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1 – 10 of 253
Article
Publication date: 5 August 2014

Mariska van der Horst, Tanja van der Lippe and Esther Kluwer

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how work and family aspirations relate to occupational achievements and gender differences herein.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how work and family aspirations relate to occupational achievements and gender differences herein.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from 2009 the authors examined the relationship between career and childrearing aspirations and occupational achievements of Dutch parents. Using path modeling in Mplus, the authors investigated both direct and indirect pathways where aspirations were related to occupational achievements via time allocations.

Findings

The authors found that ranking being promoted instead of a non-career aspiration as the most important job aspiration was positively related to occupational achievements. Surprisingly, the authors also found that ranking childrearing as the most important life role aspiration was positively related to earnings among fathers.

Research limitations/implications

Investigating aspirations in multiple domains simultaneously can provide new information on working parents’ occupational achievements.

Practical implications

The results imply that parents who want to achieve an authority position or high earnings may need to prioritize their promotion aspiration among their job aspirations in order to increase the likelihood of achieving such a position. Moreover, this is likely to require sacrifices outside the work domain, since spending more time on paid work is an important way to achieve this aspiration.

Originality/value

This paper adds to previous research by explicitly taking life role aspirations into account instead of focussing solely on job aspirations. Moreover, this study extends previous research by investigating indirect pathways from aspirations to occupational achievements via family work in addition to the previously found pathway via paid work.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 19 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 May 2017

Yuko Nozaki

Cost-benefit theory cannot explain the inverse relationship between education and fertility behavior among developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine…

Abstract

Purpose

Cost-benefit theory cannot explain the inverse relationship between education and fertility behavior among developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine psychological factors in fertility decisions, focusing on the number of children and determinants involved in the decision to have three or more children.

Design/methodology/approach

Two empirical models were employed utilizing data from the Japanese General Social Survey of 2005 and 2006. An ordered logit model was used to examine how educational background impacts the number of children people choose to have. A logit model focused on psychological factors was used to investigate the effect of the burden of childcare on the decision to have more children.

Findings

The probability of a third birth declines as the number of years of education increases for women, but not for men. Women whose mothers were housewives tended to have fewer children, whereas women who live in families and are homeowners were likely to have more children. For women, the most influential factor in the decision to have a child was awareness of childrearing costs. Men from higher-class, higher-income families tended to have more children.

Practical implications

The analysis indicates that maternal leave or systemic re-employment support can impact a woman’s decision to have a child.

Social implications

The inverse relationship between women’s fertility behavior and education can be partially explained by the awareness among educated women of the duties and burdens of childrearing.

Originality/value

This study contributes to practical information concerning the role of psychological factors in fertility decisions.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 44 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 September 2022

Nadia Umair Ansari, Muhammad Zaki Rashidi and Kashif Mehmood

This paper aims to describe the lived experiences of modern urban mothers in Pakistan as they navigate shared motherhood responsibilities with family elders. This paper brings to…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to describe the lived experiences of modern urban mothers in Pakistan as they navigate shared motherhood responsibilities with family elders. This paper brings to light their feelings, fears and ambitions towards safeguarding the environment for the future of their children, by reconciling ancient traditions of their female elders with contemporary sustainable consumption practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This phenomenological study explores lived experiences of urban mothers through in-depth personal interviews. Their discourse explores sharing childcare responsibilities with family matriarchs, negotiating “green” parenting strategies between intergenerational parenting partners.

Findings

Navigating life through the intersections of modernity and tradition and ethical choices and consumerism, urban mothers integrate wisdom of their ancestors into their modern lives to mitigate the environmental degradation of today.

Originality/value

This study sheds light on a unique genre of green mothers, termed as the traditionally green eco-mom, which allows modern mothers and their female elders to synchronously adopt sustainable childcare behaviours that overcome intergenerational barriers by reconciling contemporary lifestyles with traditional wisdom.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2008

Marshall H. Medoff

The purpose of this paper is to empirically estimate the effect the costs of an abortion have on the supply of infants relinquished for adoption in the USA.

1608

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to empirically estimate the effect the costs of an abortion have on the supply of infants relinquished for adoption in the USA.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper, using pooled time‐series cross‐section state data, over the years 1982, 1992, and 2000, empirically estimates an adoption supply equation based on the rational choice economic model of fertility.

Findings

The empirical results find that increases in the price of an abortion and the enforcement of a Parental Involvement Law decrease the number of infants available for adoption in a state. States that do not fund Medicaid abortions do not have higher rates of infant relinquishment.

Research limitations/implications

One implication of the results in this paper is that to have an abortion or relinquish an infant for adoption are not considered to be substitutes by women with unwanted pregnancies and that for poor women with unwanted pregnancies either an abortion or raising an infant is preferable to relinquishing an infant for adoption. It would be of interest to see whether comparable results occur in other countries which have changed their abortion policies.

Originality/value

If the goal of society is to increase the number of adoptable infants, the conclusions reached in this paper suggest ways to accomplish this goal.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 35 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 April 2014

Mayumi Takahashi

The aim of this article is to examine the topic of mothers' consumption, particularly how mothers of young children as primary caregivers are involved in contemporary consumer…

447

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this article is to examine the topic of mothers' consumption, particularly how mothers of young children as primary caregivers are involved in contemporary consumer culture in Japan, by using the concepts of “caring consumption” and “ideological dilemmas”.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 mothers of young children aged between 1 and 5. Interviews were conducted either at their home or public facilities. The theoretical framework highlights a variability existing within ideology which creates a cultural space for mothering.

Findings

Mothers' caring consumption is a key means through which motherhood is constituted and how ideologies surrounding mothering are enforced and enacted. They negotiate for certain products and services on behalf of their children, in the name of love, care and devotion, and in consideration of wider social networks. Consumption is part of maternal responsibility and task where a mother not only provides material and emotional support for her child but also becomes a facilitator to connect him/her to a wider social network through her consumption practices.

