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Women workers and their role in the tea plantations have received relatively scant attention in plantation literature and women’s studies although they dominate the tea industry. Women workers are an asset and backbone of the tea industry, and despite their contributions women workers have always been relegated to the bottom strata and considered the most abundant and cheapest labour force rather than as a source of specialised labour. Workers still earn meagre incomes, suffer from low levels of health care and personal well-being, lives entrapped in poverty and are cut off from the mainstream. The entire spectrum of elements, which acts as a barrier to the equitable participation of women in development, ranges from education, training, health, cultural and social considerations. This paper deals with the participation of women in the workforce and the impact on their socio-economic life. It also examines the ways in which women workers are marginalised on multiple fronts: casualisation of the workforce, upward occupational mobility and political space of trade unions.

In analyzing the many stereotypes surrounding Arab Middle Eastern women’s employment issues, this article focuses on women’s labor participation and their career development in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. We first unpack the stereotypes by demonstrating the progress of women’s labor participation in the region. We then uncover the critical challenges of a high female unemployment rate during GCC countries’ economic transformation in the non-oil sectors. We discuss the factors contributing to low women’s labor participation and the difficulty of career advancement for women, including (1) norms and traditions; (2) job opportunities and workplace discrimination; and (3) role models, mentors, and networking. Finally, we provide recommendations on how to improve women’s labor participation by involving the public and private sectors, deploying technology, and engaging in multilevel mindset change.

The roles of women in the workforce have changed significantly over the past several decades. While there has been considerable progress made by women into leadership positions, this progress has b...

Introduction: In recent years, a significant increase in elderly population, modernization, industrial improvements, and greater involvement of women in the workforce have led to an increase in elder abuse. Elder abuse and frequent emotional abuse of the elderly have significant negative effects on their health and well-being. This study was conducted to evaluate the level of emotional abuse perceived by the elderly living in nursing homes. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out between June 15 and July 15, 2017, at the Nursing Home Elderly Care and Rehabilitation Center in Adana, Turkey. The study sample consisted of a total of 118 elderly individuals who were selected using a simple random sampling method. Research data were collected using a personal information form and the perceived emotional abuse scale for adults (PEASA). The study results were evaluated using the IBM SPSS Statistics 22 (IBM SPSS, Turkey) program. The statistical significance level was set at P 0.05). Conclusion: The study results showed that the mean PEASA score of elderly individuals living in nursing homes was slightly above the scale mean score in general, and these individual perceived moderate emotional abuse.

The education of women is not imperative for the benefit for the women only but uplift of the society also. Today, women from all corners started working in government, semi government or private salaried jobs. The entry of women in the workforce brings changes in the structure and function of family. Every member of the family occupies a vital position in the interaction map of the child but among them the role of mother is important and varied. Mother plays important role in the personality development of the children by shaping their intellectual and social behavour. Thus, The present study was undertaken to assess knowledge about the behavioural problems of preschool age (3-6 years) of non-employed mothers. The total sample for the present study consisted of 40 randomly selected (lottery) mothers from four randomly selected residential colonies of Bikaner city. 10 non-employed mothers were selected randomly (lottery) from each selected colony. The data were collected through interview schedule prepared by Gupta (2006). Frequency, percentage, was computed to assess the aspects of the behavioural problems of preschoolers of non-employed mothers. The assessment of knowledge of non-employed mothers revealed that majority of employed mothers had high knowledge about behavioural problems of preschoolers as compared to non employed mothers and knowledge was also found highly significant between employed and non-employed mothers.

The involvement of women at the workplace has often been related to work-family conflict. Work-family conflict is the amount of conflict an individual experiences whilst trying to adjust her jobs or career and home-life, whereby dual carrier women are faced with time pressures such as rush jobs and deadlines. In general, numerous studies done in the West and East have focused on the negative impacts of work on the family. In Malaysia, the increase of women in the workforce and families with dual work is a common phenomenon. Hence, the focus on developing women capital should be considered as one of the valuable human resource assets towards developing the nation. Based on this premise, the objective of the paper is to look at whether working time and organizational support contribute to work- family conflict. The data in this study was collected through questionnaires and interviews. The findings indicate that working time and work-family culture had a positive relationship with work-family conflict. Finally, the paper discusses various ways in which workplace organization can promote family- friendly policies in order to promote gender equality and enhance women capital in Malaysia.

Purpose Few studies have explored the work challenges and career barriers faced by women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Drawing on Institutional Theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of employed Saudi women through in-depth interviews. Design/methodology/approach The paper employs a phenomenological qualitative approach drawing on 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Saudi women. Findings The findings reveal a significant number of prominent societal and organizational structural and attitudinal barriers to the advancement of Saudi women in paid employment. Among others, these barriers include a lack of mobility; the salience of gender stereotypes; gender discrimination in the workplace; limited opportunities for growth, development, and career advancement; excessive workload caused by a lack of family-work balance; and gender-based challenges related to dealing with pregnancy. Research limitations/implications Despite the contributions of this study, it also has limitations, particularly the convenience sampling approach and the focus on the KSA. The small sample size means that the findings cannot be generalized to all women employed in Saudi Arabia and should be generalized within Saudi Arabia and other Arab societies only with caution. Originality/value The paper contributes to the understanding of work challenges and barriers of Saudi women in the workforce. It provides fresh insights to the issues surrounding women in Saudi Arabia and the need to address them in order to provide support for their career advancement.

