Norman Bonney

Gender and Migration: Geographical Mobility and the Wife's Sacrifice:

Although it has become almost axiomatic in much contemporary sociology that geographical mobility for husbands career reasons is disruptive of wives labour market careers, there have been few systematical empirical inquiries into the issue. This study reports findings from a survey of in-migrants in Aberdeen in 1986. Considerations relating to male partners occupational career were the main factor accounting for the in-migration of married women, but single women were more likely to come for educational or employment reasons. Levels of grievance among in-migrant partnered women about the consequences of this move for their employment were low but there was some evidence that women in-migrant for such reasons saw the move as less helpful careerwise than other in-migrant women. More, however, saw the move as helpful or making no difference, rather than being a hindrance. Many respondents were able to find what they regarded as suitable new employment and others saw themselves at the time of the move primarily as mothers or housewives. The research findings lend support for the view that migrant wives roles are orientated primarily around their husbands occupational concerns but this need not be detrimental to their own labour market activity since their skills, aptitudes and resources facilitate their adaptation to the new situation.

Overworked Britons?: part-time work and work-life balance

There is a widespread perception that Britain has long working hours. Industry campaigns, research by foundations and government policies under the banner of balancing work and family life have all emphasized the alleged prevalence of a long working hours culture and the need to bring about a reduction in the hours of paid work. The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) document ‘Balancing Work and Family Life’, published in January 2003 argues that ‘for many employees, a key characteristic of the labour market in the UK is the long hours culture’ (p. 10) and that the government is committed to helping parents balance their work and family responsibilities (p1). Philanthropic organizations such as the Work Foundation (Jones, 2003) and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (Bond et al., 2002; Purcell et al., 2002) adopt a similar emphasis. The involvement of 22 major firms in the Employers for Work–Life Balance Campaign is a further instance of the strength of this attitude and associated attempts to adjust work place practice. Illustrations of the widespread perception that Britain has a culture of long hours of paid work can be found in numerous sources. Bond et al. (2002: 1) claim that ‘the proportion of men working 50 hours a week rose from 24 percent to 30 percent from 1988 to 1998 and the proportion of women from 4 to 10 percent’. Will Hutton, a journalist and an insightful commentator on economic and political life in Britain, claimed that the British work the longest hours in Europe (Observer 15 June 2003). Two weeks later the same newspaper reported that ‘42 percent of us work more than 48 hours per week’ under the headline ‘Too Tired for Fun and Sex’. On 6 July 2003 Scotland on Sunday reported that ‘... the British work 43.6 hours a week’, more than several other specified European nations and second in this respect among the major industrial nations to the USA. Further illustrating the widespread nature of these

Gender, employment and social class

For about three decades British between analyses of contempora of social class and those that po nificance by purportedly ‘new’ social nation. There are still those who arg damental principle of social organiz and diminishing band increasingly emphasize the alternative perspective In 1996 Turner and Lee publishe debate and to which the reader is re involved. A more recent examination ships between these various principle class in contemporary society, sugges has descended whereby proponents assert, or attempt to justify philosop make a ritual affirmation about the investigations that rigorously explore are rare – as are systematic empirical oretical examination raises. Reid (1 range of social class differences in B speak for itself and pointedly refrain those who challenge the class perspec lection of contributions on eight ma allows experts to focus on their respe look systematically at the relative sign ing dimensions of social inequality an an assessment that attempts an integ abstract level which rejects the view macy, and the extreme contrary vie Dates [DOI: 10.1177/0950017007073627] SAGE Publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore nd Conoversi Gender, employment and social class

Language and power in Japanese transplants in Scotland

Previous research into Japanese owned and managed enterprises in western countries has been alert to problems in cross-cultural communication but there has been little research into the linguistic patterns accompanying these activities. This study of seven such plants in Scotland illustrates key features of the linguistic patterns evident in them. Forms of pidgin develop in co-operative working environments but unusually they are based on the language of the formal subordinates, local English speaking managers and workers. In contrast, and more in line with expectations from socio-linguistic theory, the local dialect is used as a device to promote local workforce solidarity against expatriate management. The former discrepancy between material and cultural power, which is not expected on the basis of Bourdieus and related theories of cultural behaviour, is explained in terms of the differing career paths of Japanese and non-Japanese personnel, the marginal involvement of Japanese management in the local society and their reticence in asserting cultural power commensurate with their economic power. However, these lingusitic developments were local phenomena that did not challenge Japanese managerial control, both local and corporate, of decisions on development and investment. Hence, the opposition between cultural and material power may be permitted to persist because of these limited effects.

