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Maternity leave is not federally guaranteed or paid in the United States. Although there has been an increase of women in the workforce, federal maternity leave policy has not changed since the adoption of the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. The subjective quality of this maternity leave is likely an important component of what mothers perceive to be decent work. However, no scholars have developed measurements examining mothers’ subjective experiences of the quality of their maternity leave. Therefore, the goal of the current research was to develop scales measuring six domains of quality of maternity leave: time off, flexibility, coworker support, discrimination, microaggressions, and benefits (e.g., pay, health care, disability insurance). In two studies with diverse samples of working, adult mothers, we provide evidence for the factor structure, validity, and internal consistency of the Quality of Maternity Leave Scales.

Participation of women in the workforce is crucial for any economy to optimally utilize the potential of its full human capital. However, according to the Global Gender Gap Report (2016) by...

Since the 2002 Barcelona summit, Germany has been seen as a regional leader in achieving European states’ shared commitment to increase state-funded childcare. Yet Germany’s childcare success has not been homogeneous across its Länder; rather, it has shown remarkable subnational variation, with considerable differences in spending, policy design and coverage. Using panel data analysis and historical narratives, this article provides a theory for variation in provision of state-financed childcare for children under three years of age. We argue that competing visions of childcare at the subnational level – driven by the demands of differing numbers of women in the workforce and religious beliefs, and channelled by local government partisanship – have served as powerful constraints on convergence. Left partisanship and increased participation of women in the labour force are associated with higher provision of childcare for those aged under three, while larger Catholic populations are correlated with less extensive state-funded childcare.

Caroline Alcorso is an experienced Researcher and Expert on women’s issues, and a Social Policy Practitioner in women’s health, women in the workforce, and immigrant and refugee women, who has worked for state and national governments. Currently working for the New South Wales (NSW) government, she has published on immigrant workers in the hotel and information technology industries, non-English-speaking background women’s health, and a range of industrial and employment issues. She is also an expert on workforce development policy and practice. This article is written in a private capacity.

As the proportion of racial/ethnic minorities and women in the workforce has increased, there has been the growing concern of integrating them into the mainstream of the organization. This study explores how demographic diversity (racial and gender diversity) of management influences job satisfaction of employees in public organizations. It contributes to our understanding of the role of demographically diverse managerial teams in managing the workforce by analyzing the recent data from 191 federal agencies collected in 2008 and by using a methodologically rigorous method (multilevel modeling). The results show that the higher proportion of racial/ethnic minorities and women in managerial positions is negatively related to employee job satisfaction. Racial/ethnic minorities are more satisfied with their job and organization when there are higher levels of racial/ethnic diversity in managerial positions. No significantly different impacts of gender diversity on job satisfaction of men and women were found. Diversity climate positively moderates the relationships between racial/ethnic and gender diversity of managers and job satisfaction of employees, whereas procedural justice and leadership negatively moderated the relationships.

Interest in women and work issues continued throughout 2010, with attention turning to the implementation of policies and utilization of the Fair Work Act to improve the position of Australian women in the workforce. Policy development continued for paid parental leave, with the new scheme launched in October 2010 and payments commencing from 1 January 2011. Together with the Fair Work Act, a new policy base around work and family has been established. The year 2010 was also marked by a focus on matters relating to pay equity, sexual harassment and the lack of women in corporate leadership roles.

This paper tries to explore decision making phenomenon among husbands-wives with respect to purchase of high involvement items. While selecting the purchase items, care has been taken to qualify them in terms of evidence of pronounced decision making, involvement of huge financial outlay, and prolonged consumption over a wide span of time. Since 1970's decision making and subsequent purchase roles played by husband-wives in household has witnessed a tremendous shift in the Western countries. This is governed by demographic factors like increasing women in the workforce, higher educational standards, and delayed age of marriage. As a fallout of this trend, the topic assumes significance, and effort has been made to study if there is an underlying shift in decision making observed in Indian households. This is achieved through measurement of the relative influence exerted by husbands and wives in purchase decisions

Women in the workforce, especially those in professional and management positions, are doubly burdened by social traditions that expect workers to meet masculine standards at the office while maintaining their feminine role of nurturer at home. This article studies the social costs of female career progression using a survey of 1,600 respondents from different levels of the public sector. The results show that working women have an increased incidence of being single or divorced, married working women tend to have more housework responsibilities, and working women have fewer children or are childless. The article concludes that government and business organizations need to pay serious attention to this hidden problem of social costs that affect women and men disproportionately.

This study examined how social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) were related to two different forms of prejudice against working women: employment skepticism and traditional role preference. Three hundred forty-nine American adults completed measures of SDO, RWA, employment skepticism, traditional role preference, hostile sexism, and benevolent sexism. Multiple regression analyses revealed that SDO accounted for significant variability in both employment skepticism and traditional role preference, and that RWA accounted for significant variability in traditional role preference. Mediational analyses suggested that hostile sexism attenuated the relationship between SDO and employment skepticism, and benevolent sexism attenuated the relationship between RWA and traditional role preference. Results are discussed with respect to different forms of prejudice against working women and how each one might be rooted in different ideological preferences.