Originality/value

This study contributes insight into how mothers of young children in Japan experience consumer culture in a specific sociocultural environment and how they construct cultural meanings of motherhood in interaction with surrounding people and a wider consumption-oriented world.

Details

Young Consumers, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-3616

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1996

Esther Ngan‐ling Chow and S. Michael Zhao

Facing a high birth rate, a falling mortality rate, and inconsistent policies on family planning from the 1950s to the early 1970s, the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched…

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Abstract

Facing a high birth rate, a falling mortality rate, and inconsistent policies on family planning from the 1950s to the early 1970s, the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched its widely known one‐child policy in 1979. The intention was to restrict population growth by reducing fertility through family planning and thereby to conserve the nation's resources to advance economic development. The effectiveness of the one‐child policy has varied greatly because policy regulations are differentially carried out by officials of provinces, municipalities, counties, communes, and minority regions. Generally speaking, the state policy has had greater acceptance in urban areas but is far less rigidly enforced by local officials in rural areas and for certain national minorities, which can have a second child under certain circumstances (Chow and Chen, 1994).

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 16 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1982

David Clark

It is extremely likely that present trends towards mass divorce and remarriage will lead to some changes in the fertility behaviour of those affected. As remarriages come to…

Abstract

It is extremely likely that present trends towards mass divorce and remarriage will lead to some changes in the fertility behaviour of those affected. As remarriages come to represent an increasing proportion of all marriages, it is apparent that childbearing and childrearing practices are diversifying and that our conventional assumptions about parenthood and childhood are going to require fairly continuous revision. In the light of this it is useful to consider some of the more obvious connections between remarriage and fertility and to look at the sort of implications which these might have for relationships between parents and children. Does divorce reduce fertility? Does remarriage increase it? How might divorce and remarriage alter the duration and tempo of the childbearing years and what are the likely family arrangements which might ensue? Such questions raise a number of difficulties when looked at within the established categories of fertility research and I therefore hope to suggest some ways in which data of various kinds may be pieced together in order to provide a reasonably comprehensive picture of the problem.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1990

Saeid Mahdavi

A simultaneous‐equations model is specified to analysecross‐country differentials in measures of aggregate fertility andfemale labourforce participation rates (GFR and FLPR…

Abstract

A simultaneous‐equations model is specified to analyse cross‐country differentials in measures of aggregate fertility and female labourforce participation rates (GFR and FLPR respectively). Emphasis is placed on the impacts of changes in patterns of income distribution (as represented by quintile income shares) on GFR and FLPR and interaction between the two endogenous variables. The empirical results suggest that: (1) while income redistribution in favour of the poorest may be expected to reduce GFR, an even larger reduction in GFR may be expected when the income redistribution favours middle‐income households, (2) such a reduction in GFR may take place at the expense of a lower FLPR which is also found to be negatively affected by a ceteris paribus improvement in income distribution, and (3) an increase in FLPR in developing countries may not necessarily lower GFR possibly owing to compatibility of the mother and worker roles of married women.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2017

Charlotte M. Karam and Fida Afiouni

The purpose of this paper is to explore how public (i.e. culture, state, paid work) and private (i.e. household) patriarchal structures work to shape a woman’s own legitimacy…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how public (i.e. culture, state, paid work) and private (i.e. household) patriarchal structures work to shape a woman’s own legitimacy judgments concerning not engaging in paid work. The authors trace the intersection and interaction of legitimacy logics at both the collective (i.e. validity) and individual (i.e. propriety) levels, thereby gaining a better contextual understanding of each woman’s perception of career opportunities and limitations.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative methodology drawing from 35 semi-structured interviews with Lebanese women. A multilevel analytic framework combining the institutional structures of private and public patriarchy with the micro-processes of institutional logics is used.

Findings

Legitimization of (not) engaging in paid work is often tied to patriarchal logics that favor private sphere responsibilities for women, particularly related to the relational and instrumental logics of childrearing and husband-oriented responsibilities. Women’s legitimacy judgment formation seems to be based on multilevel cues and on differential instances of evaluative vs passive judgment formation. Some appear to passively assume the legitimacy of the logics; while others more actively question these logics. The findings suggest that active questioning is often overwhelmed by the negative and harsh realities making the woman succumb to passivity and choosing not to engage in paid work.

Originality/value

This study provides: a better mapping of the individual woman’s daily cognitions concerning the legitimacy of (not) engaging in paid work; and a unique multilevel analytic framework that can serve as a useful example of contextualizing career research.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 22 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 December 2002

Ellen Harshman, Muhammed Islam, Camille A. Nelson and Henry M. Ordower

Investigates the effects on the family and society when an American business owner hides his wealth from creditors and family members, based on a case study where a non‐custodial…

Abstract

Investigates the effects on the family and society when an American business owner hides his wealth from creditors and family members, based on a case study where a non‐custodial father moved funds into highly secret jurisdictions to evade US tax, disappeared, and left his wife left liable for debts. Discusses the ethics of responsibility as they apply to this case of failure to act responsibly, comparing deontological and consequentialist approaches. Outlines the legal remedies for preserving assets: equitable remedy of a preliminary injunction, pre‐judgment attachment, garnishment of wages, transference of property titles, shifting tax burdens, recapturing property, invalidation of obligations, criminalisation of bankruptcy fraud, awarding attorneys’ fees, and contempt rulings. Moves on to the wife’s tax obligations and tax relief, including trust fund taxes and offers in compromise, and then to wider social and behavioural aspects of such cases like childrearing, divorce and remarriage, labour supply, and the feminisation of poverty.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

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