Making the reverse trend. Barriers and resources in the construction of working careers desired by women

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Anna Carreri
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/148
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 75-90 File size 116 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2017-148005
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The article adopts the multidimensional approach of «agency-capability gap» (Hobson, 2013) to analyze the working careers of women from their point of view. The analysis is focused on the (non) conversion processes of personal, institutional and cultural resources into effective career results ( functionings). Subject of analysis are 24 life stories of Italian highly educated women. They are «nonstandard » workers, who invested and believed in developing a career, but after having children they have begun to hypothesize the "reverse trend" compared to their initial goals. The article sheds light on the across-the-board constraints along the life course which weaken the capabilities of women.

Keywords: Gender-gap, agency, capability, women’s working careers

  1. Acker J. (2009). From glass ceiling to inequality regimes. Sociologie du travail, 51: 199-217.
  2. Armano E., Briziarelli M., Chicchi F., Risi E. (2017). Introduzione. Il lavoro gratuito. Genealogia ed esplorazione provvisoria del concetto. Sociologia del lavoro, 145(1): 7-25. DOI: 10.3280/SL2017-145001
  3. Ballatore M., Delrio M., Murgia A. (2014). When Passion and Precariousness Come Face to Face in Knowledge Work. Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques, 45(2): 1-13.
  4. Benshop I., Dooreward H. (1998). Covered by Equality, The Gender Subtext of organizations. Organization Studies, 19(5): 787-805. DOI: 10.1177/017084069801900504
  5. Bertolini S. (2006). La conciliazione per le lavoratrici atipiche. Economia e lavoro, n. XL(1): 57-72.
  6. Bertolini S., Musumeci R. (2014). Diventare genitori in tempi di crisi. Verso una ritradizionalizzazione dei ruoli di genere? Sociologia italiana – AIS Journal of Sociology, 4: 31-54.
  7. Bertolini S., Musumeci R. (2015). Orientamenti e comportamenti lavorativi prima e dopo la nascita. In: Naldini M., a cura di, La Transizione alla genitorialità. Da Coppie Moderne a Famiglie Tradizionali. Bologna: il Mulino.
  8. Berton F., Richiardi M., Sacchi S. (2009). Flex-insecurity. Perché in Italia la flessibilità diventa precarietà. Bologna: il Mulino.
  9. Brannen J., Nilsen A. (2002). Young People’s Time Perspectives: From Youth to Adulthood. Sociology, 36(3): 513-539. DOI: 10.1177/0038038502036003002
  10. Carreri A. (2015). Italian Parents in Precarious Work: How Normative Beliefs Affect Social Understandings of the Work-Family Boundary. Research in the Sociology of Work, 26: 1-33.
  11. Carreri A. (2016). Work-Family Decision Making Processes: How Italian Partners Swap Their Perspectives (Re)Producing the Gender Agency Gap. EST Working paper series, 13/16, Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica “Cognetti de Martiis”, Università di Torino. Testo disponibile al sito: http://www.est.unito.it/do/home.pl/View?doc=WP_Dipartimento.html.
  12. Carreri A. (2017). Il lavoro delle relazioni, ma quali? Effetti di reciprocità in coppie dual precarious knowledge worker. Sociologia del Lavoro, 145(1): 94-111. DOI: 10.3280/SL2017-145006
  13. Christopher K. (2012). Extensive Mothering: Employed Mothers’ Constructions of the Good Mother. Gender & Society, 26(1): 73-96.
  14. Connell R. (2009). Gender. Cambridge: Policy Press.
  15. den Dulk L. (2001). Work-Family Arrangments in Organizations. A Cross-National Study in the Netherlands, Italy, The United Kingdom and Sweden. Amsterdam: Rozenberg Publishers.
  16. Duncan S., Edwards R., Reynolds T., Alldred P. (2003). Motherhood, Paid Work and Partnering: Values and Theories. Work, Employment and Society, 17(2): 309-330. DOI: 10.1177/0950017003017002005
  17. Eagly A.H., Carli L.L. (2007). Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
