Hosting as social practice: Gendered insights into contemporary tourism mobilities

By giving voice to highly-skilled mobile professional women who have relocated to Switzerland from various European countries, representing different nationalities, duration of migration and family circumstances, we shed light on the experiences of hosting – an under-researched segment of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) mobilities. Our findings reveal a threefold investigation to sociality, tourism and mobility, by drawing on empirical insights to three angles: that of, culture, intimacy and identity as pathways to transformative social practices among hosts and guests. Highly-skilled mobile professional women’s hosting practices reflect a laboratory of sociality whereupon relations of closeness and proximity are tested under new conditions of social and private life in the new destination country.     

Returns to women’s education using optimal IV selection

This paper investigates returns to women’s education by applying an optimal IV selection approach, post-Lasso IV estimation, which improves the first-stage predictive relationship between an endogenous regressor and instruments. Using the 2010 American Community Survey, we find that an extra year of education increases married women’s own income by $4,480 and spouse income by $8,822. Our findings indicate that 53% of the increase in women’s consumption by education is attributed to the marriage market, and thus, we conclude that the marriage market is the primary channel through which education improves women’s well-being. The results demonstrate the advantages of the post-Lasso approach: The resulting two-stage least squares estimator maintains efficiency without increasing finite sample bias and is less subject to the inconsistency problem when some instruments are invalid; This differs from the results using the instrument of birth quarters only, which is mostly applied in studies on returns to education.     

The Effect of the Interaction between Price and Time Preference on Cigarette Consumption among Pregnant Women

In this study, I explore smoking behavior among pregnant U.S. women using the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The key aspect of this study is the availability of smoking participation data before and during pregnancy. I consider the probabilities of smoking cessation while pregnant as the outcome. I find that pregnant women who smoke are less responsive to price changes when they are more future-oriented. Women who are more present-oriented are more likely to smoke and consume more cigarettes given that they smoke more than those who are future-oriented. Moreover, those who discount the future more heavily are more sensitive to the money price of cigarettes than those who are more future-oriented. I focus on the role of time preference and the interaction between time preference and price in determining these outcomes.     

The Feminization U in South Africa: Economic Structure and Women's Labor Force Participation

The feminization U theory claims that women’s labor force participation drops during the initial phase of industrialization and rises once a certain level of development is reached. This paper is the first to exploit the diversity in economic structure across municipalities to consider the shape of the feminization U in a developing country. Using data from South Africa’s 2007 Community Survey, this study investigates whether a feminization U exists. Results reveal a U-shaped relationship between the share of nonagricultural employment and women’s probability of being in the labor force. Results show that the exclusion of informal urban employment leads to an overestimation of the U slope and part of the decline in women’s labor force participation during early structural change is likely related to household and care constraints. A U-shaped relationship is not found between the share of households with electricity and women’s probability of being in the labor force.     

The upward trend in women’s college-going: the role of teenagers’ anticipated future labour force attachment

This article focuses on the role of teenagers’ anticipated labour force participation in explaining the upward trend in U.S. women’s college-going. A simple conceptual model implies that individuals with more anticipated lifetime hours of work are more likely to invest in college education. My analysis using data from three National Longitudinal Surveys supports the theoretical implication. This finding, combined with the trend towards higher work expectations of young women across birth cohorts, may account in part for the upward trends in women’s college attendance and completion.     

Changes in Global Trade Patterns and Women's Employment in Manufacturing, 1995–2011

This study investigates the feminization and defeminization trends in manufacturing employment in thirty countries from 1995 to 2011. Utilizing two separate methods, structural decomposition analysis (SDA) and factor content analysis (FCA), the study identifies the major industries and trade partners behind the structural shifts in trade that have induced changes in employment and thus in the rates of women’s employment. The findings highlight that, as a general trend, defeminization in manufacturing has persisted in the Global North, led by a negative trade impact in low-technology industries. In the Global South, feminization and defeminization trends are not as straightforward. Despite positive changes in women’s share of employment in medium-high- and high-technology industries, negative gender bias effects of trade changes are found particularly in high-technology industries, where occupations are notably gendered.     

The Gender Contract under Neoliberalism: Palestinian-Israeli Women's Labor Force Participation

This paper interprets the pressure to raise Palestinian-Israeli women’s labor force participation within the unfolding neoliberal project in Israel, arguing that women’s stalled workforce integration reflects embedded economic rationality. Poor infrastructure and discriminatory policies, combined with Israel’s rapid economic privatization, set contradictory expectations for Palestinian-Israeli women: their opportunity-cost calculations include entitlements to economic protection alongside obligations to provide expenditure-saving domestic labor. Yet growing pressure and desire to join the paid workforce suggest that the gender contract may be changing. This cultural schema, which links women’s economic strategizing to their sense of feminine propriety, is transforming as part of a broader transition to a market-led gender regime, with the paradoxical effect of encouraging women’s employment while simultaneously impoverishing them. By dwelling on the dialectics of culture and the structure of work opportunities, and women’s agency, this paper aims to resolves an impasse in the current debate on women’s low workforce participation.     

Gender Inequality in the Spanish Public Pension System

This contribution studies revenue sharing in the public pension system in Spain from a gender perspective, revealing that differences are evident in the percentage of men and women entitled to different types of pensions and in the average fiscal amount per pension for men and women. Using 2010 data, the study analyzes how labor market conditions are reflected in pension type and amount for women pensioners, yielding two important conclusions: the income of women pensioners decreases, relative to men, with age; and the degree of inequality of pensions among women is lower than that among men. These gender differences owe to the contributory character of the system, which reproduces the labor market inequalities of both genders – inequalities that ultimately derive from the social division of roles in which women remain responsible for unpaid care work. This conclusion is consistent with similar studies on other European countries and world regions.     

基本养老保险制度下女性养老金水平研究——兼析养老金性别差异

基本养老保险制度运行10多年来,在提供退休保障方面发挥了重要的积极作用。但女性养老金问题值得高度重视。其中,女性退休年龄是影响养老金水平的重要因素,还带来了养老金性别差异。女性退休年龄已经与政策目标以及预期寿命不符,对既不利于保障退休生活,也不利于制度的健康持续发展。从国际比较看,我国女性退休年龄低于国际及亚太地区平均水平,而养老金替代率的性别差异也明显大于国际水平。因此,应在统筹考虑我国养老金体系建设的前提下,抓紧研究论证提高退休年龄,特别是先行逐步提高女性退休年龄的方式方法。     

‘It Doesn't Matter How Big or Small You Are…There's a Position For You’: Body Image Among Female Tackle Football Players

The purpose of this study was explore the body image experiences of women who play tackle football. Data included semi-structured interviews with 15 players on a women's tackle football team in Western Canada. Data were analyzed thematically and objectification theory was used to interpret the findings. Themes that emerged included: a) improved body image through physical change, appreciation of function over appearance and shifting ideals of beauty; b) importance of a social atmosphere that celebrated diverse bodies; and c) negotiation of body image on and off the field. Research has documented a connection between body image and physically active leisure, but much about the nature of the relationship is still unclear. The findings of this study provide insight into elements of physically active leisure (e.g., social atmosphere or nature of the activity) which can be used to promote positive body image, health, and wellness in leisure settings.