Female labor force participation is important for women, children, and societies, but also may have unintended impacts including an increased risk of intimate partner violence (IPV). IPV is a global health, human rights, and development problem with far-reaching economic and societal consequences. Mexico has a very high prevalence of IPV: 43.9% of Mexican women have reported experiencing IPV at the hands of their current partner. The literature on women’s economic participation reveals mixed evidence on whether women’s employment is associated with higher levels of IPV or whether it is protective against IPV. As the effect of women’s work operates differently across contexts, we aim to estimate the effect of women’s employment on their risk of experiencing IPV in rural and urban Mexico. Utilizing the nationally representative 2016 Mexican National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships (ENDIREH), we employ propensity score matching (PSM) to address the potential selection bias between women who are employed and/or receiving a cash transfer with women who are not. We additionally implement inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) to explore this relationship and compare the results with the PSM findings. Three different measures of women’s economic participation are analyzed: whether they had engaged in any productive work outside of the home in the past year, whether they received conditional cash transfers through Mexico’s Prospera program, and whether they received Prospera and worked. Given the high levels of IPV in Mexico and the greater levels of economic participation borne of an increased number of women in the workforce, our results have important potential implications for targeting support to survivors of violence who receive cash transfers and undertake employment in both urban and rural areas.

Background The past 50 years has been marked by the increasing participation of women in the workforce. There is some evidence that this expansion of women into the workforce may impose a mental health burden on women, and it is popularly speculated that children are also adversely affected. This analysis aimed to examine the associations between household workforce participation (household employment configuration) on the mental health of mothers and children Methods Six waves of data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children were used, from 2004 (when children were aged 4–5 years) to 2014 (age 14–15 years). Mental health outcome measures were the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire scores for children and adolescents, and the Kessler-6 score for mothers. A five-category measure of household employment configuration was derived from parent report (dual full time; male breadwinner; female breadwinner; shared employment (both part-time); father full time/mother part time). Mundlak models were used to compare within- and between-person effects after controlling for confounders including mother’s country of birth; mother’s indigenous status; mother’s education; mother’s occupation; area disadvantage; household income; mother’s age; number of children in household; presence of child under 5 years; maternal mental health (in child models); and child mental health (in maternal models). Models were restricted to those households in which household employment configuration changed, with the reference category being the father full time/mother part time configuration. Results There were no within-person effects of employment configuration on maternal mental health, however between-person effects indicated that women in a male breadwinner household had poorer mental health than women in a father full time/mother part time household (s 0.63, 95%CI 0.02–1.24). There were no between- or within-person effects for children/adolescents. Conclusion These results counter prevailing social attitudes regarding women’s workforce participation by demonstrating that children are not adversely affected by their mother’s workforce participation, nor are they disadvantaged by the extent of this participation. Also contrary to normative social expectations, women in traditional ‘male breadwinner’ household configurations experience poorer mental health than those in a ‘father full-time/mother part-time’ arrangement. Importantly too, no adverse mental health effects were observed in women working full time, either as a breadwinner or in a dual full-time arrangement (where both partners work full time). These results are important in demonstrating that increasing women’s workforce participation is not detrimental to the mental health of either themselves, nor their children.

Since Shinzo Abe took the helm as prime minister in 2012, Japan’s female labour force participation has ticked up. Abe’s push for female empowerment was since the decline in births in Japan had been considered the fastest in the world. However, barriers are still common among female workers especially those having underage children, a condition in which inter-role conflicts occur. This research focuses on inter-role conflicts that arise on female workers playing a dual role and aims at looking into their way of playing the role in both public and domestic sectors. The research applies interviewing as the method in the qualitative approach. This research concludes that women in the workforce still face certain impediments including inflexible working hours and restrictions in family and household time.

As the percentage of women in the workforce grew over the past 50 years, so too began the slow assent of women into leadership roles, revealing a sharp trailing percentage of women from entry level to senior leadership positions. Although men's leadership has been studied extensively, women were largely overlooked in leadership theory and research until the late 1990s. In the context of the global pandemic, the threat to equity in women's work has enormously intensified, resulting in women leaving or considering leaving the workforce at rates that greatly exceed men. Modest gains in women achieving top leadership positions are at risk of being erased, as women face intense increased pressure at work and home. Persistent barriers and inequities in women's advancement to senior leadership are now in the spotlight during these unprecedented times, heightening the urgency to examine the current state and future direction of women's leadership. There is no better time to invest in diversity, equity and inclusion in leadership by turning attention to theory, research, and individual and organizational practices to drive women's advancement and success. This contribution to the 50th anniversary special issue addresses emerging leadership theories, women's leadership aspirations, and importantly, barriers to women's advancement to senior leadership.

Ruth Milkman’s four decades of scholarship stands as an important exception to rising pessimism in the social sciences, as evidenced throughout her new collection of writings, On Gender, Labor, and Inequality, despite the clear moral commitment she brings to her scholarship, and the obvious inequities that remain between men and women in the workplace. As a result, readers are treated to a story of halting progress for women in the workforce, a march punctuated by setbacks, false starts, and abandonment by purported allies. But the broad story throughout these chapters is one of advancement. It is a fascinating and timely set of articles. Jake Rosenfeld reviews On Gender, Labor, and Inequality by Ruth Milkman.

