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Author: Keddem, Aliza Mizrachi
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Keddem, Aliza Mizrachi
Integration of Wives into Wage-Work and the Working-Class' Struggle to Maintain its Standard of Living
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oregon, 1984
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Family Influences; Family Resources; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Income; Labor Force Participation; Wives, Work; Women

This study examines in a historical context the increasing employment of wives from American working-class families. Ten years of panel data from the NLS are analyzed using multiple regression and discriminant analysis techniques to determine the effects on wives' employment of economic pressure, young children, demand for women workers, unemployment, occupation, education, race, husband's employment, health of wife and husband, age, husband's labor market experience, and region of residence. The findings suggest that income adequacy is an important determinant of wives' employment. A reduction in child-care responsibilities over time removes a major obstacle to employment, and decreases the number of claimants on family resources. This pattern is reflected in the secular decline in the effect of income adequacy on wives' employment. The demand for women workers has a positive impact on women's employment. The overall state of the economy, reflected in the rate of unemployment, had little impact on wives' employment and decreased over time. Wives' labor force participation does not respond to changes in husbands' employment status, indicating that wives have become "permanent added-workers." Professional occupations exert a strong positive influence on wives' employment. The substantial impact of a profession is related to its intrinsic non-monetary values and greater monetary rewards. Although education does not influence employment, the joint effect of less education and a non-professional occupation is negative. The well-known high rates of employment of black wives are supported. Black families are in greater economic need than white families, and race is one of the better predictors of a wife's employment status. While their own poor health strongly deters women's employment, their husbands' poor health has an opposite effect. Neither region of residence nor a woman's own age or her husband's labor market experience strongly influence her employment.
Bibliography Citation
Keddem, Aliza Mizrachi. Integration of Wives into Wage-Work and the Working-Class' Struggle to Maintain its Standard of Living. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oregon, 1984.