Women’s position in the household

Women’s labor market position has changed dramatically during the past century, while changes in the home have followed at a slower pace. Marriage and motherhood and responsibilities for most household labor still affect women’s choices about whether and under what conditions to work for pay. The U.S. government does not have a coherent set of policies about work/family life, lagging far behind Canada and western Europe. Employer policies can be helpful but are more available to workers at higher income levels and are more likely to be used by women than men. Thus, women continue to make “choices” under seriously constrained conditions.     

A continuing evolution in U.S. agricultural and food policy - The 1990 Act

This paper reports the results of a study of the economic content and the decision-making process of the recently adopted U.S. 1990 agricultural and food policy. It is the most comprehensive policy of its type. It represents the broadest participation of private individuals and interests groups, and will affect the economy of not only the United States, but also the ***economies of trading countries around the world. The study examines the economic conditions leading up to the policy, a theoretical foundation of public policy determinants, the role of economic analysis in that policy development, the provisions of the Act compared with the previous policy, and its extensive economic implications. Results of the study support features of a conceptual framework for economic policy of a participatory government. The study also reveals the unique policy process of the United States and the provisions of its price and income policy for the food and agricultural sector. Finally, this article identifies the interrelations between the 1990 policy and on-going GATT negotiations, the emerging importance of environmental and food quality issues in agricultural and food policy, and sources for further study of this Act.     

POLICY DIRECTION AND ECONOMIC INTERPRETATIONS OF THE U.S. AGRICULTURAL ACT OF 1970

Review and change have recently characterised governmental price and income policy for agriculture in the U.K., E.E.C. and U.S. This study of the U.S. Agricultural Act of 1970, effective for the major crops for the next three years, is a follow-up to an earlier article in this Journal on the policy of the 1960's. An analysis is made of the new Act's development, provisions, and probable consequences. Although voluntary land retirement, compensatory payment policy is continued, a ‘set-aside’ modification is likely to have implications for either government costs or farmer incomes. The slightly lower supports and higher payments contrasts with the apparent current direction of European policy. Consideration is given to current negotiations and policy differences among these three trading groups.     

The Evolution and Implications of the U.S. Food Security Act of 1985

The Food Security Act of 1985 sets the United States (U.S.) policy course for the five years, 1986–1990, in the areas of farm product prices and farmer incomes, agricultural production, food aid, and trade in agricultural products. It is clearly an evolution of past policy, deeply rooted in the institutional processes of participatory policymaking. The Act will have important implications for not only domestic producers, consumers, agribusinesses, and taxpayers, but alto product agricultural exporters and importers around the world. Just as it was substantially, affected by the current loss of export markets and the economic crisis in the U.S. agricultural sector, its implementation and impacts will be affected in the future by the unpredictable weather, macroeconomic conditions around the world, and international trading policies. This article examines the development of the policy embodied in the Act and analyzes its primary economic implications. Although most provisions of the U.S. agricultural price and income policy that had evolved over the past half century were continued, important changes were made. The resulting policy closely mirrored the preferences revealed from research concerning farmers and leaders of national agricultural and food interest groups. Primary changes from the previous 1981 Act were: lengthening the duration to five years; substantial lowering of the minimum price support levels; permitting a gradual decline in the minimum target prices; providing for a whole dairy herd buyout program; establishing export enhancement initiatives through credit, promotion, and export payment-in-kind (PIK); and initiating major efforts to increase farmland conservation and withdrawal of fragile lands from production. Likely implications of the new Act include: (1) lower product prices for agricultural producers around the world, and also farmer incomes if there is no income protection from national policies; (2) a similar but a less proportionate impact on consumers; (3) a substantial burden on the U.S. Treasury, and possibly those of the other nations as well, depending upon the type of policies followed; and (4) likely intensification in the immediate future of the economic conflicts and negotiations between major agricultural trading nations of the world. Research played a vital role in the development of the U.S. 1985 Act. Given the turbulent, uncertain, and important nature of the agricultural and food sector in the world, research is challenged to provide more and better knowledge for future policymaking.     

An intersectional approach to diversity research

Diversity can be analyzed using one of two approaches. The dominant unidimensional approach examines diversity across a single dimension at a time (e.g. first by race, then by sex). By contrast, an emerging intersectional approach considers diversity across multiple dimensions at once (e.g. by race and sex). This article presents a visual study of marketing images using unidimensional and intersectional approaches to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches. Unidimensional research proves much easier to conduct, but its conclusions tend to be simplistic, misleading, and repressive. By contrast, intersectional research is cumbersome, but its relatively complex conclusions are more inclusive, precise, and radical. Only intersectional research can reveal how the multiply disadvantaged are often completely erased (intersectional invisibility) or disproportionately ridiculed (intersectional travesty), drawing overdue attention to the market's most marginalized segments.     

ECONOMIC REDIRECTIONS IN RECENT U.S. AGRICULTURAL POLICY

Decisions of governments around the world concerning their agriculturul sectors have taken on increasingly an international dimension. The United Kingdom with its unique economic character has shared historically a mutual concern with major agricultural countries about their policies. This study analyses recent developments in U.S. agricultural price and income policy and programmes. Though some version of these policies has prevailed in the U.S. for almost forty years, distinct redirections have appeared in the current decade following a major policy crisis in the late 1950's. The new voluntary land retirement and compensatory payment approach is characterised, its economic rationale examined, and some of its probable economic consequences are measured. There has been a shift away from a high price support and from attempts at a compulsory production control programme. Many of the problems have been eliminated or mitigated, but both remaining and newly created difficulties still plague the policy scene.     

Same-Sex Couples in Advertisements: An Investigation of the Role of Implicit Attitudes on Cognitive Processing and Evaluation

This research examined how implicit attitudes are associated with cognitive processing and self-reported evaluation of advertisements featuring same-sex couples. Hypotheses were posited using the theoretical framework of social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1986) and perspectives on implicit attitudes. In Study 1, participants watched and evaluated 10 television advertisements while physiological measures of cognitive and affective processing were collected. Ads varied such that half used same-sex couples as protagonists while the other half used other-sex couples. Participants demonstrated less positive responses to ads featuring same-sex couples. Physiological and self-reported responses were associated with implicit attitudes toward homosexuality Negative implicit attitudes toward homosexuality were associated with more negative affect, less attention, less positivity, and less liking for ads featuring same-sex couples. Two subsequent studies replicated these findings in nonstudent samples, indicating that participants preferred ads with other-sex couples (Study 2) and that implicit attitudes were associated with this response (Study 3). This research suggests that implicit attitudes affect processing and evaluation of ads featuring same-sex couples in ways unaccounted for by explicitly measured attitudes. Results are discussed in terms of advancing theory, furthering understanding of the dynamic processing of ads featuring in-group and out-group members, and practical implications.