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A central claim of this volume is that public policy in education and training can only be properly understood if it is seen in relation to prevailing economic and employment conditions. It has become increaslingly apparent that the neo-liberal economic policies pursued by Western governments during the 1980s and 1990s have led to a growing world-wide 'work crisis'. Unemployment levels, particularly in Europe, remain persistently high, and for those in employment, job insecurity and long working hours have become the norm. The response of UK governments has been to promote 'flexibility' in employment practices while proclaiming the importance of improving skill levels through education and t...
This book explores two contemporary combative views regarding the search for just families. These views arise from the conundrum of the family being seen as a supportive, nurturing “haven” versus a grievously unjust, harmful institution that violates the rights and freedoms of any individual family member. Triggered by anti-family movements, which have been inspired by the ideas of some theorists and writers, the book addresses the question: Is family destined to wither away? It challenges the radical idea that the solution to the problem of unjust families is their complete replacement by purportedly just anti-familial alternatives. Chhanda Gupta advances a distinct reformist and reconc...
First Published in 1995. Refusing to be a 'Wife'! explores how women can transform their relationships in order to minimize the inequality found in traditional families. Drawing on interviews with women and men in explicitly anti-sexist living arrangements, the book provides a new perspective on the division of domestic labour, mothering, marriage and financial allocation in the home. Written in a clear and engaging style, this book will be of interest and relevance not only to feminists but to anyone interested in the 'potential' impact of feminism on family life.
We think of our family life as very personal, but in fact it is shaped by influences well beyond our control. Families, Labour and Love identifies the ways in which family and personal life in three 'settler' societies - Australia, New Zealand and Canada - has been shaped by colonisation, immigration, globalisation, demographic changes, law and policy. Baker shows that these three countries, each a former colony, developed similar family trends and similar family policies. Strongly gendered patterns of paid and unpaid work played a major role in family life. The family practices of indigenous people were largely overlooked, as were those of recent immigrant groups. However local conditions a...
IBSS is the essential tool for librarians, university departments, research institutions and any public or private institution whose work requires access to up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of the social sciences.
Thoroughly updated in this second edition, Introduction to Gender offers an interdisciplinary approach to the main themes and debates in gender studies. This comprehensive and contemporary text explores the idea of gender from the perspectives of history, sociology, social policy, anthropology, psychology, politics, pedagogy and geography and considers issues such as health and illness, work, family, crime and violence, and culture and media. Throughout the text, studies on masculinity are highlighted alongside essential feminist work, producing an integrated investigation of the field. Key features: A thematic structure provides a clear exploration of each debate without losing sight of the...
The modern family is under strain. What we crave most from our families is intimacy, warmth and self-fulfilment but we often find this difficult to achieve. We hold onto these expectations of our families even in the face of contradictory experiences, so the family sustains a double life. The authors explore the gap between our values, expectations and yearnings, and our experiences of everyday family life. Family ritual, political rhetoric, advertising images and television family sitcoms are all windows onto what we want and expect - our myths of the family. Yet our aspirations for intimacy and self-fulfilment are frustrated by unacknowledged inequalities between men and women, and parents and children. The inequalities have their origins in the division of domestic labour and in labour markets that disregard family responsibilities. The Double Life Of The Family argues that our expectations of family life are more powerful than is usually believed and have enormous influence on both the way governments structure social policy and on the decisions made by ordinary people.
This is an examination, from a feminist historian's standpoint, of the background to the present system of regulating prostitution in Britain - which is generally admitted to be not only unjust and discriminatory, but ineffective even in achieving its stated aims. Concentrating on the 1950s, and especially on the Wolfenden Report and the 1959 Street Offences Act, it is a thorough exposure of the sexual double standard and general misogynist assumptions underlying legislation relating to prostitution. In addition to the detailed analysis of the 1950s legislation and the background to it, there is an exposition of the subsequent workings of the Act, and of attempts to amend or repeal it.
Changing Family Values offers a comprehensive introduction to contemporary debates and new research surrounding the family. It explores how we define traditional family values and how these values are perceived as being underthreat in contemporary society. Ranging across politics, social policy, law and sociology, the contributors focus on the diverse realities of contemporary family life. Issues covered include: * the recent backlash against single mothers * lesbian and gay families and the law * men's changing roles within the family * the future of the nuclear family. This book is ideal for courses covering the family, a central topic in sociology and women's studies.
This 2-volume work includes approximately 1,200 entries in A-Z order, critically reviewing the literature on specific topics from abortion to world systems theory. In addition, nine major entries cover each of the major disciplines (political economy; management and business; human geography; politics; sociology; law; psychology; organizational behavior) and the history and development of the social sciences in a broader sense.