Retirements from the workforce can be split between those who are forced to retire early specifically for health reasons referred to as ill-health retirements and all other retirements referred to as normal-health retirements. Rates of ill-health retirement increase with age and are higher for females than males. Consequently, the mortality experience of ill-health retirement pensioners will become more important in the future as pension schemes increase their normal retirement age in line with increases in life expectancy and the proportion of women in the workforce and therefore in occupational pension schemes increases. This paper seeks to model the mortality of ill-health retirements from occupational pension schemes in the United Kingdom in the period immediately following retirement (reverse select mortality) and over the longer term (ultimate mortality) allowing for age at retirement. Females experience a longer reverse select period than males and for both males and females the improvement in mortality rates over the reverse select period is greatest at younger ages. Post the reverse select period the effect of age at retirement decreases over time with ultimate mortality rates converging by the mid-eighties for males and females.

Despite the increasing number of women in the workforce, the norms surrounding division of labor in the domestic sphere and work/life balance have not changed. Structural theory predicts that balancing work and family demands will improve as the proportion of women reaches critical mass, because women will advocate on behalf of such changes. But work/life balance remains elusive. Gendered organizations theory predicts that norms and practices based on stereotyped male and female workers will persist, regardless of the composition of the workforce. Employing an explicitly transformative framework, we argue that human resources management (HRM) practices produce and reproduce outdated gender norms and frustrate the efforts of all workers to achieve work/life balance. No amount of flextime or on-site daycare programs will produce workplace equity without addressing the underlying reasons why organizations are gendered. We submit several propositions to guide further research and conclude with a call for publ...

The United States is at a crossroads in its policies for families and women. Currently, the United States provides basic support for children, fathers, and mothers in the form of unpaid parental leave, child-related tax breaks, and limited public child care. In contrast, the other member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) empower families through paid parental leave and comprehensive investments in infants and children. The potential gains from strengthening these policies in the United States are enormous. Paid parental leave and subsidized child-care help to get and keep more women in the workforce, contribute to economic growth, offer cognitive and health benefits to children, and give parents options in defining their preferred work-life strategy. Indeed, the United States has been falling behind the rest of the OECD in many social and economic indicators by not adequately investing in children, fathers and mothers. Given the significant payoffs to these family supports, this article focuses on issues of reconciling work and care commitments for families with young children, and, in particular, on paid parental leave policies within the OECD and the United States.

Despite an abundance of educated, qualified women in the workforce, they continue to be underrepresented at the top of institutional leadership hierarchies. Theories of gendered organizations explain that work processes reproduce gendered structures of society in the workplace. These processes advantage men while forming barriers to women's success. This paper extends critical human resource development (HRD) theory by applying the concept of sexism hidden in the workplace to leadership and by outlining both social and organizational practices that create gender inequities in leadership. Our cross-sector analysis of women leaders in religion and higher education revealed twenty-seven gender-based leadership barriers which operate at the macro, meso, and micro levels of society. We argue that most current efforts to promote women into leadership focus one by one on only a few barriers, primarily those within organizations, while failing to take into account the wide variety of barriers and their prevalence across all societal levels. We offer strategies to address barriers across all three levels to help organizations create gender-equitable leadership environments.

The adoption of religious nationalism as a public project by the Saudi state continues to intimately shape the experiences of Saudi women, despite recent initiatives facilitating the participation of women in the workforce. Through interview-based evidence, the paper shows how patriarchal societal norms and practices rooted in a particular interpretation of Islam and enshrined in legislation are transported into the workplace and impact upon the daily lives of Saudi women auditors. Although various barriers to the progression of women auditors are already identified in the accounting and gender literature, our study provides additional insights into how the profession in Saudi Arabia takes a very distinctive gendered form due to the interaction of gender with religious and cultural norms. Additionally, our evidence highlights the role of the global audit firms, particularly the predominantly male audit managers and partners, in adapting their diversity management practices to navigate the constraints on female auditors in the Saudi context. We find evidence of pervasive inequality and the re-segregation of the Saudi female auditing workforce into ’woman-friendly’ areas, with potentially damaging effects on career progression.

This chapter locates the changes in South Africa’s education and training provision within the context of the change in the political economy and its recent attempt at an insertion into the global economic market. It deals with a brief examination of the debate surrounding globalisation as a lever into the subsequent debates that characterised the evolution of education and training policy in South Africa. The chapter aims to investigate the links made by policy documents between education, training and the labour market. Economic growth in South Africa had been declining since the 1970s and by the mid-1980s had dropped below population growth. The world is experiencing rapid changes in the labour market, including changing sectoral composition of employment, the increased participation of women in the workforce, and the rising skills level of the workforce. Educational policy in South Africa has become one element of broader economic policy as a new human capital view of education has taken hold.

PurposeWomen and disadvantaged minorities within emerging and developing economies often resort to business activity within the informal economy as a way to overcome various barriers and challenges to formal workforce participation. This paper aims to explore the characteristics, motives, barriers and challenges of female engagement in informal business activities in Jordan.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative analysis used in this paper is based upon empirical findings from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 14 female informal entrepreneurs in Amman, Jordan.FindingsThe study revealed that informal female entrepreneurs tend to be both opportunity- and necessity-driven. Generating profit and contributing to the household income seems to be their main motive. Their businesses were funded either through personal savings or from their social network (e.g. husband, family and friends). Promotion of the business relied mostly on word-of-mouth or social media. High inflation, high competition, time pressures and lack of business skills were cited as the biggest challenges. Besides being content with the status quo, lack of knowledge about the procedures for registering a business and fear of bureaucracy were among the main reasons for not legalizing their activities.Originality/valueThere are very few studies that analyse informal micro-entrepreneurship in the Arab world, particularly in the Jordanian context, which is of growing interest due to low number of women in the workforce and the growing number of refugees in the country. This study therefore presents new knowledge around women’s informal micro-entrepreneurship in Jordan and provides recommendations for further research and policy-making.