  18. Garey A. (1999). Weaving Work and Motherhood. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  19. Garey A., Arendell T. (1998). Children, Work and Family: Some Thoughts on ‘Mother Blame’. Centre for Working Families Working Paper n. 4. Berkeley, CA: University of California.
  20. Gatrell C. (2011). Policy and the Pregnant Body at Work: Strategies of Secrecy, Silence and Supra- Performance. Gender, Work & Organization, 18(2): 158-181.
  21. Gerson K. (2002). Moral Dilemmas, Moral Strategies, and the Transformation of Gender. Lessons From Two Generations of Work and Family Change. Gender & Society, 16(1): 8-28. DOI: 10.1177/0891243202016001002
  22. Gottardi D. (2010). La legislazione e le politiche sulla conciliazione: l’Italia nel quadro europeo. Sociologia del lavoro, 119: 23-40. DOI: 10.3280/SL2010-119002
  23. Grunow D., Schulz F., Blossfeld H.-P. (2012). What Determines Change in the Division of Housework Over the Course of Marriage? Sociology, 27(3): 289-307. DOI: 10.1177/0268580911423056
  24. Hobson B. (2011). The Agency Gap in Work-Life Balance: Applying Sen’s Capabilities Framework Within European Contexts. Social Politics, 18(2): 147-167.
  25. Hobson B. (2013). Worklife Balance: The Agency and Capabilities Gap (a cura di). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  26. Hobson B., Fahlén S. (2009). Competing Scenarios for European Fathers: Applying Sen’s Capabilities and Agency Framework to Work-Family Balance. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 624: 214-233. DOI: 10.1177/0002716209334435
  27. Hobson B., Fahlén S., Takács J. (2011). Agency and Capabilities to Achieve a Work-Life Balance: A Comparison of Sweden and Hungary. Social Politics, 18 (2): 168-198.
  28. Kossek E.E., Su R., Wu L. (2017). “Opting Out” or “Pushed Out”? Integrating Perspectives on Women’s Career Equality for Gender Inclusion and Interventions. Journal of Management, 43(1): 228-254. DOI: 10.1177/0149206316671582
  29. Laville J.L., Marazzi C., La Rosa M., Chicchi F., a cura di (2005). Reinventare Il lavoro. Roma: Sapere 2000.
  30. Lucchini M., Saraceno C., Schizzerotto A. (2007). Dual-Earner and Dual-Career Couples in Contemporary Italy. Zeitschrift für Familienforschung, 19: 290-310.
  31. Pacelli L., Pasqua S., Villoso C. (2013). Labor market penalties for mothers in Italy. Journal of Labor Research, 34(4): 408-432.
  32. Piazza M. (2006). Il circolo virtuoso tra carriere e conciliazione nelle organizzazioni. Analisi e proposte nella ricerca-azione. I quaderni di Gelso, n. 4, Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale, Università di Trento.
  33. Poggio B. (2004). Mi racconti una storia? Il metodo narrativo nelle scienze sociali. Roma: Carocci.
  34. Poggio B. (2010). Pragmatica della conciliazione: opportunità, ambivalenze e trappole. Sociologia del lavoro, 119: 65-77. DOI: 10.3280/SL2010-119004
  35. Poggio B. (2017). Women and men in scientific careers: new scenarios, old asymmetries. Polis, v. XXXI, n. 1: 5-16. DOI: 10.1424/86077
  36. Sen A. (1992). Inequality Re-examined. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  37. Sen A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  38. Villa P. (2010). La crescita dell’occupazione femminile: la polarizzazione tra stabilità e precarietà. Lavoro e diritto, anno XXIV, n. 3: 341-358.
  39. Wiesmann S., Boeije H., Van Doorne-Huiskes A., Den Dulk L. (2008). ‘Not Worth Mentioning’: The Implicit and Explicit Nature of Decisionmaking About the Division of Paid and Domestic Work. Community, Work & Family, 11(4): 341-363. DOI: 10.1080/13668800802361781
  40. Zimmerman B. (2006). Pragmatism and the Capability Approach. Challenges in Social Theory and Empirical Research. European Journal of Social Theory, 9(4): 467-484. DOI: 10.1177/1368431006073014

Anna Carreri, Fare marcia indietro. Barriere e risorse nella costruzione dei percorsi lavorativi desiderati dalle donne in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 148/2017, pp 75-90, DOI: 10.3280/SL2017-148005