Work–family Management among Low‐wage Service Workers and Assistant Professors in the USA: A Comparative Intersectional Analysis

Abstract

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.

„Másoknak ez munka, nekem szívügyem” Az etnicitás szerepe a diplomás roma nők munka-család konstrukcióinak alakulásában

“…Mindezt azzal magyarázzuk, hogy a roma diplomás nők számára a (fizetett és a nem fizetett) munkának (is) egyfajta értéktöbblete van nem roma társaikhoz képest. Míg ugyanis még a többségi, professzionális vagy vezetői beosztásban dolgozó diplomás nők esetében is, ahol pedig a munka az egzisztenciális szükségszerűségen túlmutató tevékenység -még itt is maximum az önmegvalósítás, az önbecsülés, a sikerélmény megszerzésének eszköze vagy terepe (Weigt-Solomon 2008 Amint azt már korábban bemutattuk, diplomás roma interjúalanyaink között majdnem mindenki a romák társadalmi helyzetével vagy érdekképviseletével kapcsolatos munkát végez. 18 Míg néhányuk esetében ez egy rövidebb életszakaszra korlátozódott, másoknál egész szakmai karrierjüket meghatározta.…”

“…(Hakim 2002(Hakim , 2006Ridgeway-Corell 2004). A másik pedig, hogy hogyan egyeztetik össze és menedzselik a különböző osztályhelyzetű és munkaerő-piaci státuszú nők a munkájukhoz és a családjukhoz kötődő elvárásokat (Weigt-Solomon 2008). A hazai kutatókat ez utóbbi kérdés mellett leginkább az foglalkoztatta ezidáig, hogy milyen speciális nehézségekkel szembesülnek azok a magasan képzett nők, akik munkájuk és családjuk iránt is erősen elkötelezettek (Takács 2008(Takács , 2013Nagy-Paksi 2015).…”

Mothering in an Increasingly Uncertain Economic Marketplace: Revisiting the Call for Broader Conceptualizations of Parenthood and Paid Work

“…Nearly two-thirds of the nearly 20 million workers (Entmacher et al, 2014) are in low-wage jobs that hold little to no decision-making power (Bernhardt, McKenna, & Evangelist, 2012), especially since any job growth since the recession is primarily in these types of jobs. Women in low-wage positions are less likely to have autonomy in the work force and experience greater levels of work-conflict than women in more prestige positions (Weigt & Solomon, 2008). This limits working women's ability to have an impact on systemic change within the workplace.…”

Doing Gender, Paying Low: Gender, Class and Work–Life Balance in Aged Care

“…West and Fenstermaker () discuss working or lower class in terms of low wages, often long hours, and poor working conditions — identifiers of ‘one's position within the system of distribution that differentially structures our access to resources’ (p. 28). Working class is associated with ‘blue‐collar’ work, manual labour and ‘unskilled’ workers, compared to the middle class in white‐collar work and professions who would usually hold higher education qualifications (Holvino, ; Rickett and Roman, ; Weigt and Solomon, ). Indeed, educational achievement is often used as an indicator of class status (Acker, ; Piasna et al , ).…”

“…This view of middle‐class and white‐collar/professional work underlies the power relations that assume middle‐class jobs are those further up the hierarchy, such as management (Hughes, ). The hierarchies involved also relate to the associated low wages (Weigt and Solomon, ) and poor working conditions of the working class (West and Fenstermaker, ) and enhanced incomes and work conditions of the middle class. In this study the aged care managers, most of whom are also registered nurses, are middle class; the ‘unskilled’, unqualified and low‐waged aged care workers are working class.…”