's employment. The book's dual focus on micro and macro approaches clarifies the extent to which these variances can be ascribed to differences in the institutional context of employment or to the individual characteristics of female employees. It thereby provides a valuable contribution both to gender studies and to studies on the sociology of work. Women's employment changed dramatically during the second half of the twentieth century. Countries in the northern hemisphere have faced similar trends in labor and employment, yet there are still many contrasts between them when it comes to women's work. In this volume, women's employment is studied in different institutional, structural, and social settings, with the intention of exploring the causes of the differences and similarities in women's employment in different countries and at different times. Three perspectives are used: the macro approach, which provides a thorough and focused understanding of the influence of the institutional context on women's work; the micro approach, which gives insight into the employment behavior of individual women who live in the same social or institutional context; and the macro-micro approach, which makes clear the relative importance to women's work of both individual characteristics and institutional context. While a good deal of information is available on women's employment, a cross-national comparison over time has been lacking. This book fills that all-important niche. Women's Employment in a Comparative Perspective thus has a special relevance for economists as well as sociologists and social work specialists. Tanja Van der Lippe is assistant professor of sociology at the Research School ICS of Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Liset Van Dijk is senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Nivel.

These comparative studies by internationally-known scholars in the United States, Hungary, Germany, and the Netherlands provide a cross-national examination of substantially differing circumstances--in hours, earnings, job level, childcare availability, parental leave, and the like--of women's employment. The book's dual focus on micro and macro approaches clarifies the extent to which these variances can be ascribed to differences in the institutional context of employment or to the individual characteristics of female employees. It thereby provides a valuable contribution both to gender studies and to studies on the sociology of work. Women's employment changed dramatically during the second half of the twentieth century. Countries in the northern hemisphere have faced similar trends in labor and employment, yet there are still many contrasts between them when it comes to women's work. In this volume, women's employment is studied in different institutional, structural, and social settings, with the intention of exploring the causes of the differences and similarities in women's employment in different countries and at different times. Three perspectives are used: the macro approach, which provides a thorough and focused understanding of the influence of the institutional context on women's work; the micro approach, which gives insight into the employment behavior of individual women who live in the same social or institutional context; and the macro-micro approach, which makes clear the relative importance to women's work of both individual characteristics and institutional context. While a good deal of information is available on women's employment, a cross-national comparison over time has been lacking. This book fills that all-important niche. Women's Employment in a Comparative Perspective thus has a special relevance for economists as well as sociologists and social work specialists. Tanja Van der Lippe is assistant professor of sociology at the Research School ICS of Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Liset Van Dijk is senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Nivel.

A guide to the continually evolving field of labour economics.

Gendered Trajectories explores why industrial societies vary in the pace at which they reduce gender inequality and compares changes in women's employment opportunities in Japan and Taiwan over the last half-century. Japan has undergone much less improvement in women's economic status than Taiwan, despite its more advanced economy and greater welfare provisions. The difference is particularly puzzling because the two countries share many institutional practices and values. Drawing on historical trends, survey statistics, and personal interviews with people in both countries, Yu shows how country-specific organizational arrangements and industrial policies affect women's employment. In particular, the conditions faced by Japanese and Taiwanese women in the workplace have a profound effect on their labor force participation at critical points in their lives. Women's lifetime employment decisions in turn shape the divergent trajectories in gender equality. Few studies documenting the development of women's economic lives are based on non-Western societies and even fewer adopt a comparative perspective. This perceptive work demonstrates and underscores the importance of understanding gender inequality as a long-term, dynamic social process.

This was first published in 2000: This work is founded on the premise that many analyses of economic restructuring and of gender relations fail to recognize two things. First, the situation facing women is different from that of the 1960s when the conceptual apparatuses for analyzing "women and work" were created. Labour markets are dominated by flexible, non-standard work, precarious contractual relations and income disparities. Therefore, it is difficult to structure political claims or analysis around the notion that there is a single labour market, that the primary problem is discrimination or inappropriate training, and that political strategies should focus on discrimination and non-traditional employment. Rather, new challenges require new solutions. The second point of departure is that is is impossible to understand either contemporary labour markets, or the roots of employment and other public policies without locating them vis a vis patterns of gender inequalities generated by and in these labour markets. The labour force has been feminized to such an extent that new, and often unequal gender relations are crucial to their very functioning.

When we compare Eastern and Western societies, we find similar economic and social forces at work. But the impact of these on family life reflects differences in cultural history and social context. This volume examines family change in Korea, Japan, and the United States, allowing us to contrast the collective emphasis of a Confucian social heritage with the individualism of the West. An impressive group of demographers and family sociologists considers such questions as: How do family patterns vary within countries and across societies? How essential are marriage and parenthood? How do levels of contact between middle-aged adults and their parents who live elsewhere differ in East Asian countries and the U.S.? How does female employment vary based on family factors and do these factors affect employment across societies? Policy makers and demographic and family researchers both in the U.S. and Asia will find this book a vital resource for understanding the dynamics of family life in contrasting modern societies. Contributors: Larry L. Bumpass, Yong-Chan Byun, Minja Kim Choe, Karen Oppenheim Mason, Ronald R. Rindfluss, Noriko O. Tsuya.

Since the ILO's founding in 1919, gender equality and non-discrimination have been pillars of its mission to promote social justice through the world of work. As the Organization approaches its second century, it has chosen to focus on women at work as one of its centenary initiatives. Women at Work: Trends 2016 is a key contribution to these efforts and seeks to further the central goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The report provides a picture of where women stand today in the world of work and how they have progressed over the past 20 years. It examines the global and regional labour market trend and gaps, including in labour force participation rates, employment-to-population rates and unemployment rates, as well as differences in the type and status in employment, hours spent in paid and unpaid work, sectoral segregation and gender gaps in wages and social protection. It also presents an in-depth analysis of the gender gaps in the quality of work and explores the key policy drivers for gender transformative change. The discussions and related recommendations focus on three main dimensions: sectoral and occupational segregation, the gender wage gap, and gaps in the policy framework for work and family integration.