Women in the Labor Market (Volumes I and II), edited by Marianne A. Ferber

Abstract

European states vary in eldercare policies and in gendered norms of family care, and this study uses these variations to gain insight into the importance of macro-level factors for the work–care relationship. Using advanced panel data methods on European Community Household Panel (ECHP) data for 1994–2001, this study finds women's employment to be negatively associated with informal caregiving to the elderly across the European Union. For the countries included in the study, the effects of informal caregiving seem to be more negative in Southern Europe, less negative in Nordic countries, and in between these extremes in Central Europe. This study explains that since eldercare is a choice in countries with more formal care and less pronounced gendered care norms, the weaker impact of eldercare on women's employment in these countries has to do with the lesser degree of coercion in the caring decision.     

Gender and the commercialization of university science: academic founders of spinout companies

There is a great deal of interest in Europe and the USA on the commercialization of university science, particularly the creation of spinout companies from the science base. Despite considerable research on academic entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship in general, and the causes of under-representation of female scientists in academic institutions, there has been little research on the influence of gender on academic entrepreneurship.

The study researches female founders of UK university spinout companies using information from the Internet on company founders of spinout companies from 20 leading universities. The proportion of female founders at 12% is very low. The paper explores reasons for this low representation through follow-up postal interviews of the 21 female founders identified, and a male control sample. Under-representation of female academic staff in science research is the dominant but not the only factor to explain low entrepreneurial rates amongst female scientists.

Owing to the low number of women in senior research positions in many leading science departments, few women had the chances to lead a spinout. This is a critical factor as much impetus for commercialization was initially inspired by external interest rather than internal evaluation of a commercial opportunity. External interest tended to target senior academics, which proportionally are mostly male. A majority of the women surveyed tended to be part of entrepreneurial teams involving senior male colleagues.

As a whole both male and female science entrepreneurs displayed similar motivations to entrepreneurship, but collectively as scientists differed appreciably from non academic entrepreneurs. Women science entrepreneurs also faced some additional problems in areas such as the conflict between work and home life and networks.     

Female Managers in Taiwan: Opportunities and Barriers in Changing Times

Women workers' chances of becoming managers, and their experiences once promoted to that level, are increasingly important in Taiwan, a region that is in the throes of socio- economic and legal change. While it is clear that there are proportionally more male than female managers in Taiwan, little systematic research has been undertaken to investigate the reasons for this under-representation of women. The authors' exploratory study suggests that the work–family conflict and Taiwanese cultural values contribute to the barriers female employees encounter in their climb up the organizational hierarchy and may lead to the depression of their career ambitions; however, a proportion of the female managers interviewed felt that their promotional opportunities and their experiences as managers had improved significantly in their generation. The authors make suggestions to guide future research on women managers in Taiwan.     

FEMALE LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION AND RELIGION: A CROSS‐COUNTRY ANALYSIS

This paper empirically examines whether female labour force participation (FLFP) in a cross‐section of countries between 1985 and 2005 varies depending upon the religion practised in these countries. Using a cross‐sectional empirical specification, we initially find that FLFP is lower in Muslim countries. However, the association between Islam and FLFP greatly diminishes once other controls are included in the regression, suggesting that Islam might not diminish FLFP as some have argued. Moreover, once these additional controls are included, the association between Islam and FLFP is similar to that between Catholicism and FLFP. Countries where Protestantism is prevalent or where no religion is practised have higher FLFP. Finally, we find some evidence that the association between FLFP and religion is weakening over time.     

