Myra H. Strober

Working Wives and Major Family Expenditures

This study examines working-wife (WW) and nonworking-wife (NWW) family purchases of, and amount spent for, time-saving durables, other durables, hobby and recreation items, vacations, and college education. Size of total family income and whether the family moved recently to a different house in which they had some equity were important variables in the purchase decisions. Wifes labor force behavior, however, was not important in the purchase decisions. Income and assets, but not wifes labor force behavior, were significant in the expenditure decisions.

Why Do Women Teach and Men Manage? A Report on Research on Schools.

We are turning a familiar fact into a historical puzzle. How and why did schoolteaching tip from a predominantly male to a female occupation, and why did top managerial positions remain male even when 85 percent of public schoolteachers were women? This brief report discusses the developing conceptualization of our work and comments on the process of interdisciplinary research. Although the inclusive dates for the study are, roughly, 1840-1970, we shall focus here on the period 1840-1900.

Feminism, Children, and the New Families

Feminism, as a social movement, began by emphasizing the interests of women. This book moves beyond that initial agenda by also considering the interests of children and men. As womens roles expand, it becomes evident that the goals of women are harmonious with the interests of children, and seldom in conflict with those of men. The loosening of traditional family roles and the emerging diversity in family forms provide flexibility not only for women, but for all family members. Family policy and practice must take into account these changes and challenges brought about by the new families. FEMINISM, CHILDREN, AND THE NEW FAMILIES paves the way.

Habits of the mind : Challenges for multidisciplinary engagement

The extraordinary complexity of knowledge in today’s world creates a paradox. On the one hand, its sheer volume and intricacy demand disciplinary specialization, even sub‐specialization; innovative research or scholarship increasingly requires immersion in the details of one’s disciplinary dialogue. On the other hand, that very immersion can limit innovation. Disciplinary specialization inhibits faculty from broadening their intellectual horizons—considering questions of importance outside their discipline, learning other methods for answering these questions and pondering the possible significance of other disciplines’ findings for their own work. This article seeks to understand more fully the factors that enhance and impede cross‐disciplinary conversations and the possible longer‐term effects of those conversations. Based on 46 interviews with a sample of seminar participants, it examines the experiences of faculty members who ventured (voluntarily) into multidisciplinary waters and its implications for the organization of disciplines and universities.

Husbands, Wives, and Housework: Graduates of Stanford and Tokyo Universities

Barbara Bergmann argues that economic gender equity requires equity not only in paid employment, but also in household work. We examine the household task arrangements of a sample of married 1981 graduates of Stanford and Tokyo (Todai) Universities, about a decade after their graduation. No less than 43 percent of Stanford graduates shared household tasks about equally with their spouse, a much higher sharing rate than for the whole U.S. population. However, only 12 percent of Todai women and 8 percent of Todai men had egalitarian household task arrangements, a sharing rate about equal to that of the whole Japanese population. Holding other variables constant, Stanford men who did at least half of household tasks paid an earnings penalty of about 10 percent. Women who did more than half of household tasks did not pay an earnings penalty. Our examination of task arrangements among dual-career couples provides support for bargaining power theories of the division of household tasks, but suggests that societal ideology plays a critical role in defining the scope for bargaining.

The Scope of Microeconomics: Implications for Economic Education

In the wake of a multitude of national and state reports on the sorry state of American education, numerous state legislatures have enacted laws toughening the high school curriculum. They have been persuaded by the human capital argument that improved education will enhance American productivity and our international competitive position. One popular reform has been to introduce a mandatory secondary school course in economics. It is ironic that at the same time that legislators and state departments of education are becoming enthusiastic about teaching economics to high school students, economists are becoming more critical of their discipline. The combination of legislative zeal and professional soul-searching sets up an interesting question: What is it that should be taught in secondary school economics courses? The answer to this question is, unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately) not solely in the hands of economists. Decker Walker (forthcoming) contends that curriculum policy making, particularly in the American context, is fundamentally political, not technical. It is useful for economists to recall this admonition as we, the technicians, suggest modifications to the economics course content, especially because political, or nontechnical, interest in the economics curriculum is perhaps even greater than in other subjects. Businesses, unions, and government all have an unusually high stake in what students are taught about our economy. Walker argues that to be effective in curriculum policy making, one must build what he calls a policy-shaping community, with leaders, public support, political will, and long-term sustained efforts. He points to the Joint Council on Economic Education as an innovative and instructive example of such a policy-shaping community. If Walker is right, despite the highly politicized context of curriculum policy making in economics, economists may in fact have an opportunity, through the offices of the Joint Council, to influence curriculum content. This paper represents one economists views on how several aspects of the microeconomics curriculum should be changed to better reflect new think

Economics, Lies, and Videotapes

This exploratory project examines how introductory economics students use graphic analysis. It is argued that student misunderstandings are about issues that have stymied economists from the early days of economic thought.

Sex Differences in Economists' Fields of Specialization

Most discussions of occupational segregation center around rather broad occupational definitions. Thus, social scientists frequently note the proportion of the female labor force who are clerical workers, or the proportion of all female professional and technical workers who are elementary and high school teachers. However, occupational segregation can also be analyzed within more narrowly defined occupations. For example, while it is interesting to know why so few women choose to enter medicine or why so few are permitted to enter, it is also interesting to determine why those women who do become physicians are disproportionately found in pediatrics and psychiatry. Many of the factors involved in answering the second question are also involved in answering the first. Moreover, because of the reduced variability of career-choice determinants and the smaller variety of barriers to career-choice fulfillment, analysis of narrowly defined occupations can be particularly fruitful in yielding answers to questions about occupational segregation. This paper looks at sex differences in the field specializations of economists. Section I proposes a path model of field choice. Section II describes the data base with which the model is tested. In the third

Do young women trade jobs for marriage? A skeptical view

This paper takes a skeptical view of the theory that the slight decline in young womens labor-force participation from 1985 to 1990 can be explained by the fact that there are fewer women now in their early twenties than there are men in their late twenties so that women currently have more bargaining power in the marriage market than men do.The paper argues that the assumption behind this theory, that for women marriage and employment are substitutes, is outmoded. It also contends that the theory leaves out the importance of full-time schooling as an activity alternative to employment and that in fact the increase in full-time schooling among young women has been much greater than the slight decrease in their labor-force participation.Several questions are raised about the statistical test of the theory and also about the reasons why the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page article on the slight decline in young womens labor-force participation and featured the marriage market theory as an explanation for this purported new trend.

Financing Child Care Through Local Taxes One City's Bold Attempt

The Fremont, California, City Council placed a measure on the June 1989 ballot asking residents whether a tax should be levied to pay for child-care services. It was the nations first city election ever held on the issue, and it brought the policy debate on child care into the political arena. Reporting on interviews with local policymakers and the results of an exit poll conducted on election day, this article concludes that the reasons the measure lost by a 3.5 to 1 margin were that the city overestimated the shortage of child-care slots, that supporters of the measure underestimated the opposition, and that the city council and public opinion polls overestimated the willingness of the voting population to pay for public support of child care.