In 2001, a Canadian national study examined the perspectives of childcare directors and parents on the care of mildly ill children in childcare (Polyzoi et al., 2001). A survey was conducted to examine how 328 childcare facilities (centers and family childcare homes) and 742 parents cope with providing care for children with mild illnesses (cold, flu, ear infections,chicken pox, conjunctivitis, etc.). This article briefly compares the preferences of childcare directors and parents for selected models of care for mildly ill children as determined by the 2001 national study. It also examines, in detail, the issues and concerns raised by parents and directors in the qualitative portion of that national study, using grounded theory.A multi-faceted approach is suggested by the data – with involvement of all stakeholders including employers, government, unions, media, parents, and the childcare community – to help alleviate the work-family stress associated with the care of mildly ill children.

Stress is becoming more significant for women, along with the increasing number of women in the workforce. The present study compared women with respect to burnout and coping abilities, and related to the impact of educational level on differences in coping strategies. Women with coronary heart disease reported a higher level of burnout and had the highest scores demonstrating lack of coping, which indicates lesser coping abilities. Differences concerning strain reduction, self-control and emotional distancing are discussed in terms of living conditions. We also discuss that in order to optimize the outcome of rehabilitation and prevention we need more research on women, of women and especially from women’s point of view.

L'affaire Clinton, a president lured by the thong of temptress Monica, became the major media spectacle of the late '90s. Rural, Southern, conservative Christians regarded him as the symbol of the social, sexual, and civil rights revolutions of the '60s that had been an affront to their values. The attempt to remove him from office was a “culture war” in which his detractors had not understood just how far the political center of the country had moved. Given greater levels of education, more women in the workforce, and growing cosmopolitanism, the country had become more socially liberal and regarded his peccadilloes as his own business. Moreover, the rank hypocrisy of his accusers gave them little credibility. Nevertheless, as a political soap opera, its cast of characters, its sex, sin, betrayals, courtroom drama, and contrition was another step eroding the boundaries of the political and entertainment in an “amusement society.”

Organizations are increasingly relying on informal leaders within teams to positively affect team outcomes. Also, as the percentage of women in the workforce grows, women are likely to shoulder more of the informal leadership responsibility within teams. This study explores the relationship of team performance and team cohesion to informal leadership dispersion and the gender composition of the informal leadership core within 21 intact manufacturing teams. The results indicate that informal leadership dispersion (the number of perceived informal leaders divided by team size) is positively related to team cohesion. In addition, when females compose a larger portion of the informal leadership core, supervisors’ratings of team performance are higher.

An aging population is changing the nature of the workplace. When combined with age discrimination legislation, employers now face the fact that they can no longer ignore and then quietly retire their older workers. One outcome of this is that the proportion of older workers is increasing. Further, they intend to stay at work longer and resist being an easy target for organizations when they restructure. Because of the magnitude of this workplace phenomenon, human resource managers need to be aware of issues related to older workers. This article provides an insight into the unique nature of older workers, their expectations and some consequent implications for organizations. Together with strategy and policy considerations for managing older workers, the role of older women in the workforce is also reviewed. Where possible, Australian research is cited but this article is not intentionally nation specific.

Realising the potential of both males and females should be an important objective of every nation. Analysis of the status of women in the workforce provides support for the argument that many women are functioning as underachievers, a loss not only to themselves as they fail to realise their full potential, but also to society which is deprived of their full contribution. In this paper the special challenges for gifted girls are highlighted in a gender issues unit offered to students attending a Primary Extension and Challenge program. A single-sex setting for gifted girls is explored and evaluated. The realization of potential through the breaking with tradition and keeping options and choices open is an important issue for the girls.

This article surveys the Australian literature on the labour market involvement of women. The increasing prominence of women in the workforce has generated a research effort designed to investigate various aspects of women's employment, unemployment, work experience and earnings. Recently there has been an upsurge of interest in women's issues which has prompted an intensification of research into the role of women in the labour market. However, there remain a number of impor tant gaps in our understanding of that role, notably with regard to the workforce behaviour of women, the factors influencing the maintenance of occupational segregation of the sexes, and the significance and nature of discrimination in depressing the relative earnings of women.

The significant gap between men's and women's wages in Australia has been reinforced by sociological, economic and judicial factors. The implementation of the principle of 'equal pay for equal work' has done little to remedy the inequity for the majority of women in the workforce, who are engaged in sex-segregated occupa tions, because they have not been considered to perform 'work of the same or a like nature'. Analysis of the Universities (Equal Pay) Case illustrates, however, that the introduction of the broader principle of 'equal pay for work of equal ualue' is under mined if applicants still endeavour to demonstrate that women are engaged in work identical in nature to a predominantly male classification. Such an approach is inappropriate in the case of women clerical workers since the number of men involved in keyboard and transcription work is minuscule. This work has become stigmatised as per se inferior and as justifying a low rate of pay regardless of other administrative duties performed. An 'equal valtre' case should be able to be framed in such a way that the work of women in female-dominated occupations can be compared systematically with that of men employed in discrete, male-dominated occupations in the community in respect of education, training and expertise required.