Browsing by Subject "Work"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Aesthetic expressions: punk dress and the workplace.
    (2010-11) Sklar, Monica
    Work and non-work dress for individuals who identify with the punk subculture involves thoughtful manipulation of appearance. This study asked: What are punk individuals’ experiences concerning the apparel-bodyconstruct for their workplace environments? These individuals negotiate between aesthetic expressions of their subcultural identity and the role they believe they are expected to play at work. An online survey with 208 individual participants identified interview candidates. Participant suitability was based on fulltime employment, selfidentification with punk, demographics, workplace dress codes, and evidence of appearance labor (Peluchette, Karl, & Rust 2006). Interviews were conducted with 20 men and women, aged 26 – 45, and located in three major cities in the Midwestern United States. Interviewee professions ranged from law to education to sales. Interview topics included: commitment to punk and their profession, concern for others’ impressions, and aesthetic details. Data were analyzed using DeLong’s (1998) framework “Form, Viewer, and Context.” Literature incorporated punk dress, workplace dress, aesthetics, identity expression, postmodernism and globalization. All interviewees try to look “appropriate” for the workplace, which can be an obstacle for those whose dress expresses an ideology. Interviewees expressed that feeling “appropriate” and feeling like “oneself” are sometimes competing concepts, resulting in appearance labor and necessitating accommodations. Interviewees reported a balancing act of blending in and standing out, taking into consideration viewer interpretations and subsequent positive and negative outcomes. Efforts to wear “appropriate” dress included modifying one’s punk appearance by conceding to dress codes and using perceived nonconfrontational aesthetic choices. Dress is manipulated per context and features selectively revealing or concealing of punk symbols, with punk cues subtly coded to appear conventional. Some individuals develop two wardrobes representing work and non-work while others prefer one versatile wardrobe. Interviewees strive to push with the boundaries of workplace appropriateness while reaching toward satisfying aesthetic self-expression. How interviewees manipulate form was influenced by demographics and feelings of commitment to one’s profession. Multiple interviewees expressed a willingness to forego punk dress if their career incorporated ideas from punk ideology. They reported higher emotional comfort related to job satisfaction and status within the punk community and in the workplace.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Envisioning adult lives: adolescent aspirations and expectations of work and family.
    (2008-06) Copher, Ronda Marie
    Adolescence provides a portal for understanding the life course, to examine how ideas for the future coalesce and potentially change during this time. The configurations of adolescent aspirations and expectations tell us how adolescents see adulthood, and to a lesser extent about the conceptualization of the roles they will later occupy. To further understand the process of life course formation, I examine the process of cognitive orientations toward work and family roles during adolescence. My dissertation addresses the larger question of life course formation, emphasizing the dynamic and multidimensionality of people's lives and the importance of the self in life course formation. With longitudinal data from the Youth Development Study, specifically survey data from 496 girls and 431 boys of the over 1000 adolescents survey annually since 1987, using latent class modeling, I investigate three issues: first, adolescent cognitive orientations, which are the configurations of adolescent aspirations and expectations during the adolescent period of the life course--specifically the first and last years of high school. Second, I assess the influence of precursors to and the outcomes at age 25 of the adolescent cognitive orientations. Third, I examine whether there are gender differences in the cognitive orientations of adolescent girls and boys, as well as differences in the effects of precursors and outcomes. Adolescent girls and boys exhibit both similarities and differences in their cognitive orientations. In 9 th grade, 5 different cognitive orientations characterized adolescent girls ( conventional, educationally uncertain, ambitious, occupationally ambitious, and uncertain ). In 12 th grade, adolescent girls revealed 5 cognitive orientations ( conventional, vocationally oriented, low aspirations, uncertain, and ambitious ). In contrast, 9 th grade boys had 4 cognitive orientations ( conventional, below average, uncertain, and occupationally ambitious ) and 12 th grade boys had 4 cognitive orientations ( ambitious, conventional, low aspirations, and uncertain ). Further, the effects of family, education and work experiences on the 12 th grade cognitive orientations are varied. Results additionally suggest a limited relationship of adolescent cognitive orientations to adult roles. From the empirical investigation of adolescent aspirations and expectations I derive four general conclusions which are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Essays on divorce, marriage, time allocation and employment.
