The Worth of Women's Work

A Qualitative Synthesis

Edited by Anne Statham, Eleanor M. Miller, and Hans O. Mauksch

Subjects: Women's Studies
Series: SUNY series on Women and Work
Paperback : 9780887065927, 331 pages, December 1987
Hardcover : 9780887065910, 331 pages, December 1987

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Table of contents

Foreword
Alexis Herman

Acknowledgments

I. INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS

1. Women's Approach to Work: The Creation of Knowledge
Anne Statham, Hans O. Mauksch, Eleanor M. Miller

 

2. The Integration Work: A Second-order Analysis of Qualitative Research
Anne Statham, Eleanor M. Miller, Hans O. Mauksch

II. DOING WHAT COMES NATURALLY? THE CARETAKER ROLE

3. Social Policy and Everyday Life in Nursing Homes: A Critical Ethnography
Timothy Diamond

 

4. A Belated Industry Revised: Domestic Serivce among Japanese-American Women
Evelyn Nakano Glenn

 

5. Day Work in the Suburbs: The Work Experience of Chicana Private Housekeepers
Mary Romero

 

6. The Caretakers: Keeping the Area Up and the Family Together
Jane C. Hood

 

7. "Some Peoples Calls It Crime:" Hustling, the Illegal Work of Underclass Women
Eleanor M. Miller

III. PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE WITHOUT PROFESSIONAL POWER

8. Registered Nurses, Gender, and Commitment
Mary C. Corley and Hans O. Mauksch

 

9. Women Talking to Women: Abortion Counselors and Genetic Counselors
Barbara Katz Rothman and Melinda Detlefs

 

10. Public Schoolteaching: A Suitable Job For A Woman?
Dee Ann Spencer

 

11. Women at the Top of Women's Fields: Social Work, Nursing, and Education
Sheila K. Collins

IV. MAKING IT IN THE MALE WORLD

12. Think Like a Man, Work Like a Dog, and Act Like a Lady: Occupational Dilemmas of Policewomen
Susan E. Martin

 

13. Woman Working for Women: The Manager and Her Secretary
Anne Statham

 

14. Women in Direct Sales: A Comparison of Mary Kay and Amway Sales Workers
Maureen Connelly and Patricia Rhoton

 

15. Invisible Amidst the Glittter: Hispanic Women in the Southern California Electronics Industry
M. Patricia Fernandez Kelly and Anna M. Garcia

V. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

16. Policy Implications: The Worth of Women's Work
Ruth Needleman and Anne Nelson

 

17. The Qualitative Approach to the Study of Women's Work: Different Method/Different Knowledge
Eleanor M. Miller, Hans O. Mauksch, Anne Statham

 

Contributors

Index of Names

Index of Concepts

Description

Many common assumptions about work are challenged in this book. For example, the findings refute the common assertion that work tasks can be categorized into '"instrumental," or task activities, versus "caretaking," or people-oriented activities. It is shown that, regardless of the type of job, tasks are accomplished through the management of relationships. Other findings show that workers devise ingenious methods for maintaining dignity in the face of blatant oppression, a conclusion neglected in traditional studies of work where prestige hierarchies are presumed to affect workers' feelings about themselves.

This book integrates findings from qualitative studies of women's work experiences in 13 occupations. The methods for gathering the data include participant observation, unstructured interviews, analysis of diaries, and review of historical documents. These methodologies permit unanticipated patterns to emerge from the data. Hence, The Worth of Women's Work not only presents new insights into women's work experiences, but simultaneously takes a much-needed step in developing a framework for integrating qualitative research.

Anne Statham is Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Behavioral Science Division at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Eleanor Miller is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Hans O. Mauksch is Professor Emeritus of the University of Missouri-Columbia and Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Reviews

"I appreciate the fact that the volume does not focus on women's professions but instead focuses on women's occupations, which have tended to be neglected. The inclusion of the chapter on hustling shows that the editors have an inclusive definition of work." — Catherine W. Berheide, Skidmore College