Employment Fluctuations And Unemployment Of Women

This report examines the major trends in women's employment and unemployment over the past two decades in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries. Employment and unemployment trends in the labor force by sex are first considered. The report next examines the growth of the female labor supply and the trends in the labor force participation of women with an analysis of the factors responsible for these developments. It then analyzes the growth of the demand for female labor sector by sector and the development of part-time work, short-term and casual employment, the impact of technological change, and male and female earnings differentials as they have characterized female employment trends. On the basis of these developments, which are reviewed on the two sides of the labor market, the report examines in a comparative way the movements over conjunctural cycles of male and female unemployment and the reasons for its development. Twenty-three tables are included. (YLB)

"Women's Employment and the Capitalist Family" responds to the growing recognition of the economic, social, and electoral importance of women. This original study draws upon an interdisciplinary approach which fully incorporates both empirical and historical material. Ben Fine provides a critical assessment of the literature which examines the changing labor market participation of women. He explores such issues as the domestic labor debate, the role of patriarchy theory, gender and labor market theory, the capitalist family, and the position of working women in the economy. He uses demographic and historical factors such as the movement towards mass consumption through factory production to explain the timing of women's increasing dependence on waged work. Although economic issues are the main focus of the book, it also considers non-economic contributing factors, making full use of historical and empirical material. "Women's Employment and the Capitalist Family" is written from a marxist-feminist perspective, and argues convincingly that this approach offers a greater challenge to the orthodoxies within economics and sociology which have as yet been untouched by postmodern theories. Despite its theoretical focus, the book avoids technicalities and will be accessible to a wide, interdisciplinary audience.

Offers an analysis of 12 indicators from the ILO Key Indicators of the Labour Market database. The aim is to look for progress or lack of progress towards the goal of gender equality in the world of work and identify where and why blockages to labour market equity continue to exist. Focuses on the relationship of women to labour markets and compares employment outcomes for men and women to the best degree possible given the available labour market indicators.

Today, more American women than ever before stay in the workforce into their sixties and seventies. This trend emerged in the 1980s, and has persisted during the past three decades, despite substantial changes in macroeconomic conditions. Why is this so? Today’s older American women work full-time jobs at greater rates than women in other developed countries. In Women Working Longer, editors Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz assemble new research that presents fresh insights on the phenomenon of working longer. Their findings suggest that education and work experience earlier in life are connected to women’s later-in-life work. Other contributors to the volume investigate additional factors that may play a role in late-life labor supply, such as marital disruption, household finances, and access to retirement benefits. A pioneering study of recent trends in older women’s labor force participation, this collection offers insights valuable to a wide array of social scientists, employers, and policy makers.