Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003: 3:00-5:00 p.m.
MARIAL CENTER COLLOQUIUM
Employment in a 24/7 Economy: Challenges for the Family
Harriet Presser (University of Maryland)
Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003
3:00-5:00 p.m.
This presentation documents the high prevalence of late work
shifts and weekend employment among Americans, including those
with children, and provides research findings on the consequences
of such schedules for family life. These findings include
(1) the poorer quality and greater instability of marriages
among those with children, (2) the greater participation of
husbands in household labor and child care, (3) the greater
complexity of child care arrangements, and (4) the mixed picture
of the relationship between nonstandard work schedules and
parent-child interaction. Since the working poor, including
low-educated mothers with young children, are those most likely
to work late shifts, it is argued that there is an important
need to improve the fit between the availability of child
care and mothers' work schedules, especially in the context
of welfare reform. The data for this presentation are drawn
from two national surveys: the May 1997 Current Population
Survey, and the 1986-87 and 1991-92 waves of the National
Survey of Families and Households.
Harriet B. Presser is Distinguished University Professor
in the Department of Sociology. She was the founding director
of the Center on Population, Gender, and Social Inequality
at the University of Maryland, College Park, serving from
1988 to 2001. She is past president of the Population Association
of America (1989), and was named George Washington University's
1992 Distinguished Alumni Scholar, having received her B.A.
from there in 1959. She received her Ph.D. from the University
of California, Berkeley, in 1969. She has been a Fellow at
the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at
Stanford (both in 1986-87 and 1991-92), a Fellow at the Netherlands
Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social
Sciences (1994-95), and a Visiting Scholar at the Russell
Sage Foundation (1998-1999 and summer 2000). She also was
a Resident Scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio
Study and Conference Center (March-April 2000). Her research
expertise is in the areas of social demography, focusing on
the intersections of gender, work, and family. She also studies
population and family policy issues from a national and international
perspective. She teaches courses in both these areas. Her
most recent book is "Toward a 24-Hour Economy,"
published by the Russell Sage Foundation.
The MARIAL Center
Emory West, 4th Floor, Room 415E
Open to the public
Refreshments will be served