Objectives To describe the mental and physical self-reported health of community-based women in Australia aged 50 years and over, and ascertain factors associated with better physical and emotional health. Study design A national, anonymous, online survey of women aged 18 years and above living in Australia. Main outcome measures Factors associated with better physical and mental health among women aged ≥50 years. Results Of the 10,620 women who completed the survey, 4947 (46.6%) were aged 50 years or over. More than half (60.1%) reported being in “excellent” or “very good” overall health. While almost 40% had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety by a medical doctor or a psychologist at some time in their life, almost all (89.4%) had low levels of current anxiety. Factors significantly associated with good overall health were being in paid employment, partnered, “about the right weight”, and doing at least 2.5 h of physical activity per week. Better lifelong (never been diagnosed with depression or anxiety) and current mental health were both associated with older age, being in paid employment, being partnered, being in good overall health, doing at least 2.5 h of physical activity per week, and using less health care ( Conclusions The findings that regular exercise and workforce participation were associated with better physical and mental health in this growing population can inform future targeted interventions to increase physical activity levels and support the retention of older women in the workforce.

This chapter will include a look at the feminist perspective on female participation in combat roles, at the traditional role of women in Chinese culture, as well as an examination of how that role has changed with Taiwan’s modernization with respect to gender equality in Taiwan society, the women’s movement in Taiwan, and the forces that led to the growth of women in the workforce and in the ROC military. It is perhaps not surprising that militaries do not lead the wider society in participation by women, but rather follow. Taiwan is no exception, although for such a traditional society, the advancements made by women in Taiwan have been rapid and impressive. Unlike in the West, women in Taiwan did not join the workforce until relatively recently. In traditional Chinese societies, women are considered − at least on the surface − as housebound, second-class citizens whose value lies in obedience first to fathers, then husbands, and finally sons. From the 1950s to the early 1990s, there was a separate corps for female volunteers, and the role played by women was mostly restricted to nursing and working in the political warfare department. With Taiwan’s democratization, came the opening of a few military occupations to women, including logistics, combat support, and air-tower control. Until just a few years ago, women still faced barriers to attending Command and Staff Colleges and National Defense University’s War College, which are prerequisites for promotion, although those barriers were removed allowing women to gain admittance to these institutes of higher learning alongside their male colleagues.

Despite reductions in overt sexism and structural barriers to the advancement of women in the workforce, differences in the representation of women and men in various careers remain. Specifically, women tend to be overrepresented in traditionally feminine careers, which also tend to be lower in prestige and pay. The present study explored potential gender-related barriers to women’s advancement through examination of the perceptions of the femininity and masculinity of the RIASEC types (Holland, 1959; 1997). Specifically, the study sought to determine the role that the gender of the person portrayed in a career plays in the perceptions of the RIASEC types, as well as the contribution of the covariates right-wing authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, and attitudes toward women. Participants were 334 university students who completed questionnaires and a card sort in which they sorted adjectives from the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1981) to job descriptions representative of the RIASEC types. MANOVA and MANCOVA were used and gender and condition were found to have significant effects on the perceptions of the RIASEC types, while no significant covariates emerged. Implications of these results are discussed, including the fact that perceptions of the RIASEC types may be somewhat influenced by the gender of the person seen in the representative career.

International data highlight the increasing participation of women in the workforce in the medical field and particularly among obstetricians and gynecologists (OB-GYN). Some studies reported a gender difference in work productivity and practice patterns. The aim of this study is to analyze whether disparities exist between male and female OB-GYN in their practices with potential consequences for the organization of the OB-GYN departments. A survey of all active, Belgian OB-GYNs concerning their professional activity and well-being and a survey of the heads of OG departments evaluating the impact of feminisation on their department. The response rate was 43% (n = 615). Women and men worked a similar number of half-days per week, respectively, 10.1 ± 2.4 and 10.3 ± 3.2 (p = 0.26) but women treated less patients per week (80 versus 90, p = 0.034). Pear year, women and men perform, respectively, 108 and 184 surgical procedures (p = 0.0001) plus 114 and 100 deliveries (p = 0.09). Female OB-GYNs have fewer children but the size of their family has no bearing on work hours. Qualitatively, most OB-GYN regardless of their gender, consider their profession to be gratifying. Dissatisfaction is related to organizational concerns for women and to pressure of competitiveness for men. Women are more concerned about their private life and men more focussed on their professional career. However, both expressed the primary importance of good health and quality of life. A majority (66%) of head of departments do not consider that the feminisation of their staff is problematic. There was no difference in time spent at work between male and female OB-GYN. The number of patients treated by female OB-GYN per week is smaller which means that the time spent per patient is higher. The OG profession does not appear to be jeopardized by its feminisation according to this study and the opinion of the head of departments. Nevertheless, we need to take into account when organizing the future workforce that women tend to focus more on the time spent with patients than on surgical procedures.

