April Brayfield

HOME-TO-JOB AND JOB-TO-HOME SPILLOVER: The Impact of Company Policies and Workplace Culture

We draw on gender theory and neo-institutional theory to examine the impact of workplace characteristics and family demands on negative job-to-home and home-to-job spillover. Our multivariate analyses of the 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce data indicate that family-supportive workplace cultures reduce negative spillover in both directions, whereas the availability of company policies, such as dependent care benefits and flextime, do not. Our results also show that family demands increase spillover more for women than for men. Our findings suggest that the atmosphere of the workplace is more important than the availability of company policies in reducing negative spillover.

Job-family Trade-offs The Multidimensional Effects of Gender

This study investigates how several dimensions of gender, including an individuals sex, gender ideology, and the gender composition of an occupation, influence the accommodations people make in reconciling employment and family life. Using data from the 1996 General Social Survey, we find that women and men sometimes make different kinds of job-family trade-offs, that people in male-dominated occupations make more family trade-offs and fewer employment trade-offs than people in other occupations, and that individual gender attitudes have little effect on job-family trade-offs. Our findings illustrate how gender, as an embedded social institution, contributes to the clash between employment and family responsibilities.

NATIONAL CONTEXT AND GENDER IDEOLOGY Attitudes toward Women's Employment in Hungary and the United States

This study uses a comparative framework to examine the relationship between individual-level attributes and gender-role attitudes in a state-market society (Hungary) and in a capitalist society (the United States). Data from the 1988 International Social Science Program (ISSP) indicate significant differences in attitudes between the two populations. Both women and men in the United States were more supportive of womens employment than their counterparts in Hungary, despite the Hungarian governments policy of full employment during communist rule. Nevertheless, the level of agreement between women and men (the gender gap) was uniform across national contexts: Women were more supportive of womens employment than men. We also found that individual-level attributes, such as employment status and marital status, differentially affected gender-role attitudes in the two countries. This study contributes to a broader dialogue about the dynamic relationship between social structure and gender ideology.

Women's Work Values in Unified Germany Regional Differences as Remnants of the Past

This article examines East-West differences in work values among German women, using data from the 1991 German Social Survey (ALLBUS). Our analyses indicate a clear regional gap in work values: East German women are more likely than West German women to consider employment to be very important and to highly value its socioeconomic and social rewards. We contend that this gap exists because of the effect of preunification differences in state ideology and policy on the life experiences of German women in the two regions. We discuss the implications of the findings for the claim that East Germany was more successful than West Germany in fostering positive attitudes toward market work among women.

Museums and Childhood: Negotiating Organizational Lessons

Contemporary museums define educational programs for children as a central and straightforward component of their stated missions. We problematize these programs in our critical discussion of the role of the museum as a source of non-classroom education and the centrality of these lessons in the maintenance of the museum as an organization. Our exploratory study investigates educational programs for children within two traditionally adult-centered museum settings in the US: (1) an architectural museum in a mid-sized city and (2) an art gallery on a university campus. We compare the organizational goals of the two museums with respect to their programs for children and the attempts of museum educators to accomplish these goals through specific programs. Based on interviews with museum officials and field observations, we argue that museum programs attempt to promote both cultural and content lessons to children and teachers through school tours within museum spaces and that their success is tied to the training and beliefs of tour guides, the suitability of museum spaces for children as a participatory audience, and the techniques used to control children’s social behavior.

Gender Regimes and Cultures of Care: Public Support for Maternal Employment in Germany and the United States

Abstract Our research uses nationally representative survey data to empirically document whether U.S. East German, and West German attitudes toward maternal employment have converged over the last decade. Specifically, our research examines to what extent the gender-related attitude regimes vary and have changed in accordance with policy developments in the United States and the two regions of unified Germany between 1991 and 2002. Data from the U.S. General Social Survey (GSS) and Die Allgemeine Bevolkerungsumfrage der Sozial-wissenschaften (ALLBUS-German General Social Survey) show that the public attitudes toward maternal employment in both regions of many are moving in a more supportive direction compared to their respective starting points, but West German attitudes have not caught up with those of the East. Furthermore, we found no evidence of a convergence with attitudes in the U.S. In fact, there was no change in the U.S. in the last decade on the gender arrangement continuum, in its policy regime, or toward more supportive attitudes toward womens employment.

Early childhood socialization: Societal context and childrearing values in Hungary

This article examines the socio-cultural context of early childhood socialization in Hungary. Using a macroscopic lens, we describe the national demographic situation and the social organization of early childhood education and care. Our analysis then shifts to a microscopic focus on parental values and beliefs about the substance of what young children should be learning in different settings. Results from our national survey suggest that Hungarian parents tend to view the socialization roles of childcare workers and parents as different, but complementary: good manners should be learned at home, while cognitive and social skills should be learned in nurseries. Most respondents also think that young children should learn about the world, others, and themselves through play in group settings, while reading and math lessons should wait until elementary school.

Women's and men's subjective class identification from the 1970s to the 1990s

This study examines the subjective class identification of employed married women and men during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Using data from the General Social Survey, we test three competing models of subjective class identification: status borrowing, independent status, and status sharing. The findings indicate that the predictors of class identification for both women and men have changed considerably over the past three decades. The model for men has shifted from an independent model in the 1970s to a sharing model that depends on their gender‐role attitudes in the 1980s, and, further, to a sharing model irrespective of gender‐role attitudes in the 1990s. The model for women has moved away from a complex borrowing model of the 1970s toward a sharing model in the 1980s and 1990s, with womens gender‐role attitudes shaping their class identification process in the 1970s and 1980s, but not in the 1990s.

Patterns in Family Policy Preferences in the European Union

This study empirically examines the relationship between national context and individual preferences for national policy priorities related to improving family life within the European Union. Using data from the Eurobarometer survey, logistic regression models indicate that public opinion about nine potential priorities (housing, economic prospects, education, flexible work hours, childcare, tax advantages, child allowances, parental leave, and contraception) parallels an ideological subscription to traditional gender roles, the level of economic prosperity, and the degree and type of state support for families with children. We also field that women are more concerned about policies that enhance the reconciliation of work and family, while men are more concerned about policies that support their traditional breadwinner duties