When both members of a couple with dependents are employed, who cleans the house, cooks the meals, and takes care of the children when they are ill? This question gets to the heart of the core dilemma of modern, dual-earner couples: How are household chores divided? How are work and fam­ily role conflicts handled? Dividing […]

Many employed adults must also provide care for dependent children or parents. As we will show, the issues they face are complex. Employed Caregivers. Many mothers have no option but to return to work after the birth of a child. In fact, 64% of American women with children under the age of six years are […]

LEARNING OBJECTIVES • What are the issues faced by employed people who care for dependents? • How do partners view the division of household chores? • What is work-family conflict? How does it affect couples’ lives? J ennifer, a 38-year-old sales clerk at a department store, feels that her husband doesn’t do his share of […]

Changing economic conditions in the United States over the past few decades (such as the move toward a global economy and most recently the economic recession), as well as changing demographics, have forced many people out of their jobs. Heavy man­ufacturing and support businesses (such as the steel, oil, and automotive industries) and farming were […]

When you are hired into a specific job, you are selected because your employer believes that you offer the best fit between abilities you already have and those needed to perform the job. However, as noted earlier, the skills needed to perform a job typically change over time. Such changes may be due to the […]

Since the 1960s, organizations in the United States have been sensitized to the issues of bias and dis­crimination in the workplace. Hiring, promotion, and termination procedures have come under close scrutiny in numerous court cases, resulting in a host of laws to govern these processes. Gender Bias and the Glass Ceiling. Even though the majority […]

What factors are related to occupational selec­tion and development of people from ethnic minorities? Unfortunately, not much research has been conducted from a developmental perspec­tive. Rather, most researchers have focused on the limited opportunities ethnic minorities have and structural barriers, such as discrimination, that they face. Three topics have received the most focus: nontraditional occupations, […]

If you were to guess what the young woman in the photograph who has just graduated from college will be doing occupationally 10 years from now, what would you say? Would you guess that she will be strongly committed to her occupation? Would she have abandoned it for other things? Betz (1984) wanted to know […]

Traditionally, men have been groomed from child­birth for future employment. Boys learn at an early age that men are known by the work they do, and they are strongly encouraged to think about what occupation they would like to have. Occupational achievement is stressed as a core element of mas­culinity. Important social skills are taught […]

LEARNING OBJECTIVES • How do women and men’s occupational expectations differ? How are people viewed when they enter occupations that are not traditional for their gender? Work, Leisure, and Retirement 459 • What factors are related to women’s occupational development? • What factors affect ethnic minority workers’ occupational experiences and occupational development? • What types […]