This chapter examines the role and significance of women across the Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) workforce and practice. It explores the contemporary environment relating to CIM in high-income countries that may help facilitate or challenge what some scholars and commentators have interpreted as a 'feminist' CIM approach to health care. It has long been acknowledged that the biomedical model of health and conventional structures of health care delivery explicitly or implicitly help maintain paternalistic power dimensions. Research suggests the circumstances also apply to CIM use with women not only identified as predominant users of CIM but also as significant agents of influence upon the CIM use of others family members, friends and wider networks alike. Moving attention beyond informal care and carer roles, research has also suggested gender dimensions to CIM practice. As identified in the brief overview provided in the chapter, the influence and role of women with regards to CIM provision/workforce, practice and consumption are considerable.

This article seeks to describe and explain some of the factors behind the prevalence of women in informal care for seniors. It presents a qualitative study of women who are caring for a frail elderly parent in the Czech Republic. Care is seen as a space where gender and other intersecting identities are performed and this has specific subjective, structural and material consequences. The author draws on biographical interviews with women caregivers and shows how they “do gender and age” in their narratives of how and why they made the decision to provide care and how they actually provide care. The author identifies situations and circumstances in which gender categories and gender relations shift and are destabilised by changes in society. The Czech Republic is a country with a history of state socialism and with traditionally large numbers of women in the workforce, but it also has a highly traditional gender culture.

This study explores the management and governance interaction in a child care setting. Globally the importance of women in the workforce and the education of young children has shone the spotlight on child care. Most child care research focuses on the education of the child. However, the management and governance of the centres can influence the staffing, resources and culture of the centre, which in turn can affect the care of the children. Further, limited government funding in the sector also heightens the need to understand the impact of management and governance. The findings, from a participant-observer research approach, highlight the tensions between the management and governance functions and that the reliance on formal systems moderate the emotional exchanges that are part of the day to day social fabric of a child care centre.

Because the US Census Bureau changed the way they reported workers’ marital status, the subfield of US women's labor history unwittingly perpetuated a key misinterpretation of women's labor force participation, allowing historians to believe that women in the workforce between 1880 and 1920 were overwhelmingly young and single women: the daughters of their families rather than the mothers and wives. This change in census reporting was reinforced and promulgated by Joseph A. Hill's 1929 work, Women in Gainful Occupations, 1870–1920. Why was this change made? This article argues that this change came about because of a confluence of various factors, including the Census Bureau's continual struggles with organizational and technological changes, the beginning of World War I, and reformers’ arguments about the efficacy of pushing for maternity insurance for women workers. The story of this change once again reminds us that statistics are never neutral nor apolitical.

Telecommuting is increasingly gaining attention in Malaysia as a means of both easing the worsening peak-hour traffic congestion, and retaining women in the workforce. Moreover, substantial evidence in the literature suggests that telecommuting is more suited to women who when compared to men, experience more work/non-work role conflict and more career interruptions. However, the incidence of actual telecommuting among female employees in Kuala Lumpur remains very limited. A survey of 454 women employed in the industries of financial intermediation, real estate, education and ICT in Kuala Lumpur, revealed that only 2% of the respondents were practicing telecommuters, and that more than a third (35%) of those who stated their ability to telecommute, were in fact unwilling to utilize that working arrangement if given the opportunity. The main aim of this study is to explore the factors contributing to the willingness to telecommute or the lack thereof. The significance of this study stems from the fact that a better understanding of what influences the willingness to telecommute is a prerequisite for the successful promotion of the practice, and thus reaping its well researched benefits. Job suitability, delay experienced in the morning commute, and the increased usage of Smartphone technology were found to have a positive correlation with the willingness to telework, whereas car ownership, household size, and the negative perceptions towards teleworking were found to have a negative correlation.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the attitudinal differences between men and women with respect to work issues and leadership and the implications that these outlooks have in the US (USA) workforce. While studies have been conducted to show how men and women differ in the work and leadership styles, attitudes can affect how workers and leaders are treated and may explain why people behave the way that they do. Design/methodology/approach – Using data from the 2010-2012 World Values Survey (WVS-6), comparisons were performed with the Mann-Whitney U test to determine if there were significant differences in attitudes and perceptions of work and leadership between men and women in the USA based on five questions concerning attitudes toward men and women in the workforce. The sample consisted of 1,070 males and 1,139 females who responded to questions using a Likert scale-rating system. Findings – There were significant differences between males and females at the p < 0.01 level for four of the five questions. Men were more likely to believe that men have more rights to jobs when jobs are scarce. Women believed more than men that having a job was the best way for a woman to be independent. Men believed that they made better political leaders. Men also believed that they made better business executives. However, there was no significant difference in the question about women making more than men. Neither felt strongly that a woman earning more money than her husband would cause problems. Originality/value – The research provides insight into factors that might affect how men and women perceive both their own group and the other group. It is important to ensure that gender perceptions are evaluated to address issues that may still persist and contribute to gender inequality in the workplace and how behaviors and attitudes of each gender affect roles and norms.

India has experienced steady economic growth over the last two decades alongside a persistent decline in women's labor force participation (LFPR). This paper explores the relationship between economic development and women's labor supply using state-level data spanning the period 1983–4 to 2011–2. While several studies suggest a U-shaped relationship between development and women's labor force participation, our results suggest that at the state level, there is no systematic U-shaped relationship between level of domestic product and women's LFPR. On examining the relationship between the structure of the economy and women's economic activity, we find that it is not economic growth but rather the composition of growth that is relevant for women. Further, our results suggest that aggregate changes in the proportion of women in the workforce can be mostly attributed to the movement of the workforce across sectors rather than changes in the proportion of women workers within a sector.

