Women and Working Lives explores the interconnections between women's domestic lives and their paid employment, and shows how male definitions of work need to be reformulated. Women's continued disadvantage in the labour market is examined through contemporary, cross-national and historical research studies. Cross-national comparisons show how French mothers are advantaged by state and employer policies compared to British mothers. Contributors question the adequacy of male definitions of work for women, showing that women use a range of strategies, intimately connected with their domestic lives, to produce resources.

Inhalt
List of Tables and Figures - Preface - Notes on the Contributors - Re- assessing Women's Working Lives: An Introductory Essay; S.Arber & N.Gilbert - PART 1 WOMEN'S LABOUR MARKET POSITION: IDEOLOGY AND SOCIAL POLICIES - World War, Women's Work and the Gender Division of Paid Labour; R.Brown - Gender-role Attitudes in Britain and the USA; J.Scott & J.Duncombe - Money, Marriage and Motherhood: Dual Earner Households after Maternity Leave; J.Brannen - Employment and Domestic Work: A Comparison of Samples of British and French Women; I.Procter & P.Ratcliffe - Feminisation of the Labour Force in Britain and France; P.Walters & S.Dex - Demographic Change and 'New Opportunities' for Women: The Case of Employers' Career Break Schemes; C.Truman - Women Under Glasnost: An Analysis of Women's Place in Contemporary Soviet Society; K.Richards Broschart - PART 2 BREAKING MALE DEFINITIONS OF WORK - Wives' and Husbands' Labour Market Participation and Household Resource Distribution in the Context of Middle-Class Male Unemployment; G.Leighton - The Modern Cinderellas: Women and the Contract Cleaning Industry in Belfast; M.Leonard - Women, Business and Self-Employment: A Conceptual Minefield; S.Allen & C.Truman - Trading Relationships: Home Selling and Petty Enterprise in Women's Lives; F.Poland - Bibliography - Index