    (2012-08) Genadek, Katherine Rose
    This dissertation consists of three essays in the areas of labor economics and economic demography. The first essay builds on previous research, which has analyzed the economic impacts of divorce using various methods and outcomes, and from this research it is clear that divorce has economic consequences for women. One consequence of divorce that has not been explored is changes time allocation. Time allocation, specifically time spent in leisure, is directly related to the well-being of individuals, and it is expected to change with divorce when time-use gains from joint household production are no longer realized. The results show that divorced women spend more time in market work, and less time in housework than their married counterparts. Divorced women with children are found to have less leisure time than married women, and divorced women are found to spend the same amount of time in primary childcare yet significantly less time with children while doing other activities. The second essay is on the decision to enter the labor force for women with children. This decision is based on a variety of factors that includes characteristics of spouses. Husband's work schedules, work hours, and flexibility of work time will play an important role in this decision to enter the labor force, and additionally, in the decision to work part-time or a set number of hours. This paper uses detailed time-dairy and work schedules data to investigate the relationship between husband's work schedules and maternal employment. The results show married women with children are less likely to participate in the labor force when their husbands finish work after 6:00pm when compared to husbands that finish work before 6:00pm, even while controlling for simultaneous relationship between husband's work stopping time and wife's labor force participation. Finally, the third essay of this dissertation analyzes the effect of state-level changes in divorce law on the time allocation of married men and women. The results show that married men's time allocation is not impacted by the change in divorce law, yet women are found to be spending more time in leisure and less time in household production in states with unilateral divorce law.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Maker Made: Creating a Silicon Place in Berlin, Germany
    (2016-12) Phillips, Leonore
    Drawing on the inspiration that Silicon Valley provides, this dissertation is about the way Silicon Allee in Berlin Germany is made by workers, students, bureaucrats and even the larger population of Berlin. Silicon Allee is a community; it’s a matrix of interconnected people, machines, ideas, places and words that are changing, connecting, disconnecting, and reconnecting; maintained through webpages, text messages, classrooms, university spaces, meetups, camps, tweets, coworking sites, coffee shop talk and offices. In this age of ultra-information and continuous connections that can span the globe in seconds, Berlin’s Silicon Allee is also embedded in a larger culture of computing that both ignores and reinforces boundaries. I use this dissertation to explore the way that these boundaries are made, unmade and revised both locally, nationally and globally through discourses on and practices of work.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Negotiators: Black Professional Women, Success, and the Management of Competing Identities
    (2013-11) Harris-LaMothe, Jasmine
    This study uses qualitative interview data from 35 Black professional women in the Twin Cities metropolitan area to identify and further understand the complex negotiation of identities necessary for Black women to achieve professional success. It asks, (1) what combinations of factors associated with race, class, and gender do these Black women perceive have the greatest impact on the career trajectories of Black women? (2) What are racial and gendered expectations outside of the workplace these Black women perceive complicate their career trajectories? (3) How do these Black professional women perceive the politics of class, as well as race and gender impact their career trajectories? (4) How do these Black women use race, class, and gendered networks? The limited body of research on the experiences of Black professional women suggests assimilation, defined as absorbing and seeing oneself as a culture different from one's native culture, is not necessary for professional success, a claim which seems counter-intuitive to present day understandings within the Black community of how success is best achieved. This study seeks to address the void in the literature by attempting to connect professional success to the competing interests of Black women's personal and professional lives, such as attaining traditional roles of wife and/or mother, meeting cultural expectations of active community engagement, or taking on minority mentors, to highlight the often invisible barriers to professional success for Black women. Through analysis of the individual personal and professional experiences of Black women, this dissertation identifies a combination of factors associated with race, class, and gender Black professional women perceive as impacting their career trajectories. The findings of this study suggest that many of the study participants' personal commitments, such as active community outreach and a desire for occupational prestige are indeed perceived predictive of career success. Black women are encouraged early in their professional lives to value either family or career as most important. Their personal valuations, regardless of other objective similarities (such as level of education, or that of family members), are believed by these women to significantly inform how the degree of career success they achieve. While one cannot generalize from a case study of 35 Black women in the Twin Cities, the study offers clear directions for future research on the professional success of Black women. This research will help to further the important work of narrowing the wide gap in career achievement between Black and white women in the United States.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Playing like a boy: gender, high school sport participation, and early career success
    (2013-07) McLaughlin, Heather
    Sport has been hailed as a symbol of masculinity in American society. Through participation in sport, girls and boys are socialized to a masculine, competitive culture that may have long-term consequences for participants in other gendered institutions throughout the life course. Like sport, work has been identified as a gendered institution where women are often relegated to lower-paying positions and more feminized occupations. In this mixed-methods study, I examine whether participation in high school sports helps adolescents to successfully navigate young adult work. Specifically, I use longitudinal survey data from the Youth Development Study to test whether high school sport participation is associated with labor force participation, job categories and characteristics, pay, and workplace authority. Multi-level mixed effects models show that sport participation, among both males and females, is associated with labor force participation and earnings. Moreover, sex- and sport-specific effects also emerge. For example, I find that females who participate in contact sports, on average, work in industries characterized by a higher proportion of male workers. Sport participation was also associated with females' annual household income and supervisory authority. In-depth interviews with nine women who participated in high school sports reveal a number of mechanisms through which sport is linked to young adult work outcomes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Sleep patterns and risk of injury among rural Minnesota adolescents.