La fecundidad de la América Latina está disminuyendo gradualmente a medida que los factores determinantes de ella ejercen su influencia sobre el número de los nacimientos: el desarrollo económico, la participación de la mujer en la fuerza de trabajo, el desplazamiento urbano rural, la motivación y preferencia por familias chicas, los cambios en las variables intermedias, etc., llevarán la fecundidad a cifras menores en el futuro próximo. Es difícil preveer la velocidad de este descenso, pero la experiencia observada en Costa Rica es un ejemplo de rápidos cambios en esta variable. El médico y especialmente el gineco-obstetra, tendrán cada vez mayor demanda de la población por atención médica en relación con las modificaciones y reducción de la fecundidad.

For more than a half-century, from about the mid-1870s until well into the twentieth century, New York City's National Police Gazette was notorious for its illustrations and sensational tales of boxers, criminals, do-gooders, police, drunks, showgirls, philanderers, gold-diggers, bettors, bartenders, barbers, gamers, corrupt parishioners, dirty old men, and sportsmen and women. It never missed a chance to boost circulation with a titillating or violent full-page woodcut illustration. These included shirtless boxers, petticoat-clad young ladies, showgirls in tights, bar brawls, shootings, stabbings, beatings, disasters, and beautiful belles fighting or flirting or being beaten or shot by jealous husbands.In short, the Gazette was the chronicler of the mad, wicked world (a long-running column of vignettes of vice was called simply, "This Wicked World") of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that would become one of the most beloved, and despised, tabloids of its era. Aimed primarily at a working-class audience of men and boys, it was prominent in barbershops and taverns. Its racy content caused some to consume it in secret; for others, it was a badge of honor. For those who grew up during those years, it was a passing fancy that nevertheless stayed in their memories; nostalgia for it, and the era, lingered. "We have to read awfully far to find our past," wrote Gene Smith, who along with his wife published a 1972 volume chronicling Gazette articles and illustrations. "But something of it is here in the Police Gazette to say that once upon a time these our own breathed, yelled, fought, made love, had great and terrible passions-that they lived."1Though women surely sneaked many peeks at Gazettes to see the pectorals of boxer Jake Kilrain and other boxers and strongmen, it was clear that the weekly magazine was aimed primarily at young men. It was sold primarily on the streets and in barbershops and saloons. And it used illustrations, stories, shorts and advertisements2 to embrace, challenge, deconstruct and make money off tales of deviance and masculinities. For masculinities, and the threats to masculinities and the responses to those threats, were important parts of the development of culture and sport in the late nineteenth century, and it was all reflected in the pages of the Gazette. Factors including immigration, racism, crime, conversion from an agrarian to more industrialized society, more women in the workforce, and changing rules of public conduct and clothing for men and women created both new identities and insecurities among men as well as a market for a magazine that told all these stories in a refreshing and unabashed way. Wrote one historian, "Simply put, the Gazette's illustrated portrayals of sport, crime, and sex defined and described emerging trends and ... masculinities in Victorian and post-Victorian America."3The Gazettes roles in defining, creating, and even challenging masculinities have been documented in a variety of ways,4 but former accounts have not often included a close examination of the portrayals of gay, lesbian, cross-dressing, or transgender lifestyles. The purpose of this article is to examine such portrayals in the Gazette during its heyday and era of largest consistent circulation, 1879-1899. Two issues a year were selected at random for qualitative analysis of text and illustrations to determine if there were descriptions and/or depictions of people that included suggestions about sexuality beyond the hegemonic heterosexual "norms." In addition, the Gazette's coverage of the Oscar Wilde case was included for examination, since Wildes suit for libel and trials for sodomy occurred during this period (1895) and were by far the most public airing of accusations of homosexual conduct yet reported.By 1879 the Gazette's relatively new owner, Richard K. Fox, had turned the Gazette, founded in 1845, from a chronicler of police activities, corruption, and criminal misdeeds into a sixteen-page tabloid with depictions of all manner of sport, crime, heroics, sin, and vice. …

Because of demographic workforce changes, the relative number of employees in the second half of their career (from mid-career to retirement) will grow substantially in the near future. Therefore, sustainability, or maintaining health, performance, motivation and well-being in the second career half is an important topic for employees and for employers as well. Moreover, since the proportion of women in the workforce in the second phase of the career is increasing, the problems of older working women need special attention. The chapter highlights specific issues that are prominent in the second career half, such as the differences in motives, career perspectives, the role of stereotypes, and health issues, especially for women. In addition, the chapter provides suggestions on how to improve sustainability in the second career half for both employees and employers. Maintaining a good fit between work and the changing needs of the employee requires employees to take an active role, as well as the availability of HR practices that facilitate this and provide opportunities for differentiation in career wishes and gender-specific preferences, and that counteract the stereotypical but incorrect view that older workers are less productive.

