Studies have shown that spousal caregiving leads to psychological distress, but few have analyzed the moderating effect of paid work. Using the 2000 to 2012 Health and Retirement Study and two‐stage least squares regression models, this study found that caregiving increased women's and men's depressive symptoms. Ordinary least squares models showed that caregiving had more adverse effects on women's mental health than on men's, but these differences were eliminated in two‐stage least squares models that accounted for the bidirectional effects of depression and caregiving. The current study also found that for women, part‐time work attenuated the depressive effect of spousal caregiving, whereas for men, part‐time work exacerbated it. These gender differences persisted even for intensive spousal caregivers. The authors suggest that caregiving women who work part‐time may benefit from work‐related resources. Caregiving men who work part‐time, however, may feel distressed, as their work–family experiences conflict with traditional gender norms.
Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender‐based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental‐leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (
- Award ID(s):
- 1919218
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10472818
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Political Psychology
- ISSN:
- 0162-895X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Objective This study compares mothers' perceptions of work–family conflict in four countries that exemplify different work–family policy approaches: Sweden, Germany, Italy, and the United States.
Background Scholars have examined the impact of culture and work–family policy on mothers cross‐nationally, primarily using quantitative methods. Thus, sociologists have a good understanding of both work–family policy structures and outcomes, but the intervening processes that play out in working mothers' daily lives are not well understood.
Method This article begins to fill this gap, drawing on interviews with 109 middle‐class employed mothers in Stockholm, Berlin, Rome, and Washington, D.C. The author investigates how work–family conflict is mitigated—or not—in countries with policies that reflect different ideals of motherhood, employment, and gender equality.
Results Interviews reveal confirming evidence of cross‐national variation in mothers' levels or perceived scope of conflict. Mothers also (a) attribute blame for their work–family conflict to different sources and (b) employ different solutions to resolve it.
Conclusion Work–family conflict is not an inevitable feature of contemporary life. Rather, it is the product of public policies and cultural attitudes that shape women's desires, expectations, and behaviors regarding work and family. Elucidating the processes of perception, attribution, and resolution is crucial to understand the political and cultural conditions that facilitate the combination of motherhood and employment.
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Abstract Background . Though many studies have long considered the broad social implications of climate change, researchers have only recently started to consider the gendered unevenness of the global landscape of vulnerability, exposure, and adaptive capacity to environmental stressors and shocks. Historically, policies and interventions addressing natural resource-based livelihoods have rarely considered underlying gender dynamics despite the global pervasiveness of gendered disparities in both economic opportunities and welfare outcomes.Methods/Design . Using two electronic databases, Web of Science and Scopus, we conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed academic literature describing livelihoods policies or interventions that included documentation of gendered impacts. We focused on natural resource-based livelihoods most likely to be affected by climate change, centering on interventions targeting agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, and forestry.Review Results/Synthesis . We identified 131 relevant articles, most of which focus on adoption or participation in interventions rather than outcomes. In general, women are less likely than men to engage with sustainable livelihoods interventions. When women do engage, some researchers have documented income and food security gains as well as improvements in environmental indicators in the short-term. However, these initiatives have also been found to increase women’s labor burden without corresponding gains in income. Few studies measure longer-term effects of women’s engagement on welfare and environmental outcomes, a key gap in the literature. Additionally, relatively few studies explore the intersectional impacts of initiatives, such as the added burdens of ethnicity, class, education, or other differences that modify gender disparities.Discussion . Climate change has gendered impacts on natural resource-based livelihoods. In general, existing initiatives designed to increase livelihood resilience fail to reduce gender disparities and improve women’s livelihoods. Greater attention should be paid to gender when designing sustainable livelihoods policies and interventions in order to increase adoption and participation, negotiate trade-offs, improve environmental conditions, and promote broadly beneficial welfare outcomes. -
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Abstract Objective This study investigates how
healthcare seeking for oneself and “healthcare work” for family—constellations that include the continuation of health insurance, access to formal medical care, and medication adherence—change during a period of unemployment.Background “Intensive mothering” norms that promote selfless caregiving may discourage women's (but not men's) engagement in own healthcare seeking behavior. Breadwinning norms may oblige men (but not women) to provide income and other resources, including health insurance.
Method This article relies on data from 100 in‐depth interviews with unemployed men and women conducted from 2013 to 2015. An iterative coding process guided data analysis; themes and patterns were evaluated to determine their importance across the data.
Results After a job loss, many women (but few men) stopped seeking previously maintained healthcare for themselves. In contrast, some men rejected obligations to provide health insurance for their family. Moreover, the majority of women (but few men) discussed the prioritization of family in their healthcare decision‐making.
Conclusion The intersection of financial inequalities and changing gender norms in healthcare seeking and family healthcare work placed a unique toll on women's health.
Implications These findings expand current understanding of how gender functions as a primary frame and how these frames change, suggesting that gender beliefs about family responsibilities extend to healthcare seeking and family healthcare work and are constrained by social class, even as gender frames change to reshape men's obligations to provide health insurance.
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Abstract Objective This study analyzed differences in the wage penalty for parental caregiving between early Baby Boomers and the previous generation.
Background Research has explored the association between parental caregiving and women's labor market outcomes, but few studies have conducted cross‐cohort analyses.
Method This study used nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and compared two cohorts of individuals aged 50 to 64. One cohort was born between 1931 and 1941, and the other was born between 1948 and 1953. The 1994 to 2012 waves of the HRS were pooled, and multivariate fixed effects regression models were used to estimate the associations among birth cohort, parental caregiving, and women's and men's log hourly wages.
Results Intense parental caregiving was associated with a 4.8% reduction in women's wages. Baby Boom women did not fare better than their predecessors. Moreover, despite a substantial increase in Baby Boom men's parental care, the association between caregiving and their labor market outcomes was negligible. Similar to their predecessors, married and unmarried Baby Boom men did not pay wage penalties for parental caregiving.
Conclusion These results extend our understanding of the gendered life course and suggest that parental caregiving may contribute to older women's economic disadvantage.
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12880
