Policy options for increasing the earnings of the young welfare recipients were explored by analyzing the incomes of nearly 12,000 young women in Baltimore, Maryland, whose 19th birthday fell between April 1, 1985, and March 31, 1989, and who had at least one spell of welfare dependency between their 19th and 29th birthdays. An analysis of the…

The educational, social, and familial influences that lead women to choose information technology (IT) careers were examined in an online survey. Of the 2,500 women who were employed in IT careers in 38 countries and who belonged to the IT professional organization, Systers, 275 responded to the online survey (11% response rate). The respondents…

These four papers are from a symposium on changing workplaces. "Women Entrepreneurs: Maintaining Business Success through Human Resource Development" (Dominic G. Kamau , Gary N. McLean, Alexander Ardishvili) investigates contributions of human resource development (HRD) to business success and reports the following: (1) women can be…

Increases in the divorce rate, decreases in women's childbearing, and increases in women's participation in the labor force represent three major trends that have had a great impact on women and on the family as a setting in which to work, raise children, and control resources. Although women's employment is clearly related in part to their…

In this speech the author discusses Project Chance: Alternatives for Women. The innovative community-based program in New York City was designed to meet the special needs of adult women whose education has been interrupted. The first half of the presentation briefly describes varied aspects of the program, such as re-entry non-credit courses,…

This symposium is comprised of three papers on issues of gender in human resource development (HRD). "The Impact of Awareness and Action on the Implementation of a Women's Network" (Laura L. Bierema) reports on research to examine how gender consciousness emerges through the formation of in-company networks to promote corporate women's…

This paper discusses the impact of life history and everyday life in the context of training unskilled adults for social work in Denmark. It describes origins of these two texts used as empirical material: a discussion by a group of long-term unemployed skilled adult male workers who went through a 2-year training program to obtain permanent…

The first of the four papers in this symposium, "Re-conceptualizing Marsick and Watkins' Model of Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace" (Maria Cseh, Karen E. Watkins, Victoria J. Marsick) describes the use of a revised model to encompass the learning perspectives of small business owner-managers who work in the volatile…

A 2-year project examined the effectiveness of courses for returning workers in enabling women to make a sustained return to paid employment in the following countries: France; Spain; Ireland; and the United Kingdom. In each country, a short foundation-level program and a longer accredited return-to-work program were selected for evaluation.…

The paper analyzes the work roles of husbands and wives in the 1970s and suggests policies to implement sex equality in the workplace and at home. Data reviewed in the paper support the structural-cultural view that work behavior both inside and outside the home is shaped by deeply embedded cultural and structural forces. In 1975, 41% of families…

Changes in the policy context of limited income families' lives have created new stresses at the intersection of work and family. This research used detailed interviews with limited income working mothers of infants 4 to 18 months old to learn about their work experiences, individual well-being, and perceptions of their infants' experiences in…

Using retrospective data of young people's work experience in Japan, a study found that initial labor market conditions (i.e., when workers first enter the labor market after permanently leaving school) have a significant lasting impact on the employment experiences of workers in their teens and twenties. An increase in the unemployment rate at…

This examination of structural changes in the U.S. economy and its effect on the role of working women presents a policy agenda for alleviating some of the economic strains facing today's working woman. Material is arranged into 3 parts. Part 1 provides an historical backdrop and discusses women's shift out of housework, women as providers, and…

The self- and group-initiated and on-the-job learning activities of low-income women were explored in a study of a small group of low-income mothers living in the greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. During the study, the low-income women attended meetings during which a participating researcher documented the women's experiences.…

Attempts to explain sex-related wage differentials generally rely on the human capital and segmentation labor market theories. The human capital theory explains individuals' position in the labor market primarily in terms of factors determining their productivity, whereas segmentation theory focuses on differences among jobs as determinants of the…