    (2009-08) Langner, Deborah Merchant
    Sleep occupies a third of our lives; yet, only of late has credit been given to the significant role it plays in our health and well-being. Teens often are limited in the duration of sleep acquired, due to time-consuming activities, as well as biological and environmental aspects of adolescence. The current study explores potential risk of injury among teens by examining associations between sleep patterns, sleep duration, and injury. Youth at Work, an open cohort from 41 rural high schools in Minnesota, followed 15,002 students from 2001-2003. Data were collected through a self-completed questionnaire, distributed to each student four times during the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 school years. Questionnaire responses described events in either the summer months (fall administration) or the school year (spring administration). A total of 41, 272 questionnaires were completed. Analysis included odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) calculations using logistic regression, controlling for potential confounders by means of directed acyclic graphs. Results indicated that adolescents who reported sleeping six hours or less every night during the summer had an increased risk of injury (OR = 1.40; CI = 1.13, 1.72). Risk of injury increased further for individuals who slept six hours or less during the weekend nights in the summer, but received optimal sleep on weeknights (OR = 1.60; CI = 1.20, 2.14). During the school year, students who reported six hours of sleep or less during school nights and sub-optimal sleep on weekend nights also had an increased risk of injury (OR = 1.53; CI = 1.07, 2.20), as did individuals who slept nine hours or longer on weekend nights but acquired insufficient sleep on school nights (OR = 1.71; CI = 1.22, 2.39). Among working adolescents, teens employed in entertainment who routinely slept six hours or less or greater than six hours but less than nine hours, had the greatest risk of work-related injury, compared with well-rested teens in this occupation (OR = 3.61; CI = 1.17, 11.09). Construction workers who slept either insufficient or sub-optimal hours also were nearly three times as likely to be injured as teens sleeping optimal hours (OR = 2.69; CI = 1.19, 6.06). Among farmers, risk of injury doubled for young adults who had insufficient sleep some nights, but slept optimally other nights (OR = 2.05; CI = 1.37, 3.07). Improved knowledge of these associations and potential risks could help to target intervention efforts for the prevention of injuries among adolescents.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Uneven Absorption: World-Class Delhi, Domestic Workers, and the Water that Makes Them
    (2014-08) O'Leary, Heather
    Concern over sustainable development and urban water allocation is growing worldwide. Moreover, within the context of climate change, many presently socially marginalized populations are at even greater risk for future water crisis. It is critically important to understand not only the present water practices of marginalized populations, but also how their social status also affects their relationship to water. This study, grounded in eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, traces the changing patterns of water allocation and water ethoi of the water-poor. The findings suggest that water is used as a signal of class identity and although the water-poor are typically seen as a homogenous unit, there is variation in the adoption of urban water practices. It argues that the contemporary anthropological language for global flows does not explain the rich negotiations of water values, identity and local spaces. It interjects a new metaphor of absorption to explain global flows. As approximately 1,000 people in-migrate Delhi, India each day, the vast majority to informal housing with limited water access, this overlooked population stands to drastically impact the urban waterscape.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Women Returning to Work Across the Life Course: Who Does It, Why, and What Do They Return To?
    (2017-06) Kaduk, Anne Elizabeth
    Using data on over 10,000 person-spells of non-employment lasting 2 months or longer in the NLSY79, my dissertation examines how women’s reasons for job exit, motherhood status, and education affect 1) the probability and timing of their return to work, 2) whether they change occupation and industry of employment between the jobs they left and the jobs they return to, and 3) whether and how women change work hours and wages between the jobs they left and the jobs they return to. Women’s exits have been studied widely, yet little is known about who returns to work. But, returning to work likely has important consequences for the well-being of women and their families. As would be expected given the high overall labor force participation rates of women in the 1980s to 2010s, nearly all women who spend two months or more not employed eventually return to work, although the timing of their reentry and the duration of their exit from employment vary greatly. Women who leave for family reasons tend to postpone re-employment for around a year longer than women who leave for other reasons; this difference is largest for women who have a bachelor’s degree. In addition, most women (51-76%, depending on classification scheme) who leave jobs and are observed returning to work change both occupation and industry upon returning to work, although change is less likely when leaving a job in occupations/industries with greater training and/or licensing requirements. On average, women who leave jobs and are observed returning to work do not experience a change in hourly wage, while they tend to return to jobs with about two fewer weekly work hours. Women who leave for family reasons and/or have children while away from employment tend to return to fewer work hours. Wages upon return are also predicted to be lower when women have children while away from employment. Results for changes in occupation/industry and job conditions upon return to work largely reflect a story of accumulated advantage, where women with more education (and thus likely more material resources) tend to return to jobs with higher wages, greater work hours, higher occupation/industry median income, and greater occupation/industry percent with a bachelor’s degree, controlling for the characteristics of the jobs they left. Even so, women who take time away from work for family care or other reasons still miss out on retirement contributions, including social security, during the time when they are not employed, which can erode their financial security at older ages. Thus there are potentially negative impacts on the financial well-being of women who leave and return to work, even if they are able to return to similarly paid jobs after taking time away from employment.