In Algeria and Morocco, socio-cultural changes (urbanisation, increased and prolonged access to education for girls, the growing presence of women in the workforce, the rise in the average age at which women marry) play a crucial role in transforming gender relationships. Female celibacy, an essentially urban phenomenon, is increasing but remains at a lower rate and is less socially accepted than its male equivalent, notably because of the stakes linked to the traditional imperative of pre-marital virginity. In their literary works, as in their accounts given in interviews, a number of Moroccan and Algerian writers underline how unmarried Maghrebi women must face various challenges and experience social and emotional difficulties (family reproaches for not being married and a mother, difficulties finding housing, surveillance and suspicions from their neighbourhood regarding their ‘morality’ etc.). Despite these obstacles, an extra-marital female sexuality outside/before marriage is progressively emerging...

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.

Do national federations foster or inhibit women’s representation? In this article, we compare national legislative representation by women in federations and in centralized states. We analyze women’s parliamentary representation for all democracies between 1995 and 2010. Descriptive statistics and multivariate regression analyses, in which we control for quotas, a country’s type of electoral system, development level, the year the first woman was elected to parliament, the proportion of women in the workforce, and year of election, support the notion that federal states have approximately four percentage points more female legislators than do centralized states. In addition, our results indicate that federations have an indirect positive impact on women’s representation: first, they facilitate the adoption of gender quotas; second, they allow women to enter parliament earlier than unitary states.

This paper presents evidence of the effects of gender diversity on firm innovation outcomes and their productivity in Colombian manufacturing firms, by extending a CDM model to include women’s participation in science, technology and innovation (STI) activities and production processes. The paper makes a methodological contribution by taking into account potential endogeneity issues of women’s participation in STI and innovation behavior. An upward bias of the impact of gender diversity on innovation might arise because more dynamic and innovative managers, knowing the value of gender diversity, may also hire more women in STI. The paper addresses the endogeneity concerns with a Tobit specification of the firm’s decision to employ women in STI by instrumenting it with the share of total women in the workforce in the industry or the region where the firm is located. The main results indicate that firms with a larger share of women in the knowledge creation and innovation process might increase their innovative behavior. It also presents evidence of a differentiated effect of gender diversity by type of innovation. Women’s participation has a larger effect on technological innovation than on organizational innovation. Finally, gender diversity drives firm productivity, even after controlling for the effect of innovation on the production process. These results are important for developing countries where women’s participation in STI activities is extremely low. In Colombia, for example, only 6 percent of STI employees are women, a very low figure compared with the 21 percent participation of women in industry and even lower compared with the 52 percent of women in Colombia’s total work force. These figures and this paper’s results should open up discussion on policies to promote women’s participation in the labor force in manufacturing firms, specifically in the knowledge creation processes.

The development of a country is bound to most effective utilization of production factors, which are labor, natural resources, capital, and entrepreneurship in all countries in the world. Labor force mostly favors men as distribution is concerned. Until the industrial revolution, the presence of women in the labor market had remained in the secondary place regarding labor force status. The subordinate position of women in the labor market is explained by the traditional division of labor. According to gender-based division of labor in society, basically saying the roles such as bearing a child and growing the baby, and doing the housework are seen as the main duties of women, whereas earning money by working in the market is seen as the duty of men. Gender relations contain an unequal power relationship with male domination and female subordination in most spheres of life. Men and the tasks, functions, and values attributed to them are valued in many aspects higher than women and what is associated with woman. The background of gender equality policies in Turkey is constituted by the Republican reforms. In the years following the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, a modern state structure was formed on the one hand and an extensive social transformation was realized on the other, with the reforms made in the faith that full equality between women and men should be established. Women’s paid work began with the industrial revolution. As industry evolved, the nature of the employment opportunities for workers who find little; mechanization, increased division of labor and specialization of the labor force in factories, especially on cheap labor needs have increased. Therefore, men as well as women and even children were taken en masse to the industry. Women are seen as cheap labor since the industrial revolution. Women’s labor force participation is prevented by economic and social factors. Economic factors, low wages and lack of social security may specify the form. Social factors are lack of education, patriarchal mentality, and understanding of gender. The joint effect of the rural–urban migration since the 1950s and the limited employment creation capacity of the Turkish economy are seen as reasons of withdrawal of women from the labor force and result in high female silence. In Turkey, rate of female labor force participation is low and gradually decreasing day by day. While the women that are working in agriculture sector without wage and social security are considered to have participated in the labor force, the women in urban areas that are working as housewives are not included in labor work. The women, members of the migrating families due to applied agricultural strategies from rural to urban areas, are being excluded from labor force, since they become housewives when they start to live in urban areas. Unlike the world’s most developed and developing nations, in Turkey our women of traditional role failed to move out of forms of employment. It is a failure to conclude that most of the female workers in Turkey undertake their traditional tasks which are considered as traditionally women’s jobs. Therefore, it can be argued that these implications have not only economic consequences, but also sociological dimensions. The numbers of woman employees in the world have been dramatically increased recently. As seen in Turkey from June 2009 to June 2013 data, it tends to increase in women’s employment is seen that in recent years. Female employment tends to increase in recent years seems to be. 3.4 million women in non-agricultural employment in the sixth month of 2013 was close to 4 million 872 thousand. For 6 years, there has been an increase of around 44%. The last five years of non-agricultural, urban areas in a sense, an increase in the number of working women has been observed in the 1.5 million. The involvement of women in the workforce has been examined in this research. First, women’s position in the workforce has been observed in relation to country development and women’s status in economical and social fields has been mentioned. Second, employment as a term and the importance of women taking part in the business world have been mentioned. Which fields women work in Turkey has been examined, and data from Turkish Statistical Institute (TSI) has been used in this study.

