Women and the Law: readings
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Course materials: Most of the materials are available via the Internet, although photocopies of some will be made available. Materials marked with * will be available in course packets to be provided as photocopies.
Textbook: Catherine Hakim, Key Issues in Women’s Work – Female Diversity and the Polarisation of Women’s Employment, 2nd Edition, (2004), The Glass House Press, U.K.
Class 1 – Background – the United Nations World Women’s Conferences
Mexico City; Copenhagen; Beijing; Beijing+5; Beyond 2005 – Millennium Development Goals
Reading: United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, “The Beijing Process and Beyond,” http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw.csw/critical.htm
Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, September 1995
http://www.un.org/esa/gopher-data/conf/fwcs/off/a--20.en, pages 1-44, 150-195
Class 2 – Beijing Platform of Action and Country Reports to the United Nations
Reading: Beijing Platform for Action, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/
Link to: Women and the Economy; Women in Power and Decision-Making; Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women;
The Girl-child and for each look at Diagnosis and Strategic Objectives
“Gender Indicators for Monitoring the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action on Women in the ESCAP Region”, pages 24-38
Class 3 – What have countries actually achieved? Using statistics to find out
Gender Disaggregated Data; United Nations resources; International Labour Organization (ILO) data; GEM; World Economic Forum
Reading*: Pauline C. Reich, “Participation of Women in the Labor Markets of the Asia-Pacific/Oceana Regions: What Advances Have Been Made? What Obstacles Remain? How Can we Assess Them?”
Paper presented at ISLSSL conference, Taipei, November 2005.
Class 4 – Positive results in various countries – what can other countries learn from them?
By country; The corporate sector
Reading: World Economic Forum, “Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap,” http://www.gbaforwomen.org/images/users/1/WorldEconomicForum.pdf
Catalyst, “2006 Catalyst Member Benchmarking Report,”
http://catalyst.org/files/full/2006%20Benchmarking
Progress of the World’s Women 2002, Volume 2, Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals, http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/04_title page_contents.pdf
Page 48, Table 8 – Countries with highest levels of achievement in gender equality and women’s empowerment
Page 34, Chart 4 – Changes in female share of wage employment in the non-agricultural sector – early 1980’s, mid-1990’s, latest data
Class 5 – Continuing obstacles and hurdles in many countries – what can be done to overcome them?
Cultural issues; Access to education and training
Reading: “Women in India – How Free? How Equal?”
Culture -http://www.un.org.in/IMAGES/kmsbk_1-22.pdf
Freedom to work without exploitation -
http://www.un.org.in/IMAGES/kmsbk_45-66.pdf (Read pages 51-60)
Freedom to participate in decision-making
http://www.un.org.in/IMAGES/kmsbk_67-87.pdf (Read pages 61-71)
Progress of the World’s Women 2002, Volume 2, Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals, http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/04_title page_contents.pdf
Page 48 -Table 9 – Countries with lowest levels of achievement in gender equality and women’s empowerment
Page 60 – Table 15 Gender and poverty in Latin America
Page 61 – Table 16 – Gender and poverty in India
Class 6 – Specific steps taken to overcome barriers to equal employment opportunity
Laws; Employment discrimination laws – are they effective?; Affirmative action
Reading:
Reading: International Labour Office, “Breaking through the glass ceiling: Women in management,” Update 2004, pages 55-58.
Catherine Hakim, Key Issues in Women’s Work – Female Diversity and the Polarisation of Women’s Employment, 2nd Edition, (2004), Chapter 7, “Social Engineering: The Role of the Law,”
Pages 185-197.
Class 7 - Specific steps taken to overcome barriers to equal employment opportunity
Policy – Gender mainstreaming
Reading: United Nations, Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/gendermainstreaming.htm
United Nations, Mainstreaming concepts and definitions, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/conceptsanddefinitions.htm
United Nations, “Gender Mainstreaming – An Overview,
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/e65237.pdf
Class 8 - Specific steps taken to overcome barriers to equal employment opportunity
Microcredit and Microfinance Programs:
SEWA – grassroots program
Gramman Bank – microcredit
Access to finance for women entrepreneurs in South Africa
The corporate sector
Reading:
SEWA – http://www.gdrc.org/icm/makiko/makiko.html (and following pages)
Microfinance Country Information – India
http://www.gdrc.org/icm/country/asia-india.html
Choose items of interest and read.
Grameen Bank
http://www.gdrc.org/icm/grameen-info.html
Choose items of interest and read.
Global Banking Alliance for Women, “Access to finance for women entrepreneurs in South Africa: challenges and opportunities,”
Class 9 – Women and family issues – developed countries
The Mommy Track
Baby bust – OECD and other sources
Reading:
The “family-friendly workplace,” www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/condtravel/pdf/infosheets/wf-3.pdf
“Addressing gender equality through work-family measures,”
www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/condtravel/pdf/infosheets/wf-2.pdf
*Juliet Bourke, “Using the Law to Support Work/Life Issues: The Australian Experience,” Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, Vol. 12:1 (pages to be announced)
Class 10 - Women and family issues – developed countries
Film: “Baby Boom” and discussion
Class 11 – Work-life balance
The Sandwich Generation
Permanent part-time work for professionals
Flexitime
Telecommuting
Other steps to family-friendly workplaces
Reading:
*OECD, “Babies and Bosses, Reconciling Work and Family Life,”
3 volume series (Pages to be announced.)
“Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Creating Opportunities for Better Balance: The Catalyst series on flexibility in Canadian law firms,”
http://www.catalyst.women.orgfiles/full/2005%Flex%20in%20Law%202.pdf (Pages to be announced.)
Class 12 - Stereotypes
Reading: *Diana Burgess and Eugene Borgida, “Who Women Are, Who Women Should Be: Descriptive and Prescriptive Gender Stereotyping in Sex Discrimination,” 5 Psychology, Public Policy and Law, pages 1-17
Class 13 – Women with disabilities and employment
Reading: International Labour Office, “Achieving Equal Employment Opportunties for People with Disabilities through Legislation – Guidelines,” 2004, http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/skills/disability/download/eeofinal.pdf, pages 1-49, 71-79.
Class 14 – Older women and employment
Reading: Catalyst, http://www.catalyst.org/files/quicktakes/Quick%20Takes%20-%20Older%20Workers/pdf
Gender Promotion Program, International Labour Office, “A Guide on Employment of Older Women Workers in Estonia,” http: www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/gems/download/estonia.women.pdf (pages to be announced)
Class 15 – Refugee and migrant women and employment
Giuseppina D’Alconzo, Simona LaRocca and Elena Marioni, “Italy: Good Practices to Prevent Women Migrant Workers from Going into Exploitative Forms of Labor,” GENPROM Working Paper No. 4, Gender Promotion Program, International Labour Office, http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/gems/download/swmita.pdf, pages 1-31, 71-79 (Note: This is one of a series – you may want to look at other country reports in the series as well)
International Labour Organization, “Gender and Migration in Arab States: The Case of Domestic Workers,” http://www.gender.gcim.org/attachements/Book%20in%20ArabStates.pdf
Choose one country or chapter on Arab League states and read.
Class 16 – Women in various professional and executive occupations
Academic women; Women lawyers; Women in top management
Reading: Catalyst – Women in Academe (Quick Takes), http://www.catalyst.org/files/quicktakes/Quick%20Takes%20-%20Academe.pdf
Catalyst – “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Lawyers State Their Case on Job Flexibility,” http://www.catalyst.org/files/full/BeyondReasDoubt JobFlexibility.pdf (2006) (Pages to be announced.)
*Mark Cordano, Robert F. Scherer and Crystal L. Owen, “Attitudes toward women as managers: sex versus culture,” Women in Management Review, Vol. 17, Number 2, 2002, pages 51-60.
Reading: International Labour Office, “Breaking through the glass ceiling: Women in management,” Update 2004, http://www.ilo.org/dyn/gender/docs/RES/292/F267981337/Breaking%20Glass%20PDF%20English.pdf, pages 20-22
Class 17 – Expatriate women
Reading: *Nancy K. Napier and Sully Taylor, “Experiences of women professionals abroad: comparisons across Japan, China and Turkey,”
International Journal of Human Resource Management 13:5, August 2002, pages 837-851.
*Brenda S.A. Yeoh and Louisa-May Khoo, “Home, Work and Community: Skilled International Migration and Expatriate Women in Singapore,” International Migration, Vol. 36 (2), 1998, pages 159-179.
Class 18 – Traditional women’s occupations
Occupational segregation
The pink collar ghetto
The wage gap: women’s earnings compared to men’s earnings
Reading: Catherine Hakim, Key Issues in Women’s Work – Female Diversity and the Polarisation of Women’s Employment, 2nd Edition, (2004), Chapter 6 – “Occupational Segregation and the Pay Gap”, pages 145-182
Class 19 – Women’s unpaid work and marginal employment
Reading: Catherine Hakim, Key Issues in Women’s Work – Female Diversity and the Polarisation of Women’s Employment, 2nd Edition, (2004), Chapter 2 – “Marginal Employment, Voluntary Work, Unpaid Household Work,” pages 21-56
Class 20 – Women and part-time employment
Reading: Catherine Hakim, Key Issues in Women’s Work – Female Diversity and the Polarisation of Women’s Employment, 2nd Edition, (2004), Chapter 3 – “Feminisation of the Workforce”, pages 59-79
Class 21 – Sexual Harassment
Reading: Deirdre McCann, “Sexual harassment at work: National and international responses,” International Labour Office, Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 2, 2005, http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/condtrav/pdf/2cws.pdf
(pages to be announced)
Class 22 – Glass Ceilings
Reading: International Labour Office, “Breaking through the glass ceiling: Women in management,” Update 2004, http://www.ilo.org/dyn/gender/docs/RES/292/F267981337/Breaking%20Glass%20PDF%20English.pdf, pages 1-19, 29-37, 44-60
Class 23 – Women and Employment in High Value/High Income Fields
High Technology; Agriculture; Finance;
Reading:
Catherine S. Dolan and Kristina Sorby, Women and Employment in High Value Agriculture, World Bank, (Pages to be announced.)
Mustafa F. Ozbilgin and Diana Woodward, “’Belonging’ and ‘Otherness’: Sex Equality in Banking in Turkey and Britain,” GENDER, WORK AND ORGANIZATION, Vol. 11 No. 6, November 2004
https://ozbilgin.sslpowered.com/publications/papers/Ozbilgin%20and%Woodward%20GWO.PDF (Pages to be announced)
Women in Computing: A European and International Perspective
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/11/art4full.pdf
Class 22 – Research on women and employment issues – online resources