Dual Earning Couples: Trends of Change in Great Britain

Past research on dual career couples has tended to focus upon qualitative studies of a proportionately small number of elite partners. This study is concerned with the social incidence of dual earning partnerships in the different social strata in contemporary UK. Census data and other demographic sources indicate that career-like patterns of labour market participation by females are much more common among women of upper-middle and middle class social origins and destination. Rising levels of education among younger women entering the labour force suggest that such career-like paths will become increasingly common among the more privileged social groups. Social class inequality may be being intensified by rising female employment participation as dual career patterns become much more common among middle class and upper-middle class couples while working class men and women suffer relatively disadvantaged labour market positions.

Housework Reconsidered: The Oakley Thesis Twenty Years Later

neglected. The focus of much sociological research has switched to women employed in the labour force and to the analysis of their occupational position and prospects. Relatively less attention has been given to women who are not in, nor seeking, paid employment. Yet women not in, nor seeking, paid employment are a substantial element of the adult population. Thirty per cent of the Women and Employment sample were not in paid work nor looking for work (Martin and Roberts 1984: 9); and between a third and a quarter of the female respondents aged between 20 and 60 fell into this category in each of the 1,000 persons sampled in each Economic and Social Research Council Change and Economic Life Initiative locality (Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy, Coventry, Rochdale, Swindon and Northampton). With the rising rates of employ ment participation by younger women and the earlier return to work of female workers following upon maternity, associated breaks in employ ment are increasingly seen as temporary interruptions in life-long em ployment trajectories in the labour market (Martin and Roberts 1984: chapter 13). Nonetheless, substantial proportions of women still with draw from the labour market when they have young children. Forty-five per cent of mothers with young children of age 4 or under in 1989, and 30% of mothers among couples with dependent children, were not in paid employment or currently seeking it (Breeze, Trevor and Wilmot 1991: 70, Table 3.21). Nor do all women currently absent from the labour market plan, anticipate or experience a return to paid employ ment; twenty-six per cent of women in their forties in 1989 were, for instance, not in paid employment (ibid: 71). Older women, and perhaps some younger ones, may still see their major role as domestic and not

Shifting Spheres: The Work and Family Life of Japanese Female Graduates

Women occupy a subordinate and peripheral place in the Japanese paid workforce and most women experience a considerable interruption to their employment history while they have young children. This is especially true of university graduates, who are less likely than average to continue in paid employment. This paper draws on the Sino-Japanese Survey of Working Womens Lives to provide insight into that minority of women who continue in paid work in this phase of life. The data confirm the general picture of the female workforce, but make it possible to highlight a sub-group of graduates who have secured a foothold in primary sector employment and whose domestic life exhibits a shift away from the sharp gender division typical of Japanese households. It is suggested that the life courses of Japanese women show signs of increasing differentiation.

The black ghetto and mainstream America

Thomas B. Edsall and Mary D. Edsall, CHAIN REACTION: THE IMPACT OF RACE, RIGHTS AND TAXES ON AMERICAN POLITICS, London and New York: Norton, 1992, ix + 343pp.,

Towards a Free Market in Religion

10.95 and £7.95 (paper). Nicholas Lemann, THE PROMISED LAND: GREAT MIGRATION AND HOW IT CHANGED AMERICA, New York: Knopf, 1991, 410pp.,

The classics revisited

24.95 (cloth). Alphonso Pinkney, BLACK AMERICANS, Fourth Edition, Englewood Cliffs, CT: Prentice Hall, 1993, vii + 246pp., npl. Lee Sigelman and Susan Welch, BLACK AMERICANS’ VIEWS OF RACIAL INEQUALITY: THE DREAM DEFERRED, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, ix + 225pp., £13.95 and