Given the preponderance of women in the workforce, it remained a puzzle why the entry of women into higher managerial positions remains restricted and why the syndrome of ‘think manager think male is growing progressively? The objective of this paper is to examine the glass ceiling conundrum with a view of ascertain how it limits women’s career advancement in the workplace. Extensive review of literature was presented and discussed. The paper revealed that women are not making it to the very top of their career not as a result of lack of requisite qualifications, and experience etc.; but as a result of factors that are rooted in cultural, societal, organizational, individual and psychological factors that inhibit women career advancement. Against the aforementioned background, the paper concludes that women advance marginally to certain level in corporate executive cadre, before they experience ‘glass ceiling’ that impedes their prospect of attaining senior executive position. Accordingly, women compared to men represent an insignificant fraction of those in managerial positions due to cultural prejudice, religion convictions, family related issues, individual and organizational influences. Similarly, inadequate opportunity to networks and seek sponsorship limits women progression to top managerial hierarchy. The study recommends the need to articulate policy frameworks that promote strong organizational culture and a more helpful and supportive environment to develop women leadership skills. Similarly, there is need to promote sponsorship for women in a way and manner that safeguard the relationships between sponsors and proteges.

In Indian society, the situation of older persons is imagined to be safe and secure considering the value system of filial piety, conservative culture, the still sustaining joint family and co-residence with their children. However, the demographic trends and changing social values ushered in during the twentieth century have given rise to challenges and concerns for the older population in developing countries including India. The size of the older population is growing at a rapid pace in India with 104 million seniors in 2011 (9% of the total population), which is projected to more than triple by 2050 (20% of the total population). Simultaneously, the social, economic and cultural context in which population ageing is taking place is itself changing due to increasing urbanization, increasing participation of women in the workforce, and withering inter-generational bonds, with consequent impacts upon the care and lives of elderly. In this scenario, this demographic transition and the changing social, familial, and economic contexts are bound to bring severe social, economic, and health implications and have resulted in incidences of elder abuse. Though most elderly people experience some abuse, the majority of them may not talk about it openly due to various socio-cultural factors. The World Health Organization (WHO) (2008) estimates the prevalence rates of elderly abuse in developed countries as ranging from 1 to 10%. The prevalence of elder abuse in seven demographically advanced states of India was 11.4% (at aggregate level), with wide differentials across states, ranging between 1.8% in Tamil Nadu and as high as 35% in Maharashtra (UNFPA 2012). As reported in the United Nations Population Fund study, elder abuse was highest in Maharashtra, this chapter explores the issue in detail in this area (its dimensions, causes, perpetrators, and implications) and, based on study findings, proposes policy and programmatic recommendations to minimize abuse of seniors. The study utilized secondary data from the Building Knowledge-Base on Population Ageing in India (BKPAI) survey conducted in 2011 for the state of Maharashtra, in addition to analysis of a few case studies collected later to understand the underlying dynamics of elder abuse. The findings clearly reveal that older women, especially those living alone or widowed, are more vulnerable to elder abuse. Elderly people who are currently working reported experience of economic abuse, and the incidence of abuse was greater among them as compared to those not currently working. The majority of elderly people look to the state’s intervention to ensure social security, combat elder abuse and dignity in life. Various strategies which have proposed to combat elder abuse promote a positive social attitude in the community, and aim to ensure minimal dependence of elderly people on their family members by ensuring social security for those who do not have any income and assets, and strengthening the health systems to identify elder abuse, capacity building of care-givers and respite care.

The religious, socioeconomic, and political status are fundamental principles that form the values of women’s lifestyles in the Muslim World and especially in the GCC. It varies largely from nation to nation depending on how globalization has managed to affect the society in line with the lifestyles of modern living. The World Economic Forum report (WEF, 2014) shows that the UAE focuses on transforming the country into a diversified self-sustaining market-driven economy. The economic prosperity and presence in the world affairs is mainly due to the leadership’s decision to form a free market economy. The open economy, attractive business platform and ease of life have encouraged expatriates to work and live in the UAE forcing its social values to open up. This has had a direct effect on the lifestyles of Emirati society, and women in particular. On the other hand, the exclusion of Saudi women from public life is no doubt a heated debate in the international scene. The government of Saudi Arabia has been strictly persistent in applying its cultural values in most macro-economic aspects such as education, technology (1), and policy. The research findings prove, based on the statistical approach, that government intervention has played a vital role in increasing the contribution of women in the workforce in both countries, the UAE and KSA, by supporting the required legal and official reforms. The substantial investment in education, of both governments, has proved to be one of the most important drives to increase the women workforce. Despite the different levels of contribution in the social media platforms, the survey conducted under the context of this research revealed that social media played a positive role in motivating women to work in both countries.

The number of women students entering higher education has continuously increased, and the role of gender has changed in Korea. The criticality of women’s leadership in Korea has been noted with an increased number of women college graduates and women in the workforce; however, managerial advancements for women still face limitations, as witnessed by Korea being ranked as a country with the lowest rate of women managers among the OECD countries. To identify how Korean women can face a better and more equitable future in leadership positions, Chap. 6 reviews the current status of educational opportunities available for future women leaders in Korea. Through a review of school-based and additional education, light is shed on the role of education in fostering women leadership and transforming Korean society.