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Many common assumptions about work are challenged in this book. For example, the findings refute the common assertion that work tasks can be categorized into '"instrumental," or task activities, versus "caretaking," or people-oriented activities. It is shown that, regardless of the type of job, tasks are accomplished through the management of relationships. Other findings show that workers devise ingenious methods for maintaining dignity in the face of blatant oppression, a conclusion neglected in traditional studies of work where prestige hierarchies are presumed to affect workers' feelings about themselves.
This book integrates findings from qualitative studies of women's work experiences in 13 occupations. The methods for gathering the data include participant observation, unstructured interviews, analysis of diaries, and review of historical documents. These methodologies permit unanticipated patterns to emerge from the data. Hence, The Worth of Women's Work not only presents new insights into women's work experiences, but simultaneously takes a much-needed step in developing a framework for integrating qualitative research.
"I appreciate the fact that the volume does not focus on women's professions but instead focuses on women's occupations, which have tended to be neglected. The inclusion of the chapter on hustling shows that the editors have an inclusive definition of work." — Catherine W. Berheide, Skidmore College
Foreword
Alexis Herman
Acknowledgments
I. INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS
1. Women's Approach to Work: The Creation of Knowledge
Anne Statham, Hans O. Mauksch, Eleanor M. Miller
II. DOING WHAT COMES NATURALLY? THE CARETAKER ROLE
2. The Integration Work: A Second-order Analysis of Qualitative Research
Anne Statham, Eleanor M. Miller, Hans O. Mauksch
3. Social Policy and Everyday Life in Nursing Homes: A Critical Ethnography
Timothy Diamond
4. A Belated Industry Revised: Domestic Serivce among Japanese-American Women
Evelyn Nakano Glenn
5. Day Work in the Suburbs: The Work Experience of Chicana Private Housekeepers
Mary Romero
6. The Caretakers: Keeping the Area Up and the Family Together
Jane C. Hood
III. PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE WITHOUT PROFESSIONAL POWER
7. "Some Peoples Calls It Crime:" Hustling, the Illegal Work of Underclass Women
Eleanor M. Miller
8. Registered Nurses, Gender, and Commitment
Mary C. Corley and Hans O. Mauksch
9. Women Talking to Women: Abortion Counselors and Genetic Counselors
Barbara Katz Rothman and Melinda Detlefs
10. Public Schoolteaching: A Suitable Job For A Woman?
Dee Ann Spencer
IV. MAKING IT IN THE MALE WORLD
11. Women at the Top of Women's Fields: Social Work, Nursing, and Education
Sheila K. Collins
12. Think Like a Man, Work Like a Dog, and Act Like a Lady: Occupational Dilemmas of Policewomen
Susan E. Martin
13. Woman Working for Women: The Manager and Her Secretary
Anne Statham
14. Women in Direct Sales: A Comparison of Mary Kay and Amway Sales Workers
Maureen Connelly and Patricia Rhoton
V. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
15. Invisible Amidst the Glittter: Hispanic Women in the Southern California Electronics Industry
M. Patricia Fernandez Kelly and Anna M. Garcia
16. Policy Implications: The Worth of Women's Work
Ruth Needleman and Anne Nelson
17. The Qualitative Approach to the Study of Women's Work: Different Method/Different Knowledge
Eleanor M. Miller, Hans O. Mauksch, Anne Statham
Contributors
Index of Names
Index of Concepts