Why Can’t A Woman Be More Like A Woman?

via The Future of Work by Lynda Gratton

London Business School’s Global Leadership Summit was an opportunity to see senior executives and CEOs come together to talk about their views. It was fascinating stuff. We heard how Tim Breedon, a recent joiner to the Barclays Board, has put values at the centre of the bank’s transformation; how Unilever CEO Paul Polman is creating deep alliances with NGOs and multi-lateral organisations like the UN to work on some of the world’s most intractable problems; and how Aberdeen Asset Management’s CEO Martin Gilbert is particularly interested in investing in the “frontier markets” of the world.

Continue reading (and feel the suppressed anger)

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Do fathers work fewer paid hours when their female partner is the main or an equal earner?

an article by Shireen Kanji (University of Basel, Switzerland) published in Work Employment & Society Volume 27 Number 2 (April 2013)

Abstract

Mothers are increasingly likely to be the main or equal earners in heterosexual couples with children.

This study assesses the impact of the mother being the main or an equal earner on her partner’s hours of work. The performance of normative gender roles predicts that fathers increase their hours whereas specialization theories predict they will decrease their hours. Another possibility is that fathers work fewer hours because they have a relatively weak labour market position.

We test these alternative propositions using panel data on co-resident parents from the UK’s Millennium Cohort Survey. The results show that fathers with a female partner who is the main earner work considerably fewer hours than other fathers. This also holds for equal-earner fathers to a lesser extent.

In part, fathers work fewer hours because their partner is the main or an equal earner, but they are also less likely to work in occupations entailing long hours.

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Gender Differences in Involuntary Job Loss: Why Are Men More Likely to Lose Their Jobs?

an article by Roger Wilkins and Mark Wooden (The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) published in Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society Volume 52 Issue 2 (April 2013)

Abstract

Empirical studies have consistently reported that rates of involuntary job loss are significantly lower among female employees than among males. Only rarely, however, have the reasons for this differential been the subject of detailed investigation.

In this article, household panel survey data from Australia are used that also find higher rates of job loss among men than among women. This differential, however, largely disappears once controls for industry and occupation are included.

These findings suggest that the observed gender differential primarily reflects systematic differences in the types of jobs into which men and women select.

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Gender Gaps: Career Development for Young Women With Disabilities

an article by Lauren Lindstrom, Robin M. Harwick, Marcus Poppen and Bonnie Doren (University of Oregon, Eugene, USA) published in Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals Volume 35 Number 3 (August 2012)

Abstract

Young women with disabilities face multiple barriers in making the transition from high school to meaningful careers.

This study used focus groups and individual interviews with high school girls with disabilities, college women with disabilities, high school special education teachers, school administrators and employers to examine career development and transition needs for young women with disabilities.

Barriers and supports were identified in four major categories:

1. individual/interpersonal skills,
2. career options,
3. school system issues, and
4. disability needs.

Recommendations for practice are discussed.