生存与守望——试论中国古代女性尺牍的创作心态

在中国尺牍文学史上,女性尺牍颇为寂寥。试从女性作家尺牍的创作心态考察入手,就文本中体现出来的守望、寻觅等生存姿态和心理进行分析,揭示了守望情结对中国古代女性的情感体验和尺牍创作心态中所起的作用。同时以男性作家创作心态为参照,认为中国古代女性尺牍创作既是出于自我心理平衡的需要,也是为了满足男性的需要,归根到底是因为她们缺乏生存的自主意识。     

百合花开——论张爱玲20世纪50年代以后的女同性恋文本叙事

20世纪50年代以后，身居异国的张爱玲也将“女性之间的情谊”作为描写的重心，并创作了“带有女同性恋色彩”的小说《相见欢》《同学少年都不贱》《小团员》。在文本中，她将女性之间的恋爱处理为“境遇同性恋”---在父权压迫下女性之间产生的一种正常的特殊“友谊”，未发生在“性”的肉体层次上，而是在“恋”的心理层次上，属于精神层面上的呼应与渴望，是一种柏拉图式的恋爱。     

Married women's labor supply and economic development: Evidence from Sri Lankan household data

Women's labor supply in Sri Lanka has increased steadily since the early 1990s following economic reforms, but remains well below the level predicted by national income, a feature shared by a number of Asian and Latin American countries that have undergone similar reforms and economic growth. To understand the microeconomic determinants of women's work in Sri Lanka's growing economy, this paper estimates a binary‐choice model of married women's labor supply using household survey data spanning a 23‐year period. Decomposition and cohort analysis reveal that women have been drawn into the workforce through falling fertility rates, rising tertiary education, and declining income effects among younger generations, but other factors have undermined this positive trend. Educational attainment reduces married women's labor supply except at the tertiary level, consistent with social stigmas associated with married women in non‐white‐collar employment. The strict sectoral segregation of married women by education level supports this hypothesis. In addition, growth has been concentrated in low‐skilled sectors with self‐employment more prevalent, reducing employment prospects of educated women and prompting their labor force withdrawal. This suggests it is the structure of economic development, rather than speed, that matters for women's labor force activity.     

Host–guest authentication of intangible cultural heritage: a literature review and conceptual model

ABSTRACT

Cultural tourism and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) play a key role in tourism worldwide, and are especially important for communities in developing countries, due to the demand for authentic experiences. This article provides a review of existing literature on the authenticity and authentication of ICH. The review reveals scholarly inquiry has evolved from external-expert ‘cool’ authentication to direct host–guest on-site or ‘hot’ authentication whereby tourists participate in the process of determining authenticity. Further, existing models for authentication of ICH have focused only on either a guest’s or host’s perspectives with little attention to the inevitable mutual interaction of the host and guest in the authentication of ICH. Mutual authentication can enhance the tourist experience and improve community empowerment. This paper develops a conceptual model of the mutual (host–guest) authentication of ICH, incorporating both hosts’ and tourists’ perspectives. The model has application in ICH based tourism and emphasizes power relationships between the host and guest, and community empowerment across political, social, psychological and economic domains. Future research is needed to test and validate this conceptual model.     

Why firms adopt empowerment practices and how such practices affect firm performance? A transaction cost-exchange perspective

Complementing the current management literature's focus on the value-creation side of empowerment practices, this paper offers a transaction cost-exchange perspective to explain why firms adopt empowerment practices and how such practices affect firm performance. Specifically, we theorize how performance ambiguity and human asset specificity, two major characteristics of employee-employer exchange, shape firms' decisions to adopt empowerment practices, both independently and interactively. Our model also develops a contingency perspective of how empowerment practices affect firm performance by delineating the moderating role of empowerment practices in the relationship between employee-employer exchange characteristics and firm performance.     

试论赛珍珠与她的小说《大地》

赛珍珠是美国20世纪著名的女作家。《大地》是她最杰出的作品之一，这部长篇小说，于1931年在美国出版，是1931年和1932年的美国年度最佳畅销书。在小说中，赛珍珠对主人公王龙身上体现出的深刻的土地意识进行细致的刻画；同时成功塑造了阿兰这一经典的女性形象。1932年赛珍珠凭借该小说获普利策奖，1938年获得诺贝尔文学奖...