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Noting an inattention to the specific ways in which class, race, and gender combine to affect work-family management, we conducted a qualitative exploration of the processes of intersectionality. Our analysis relies on two points on a continuum of class experiences provided by two groups of predominately white female workers: low-wage service workers and assistant professors. Drawing on in-depth interviews with each group, we examine the similarities and differences in their experiences of negotiating their work worlds as they tried to meet family demands. We focus on the ways in which class and gender interacted to shape these women's everyday lives in different ways. While we found that women privileged by class were privileged in their abilities to manage work and family demands, we also found that class shaped the gendered experiences of these women differently. Our data suggest that, in the realm of workfamily management, class mutes gendered experiences for assistant professors while it exacerbates gendered experiences for women working in the low-wage service sector. Our analysis not only highlights the importance of considering intersecting hierarchies when examining women's lived experiences in families and workplaces, but provides an empirical example of the workings of intersectionality.

In the present article, we analyze a project in a heavy industry plant in Iceland in which the management aims to hire an equal number of women and men and, thereby, to work against the gender segregation of work. For their efforts, called the 50/50 strategy, the plant has received national and international awards. Observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted during five visits to the plant, including 85 interviews with 72 individuals, 49 women and 23 men. We found extensive support for the policy. The managers saw business opportunities in it, but although the employees supported the policy because it was seen as fair and modern, they doubted that achieving equal gender representation would be possible. The main emphasis so far has been on designing work organization and equipment, advertising the policy, presenting job opportunities to women outside the plant, and encouraging both genders to acquire the Bright^education. Why the 50/50 target has not been reached lies partly in gender stereotypes outside the plant. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the next steps should be to challenge an alleged male working-culture within the plant. If they fail to do so, their efforts to eliminate horizontal gender segregation are unlikely to succeed and may even become counterproductive.

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