Occupational Books - Page 4

Silent Looms: Women and Production in a Guatamalan Town

Tracy Bachrach Ehlers

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Editorial Review:

From reviews of the first edition:

"This intriguing study of women's role in household, town, and regional economic activity is a very revealing and important contribution to the growing literature on women and social change in Latin America.... Scholars and undergraduates interested in the Indians of Mesoamerica, and, more generally, in the changing relations of men and women everywhere, will welcome this book."

—Choice

"Ehlers clearly shows the differential impact of capital penetration on women's survival strategies by social class, showing how options for some are limited, for others expanded, but changed for all. Silent Looms would be...an important book to include in courses on women in Latin America, women in development, and feminist methodologies."

—Association for Women in Development Newsletter

"Ehlers weaves a lively tale as colorful as the huipiles worn by the women she studies. She embroiders the small details that bring to life a whole town of women and children."

—Latin American Research Review

Based on new fieldwork in 1997, Tracy Bachrach Ehlers has updated her classic study of the effects of economic development on the women weavers of San Pedro Sacatepéquez. Revisiting many of the women she interviewed in the 1970s and 1980s and revising her earlier hopeful assessment of women's entrepreneurial opportunities, Ehlers convincingly demonstrates that development and commercial growth in the region have benefited men at the expense of women.

The Nuclear Peninsula

Françoise Zonabend

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Insightful, intelligent, disquieting 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

[This review is based only on selections from the work.]
This ethnography of the workers at, and the community surrounding, a nuclear waste processing plant in France is a striking, jarring expose of a industry fraught with danger and deception. Workers at a waste processing facility on an isolated peninsula in austere Normandy, are subject to intense (even overwhelming) safety procedures, as well as a technical-training context condescending in its language. The men and women (many of them underprivileged non-natives) who descend the rings of nuclear hell have created for themselves protective strategies to remain sane in an incredibly high-fear environment. Zonabend's piercing perception, compassion, and descriptive talent make this a brilliant ethnography. Especially worthwhile is her insightful conclusion which brings to the fore the immensely important role of imagination in human perception/behavior, and the tension between our scientific civilization and our primordial fears of the unknown or unknowable. One develops understanding for the challenges faced by those who work under such hazardous conditions, and truly comes to grips with the overwhelming power of the nuclear world when put into perspective with our ordinary mindsets. (One note: this translation might seem a bit ungainly.) All in all, highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

A quiet French country district is the site of a nuclear waste processing plant. Françoise Zonabend describes how those working there, and living nearby, reconcile themselves to the possibility of nuclear catastrophe. By analyzing work practices and language, the author provides a superb sociology of the nuclear workplace, with its divisions and hierarchies, and explains the often unexpected responses of the workers to the fear of contamination. This is a major contribution to the anthropology of modern life.

Women of Strength: Biographies of 106 Who Have Excelled in Traditionally Male Fields, A.D. 61 to the Present

Louis Baldwin

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Editorial Review:

In A.D. 61 Boadicea led the Britons in a fierce uprising against their Roman occupiers. In 1966, Barbara Jordan was elected to the Texas State Senate, the body's first black member in 83 years, and six years later she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. On December 23, 1986, Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan became the first people to fly nonstop around the world. These women and 103 others are profiled here. They come from a wide variety of careers-military leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians, journalists, pilots, scientists, and others-but all were leaders in fields dominated by men. The focus of the profiles is rightly on the women's accomplishments, but also examined are the obstacles they overcame in reaching their leadership positions.

Interpreting Career: Hermeneutical Studies of Lives in Context

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Editorial Review:

This work reports on a range of research studies in the career field that use biographical, narrative, and ecological approaches within an interpretive framework. It responds to the recognized dissonance between career theory and research, on the one part, and practice, on the other. It also responds to the view that in recent years practice has outstripped career theory and research. The qualitative approaches used in the research reported have gained popularity in the social sciences in recent years, but have been largely untried in the career field. This work offers specific interpretive studies that range over the life span and involve a number of perspectives including contexts such as parental influence, socio-political milieu, early career studies of apprentices, medical students, and nurses, studies of the established careers of secretaries, women entrepreneurs, teachers, and studies of the careers of older workers. In addition, the book contains interpretive studies pertaining to career theory, counseling and other interventions, and the research process. It also recognizes issues highlighted by a postmodernist perspective. A number of audiences will find this book useful: industrial/organizational psychologists, counseling psychologists, career counselors, counselor educators, and researchers in the career area from psychology and sociology.

Gender Differences at Work: Women and Men in Non-traditional Occupations

Christine L. Williams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Gender (Nonconformity) Matters! 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Dr. Williams studies women in the Marine Corps and men in nursing to discuss what it is like to be a gender minority in an occupation. Her most important point is that the experience differs based upon biological sex. If women in a male-dominated field have it rough that does not mean men in a female dominated field will have it the same way.

What came across most directly to me is how much gender still matters. If this book, Dr. Williams writes that men CHOOSE to avoid nursing whereas male military leaders actively PREVENT women from entering the field. Moreover, gender is complex. Female Marines see their femininity as a strength, but male Marines see that same quality as substandard. Male nurses get called doctor because patients simply can't fathom the idea of a male nurse. In fact, some patients say the men practice "male nursing" because the idea still seems so novel and oxymoronic to them. Unfortunately, the continued reality of violence against women is documented: male nurses noted that male doctors throw things at female nurses. I was scandalized by that!

At first, I was surprised that this sociology text had so many psychological underpinnings. Then again, the two disciplines are highly interrelated. Still, the Freudian idea that earliest memories and parental practices affects everything may rub some readers the wrong way.

The author is clearly a feminist and not just some neutral observer. I support women's rights, so that didn't bother me. However, other readers may indict her for "having an agenda." To me, however, pointing gender inequality is a legitimate aim. Both her discussions on nursing and the Marines mentioned the military often. Thus, I am surprised that she did not directly cite the feminist military scholar Cynthia Enloe.

The book starts off by saying, "In the same way studying transgendered people tells us a lot about mainstream gender, so does studying female Marines and male nurses tell us about gender in the workplace over all." I would argue that transgendered people have not been studied enough, especially as they deal with the employment settings. I hope more scholars take on that project.

My biggest critique of this book is how lesbians and lesbophobia is mostly ignored. The author notes that heterosexual male nurses go out of their way to announce their sexual orientation and that gay male nurses may not receive the advantages that their straight counterparts do. She also mentions gay men being expelled from the military. However, huge numbers of lesbians get expelled from the military too. Because this book was published in 1989, Dr. Williams did not have the benefit of numerous books printed in the 1990s that spoke about lesbian oppression in the military. Still, gay rights activist Urvashi Vaid noted that discrimination against women and specifically lesbians has been a longstanding feminist issue. Dr. Williams doesn't even state that the military's discriminatory policies may be why women's inclusion in the Marine Corps is taken as a given. Dr. Williams' erasure here is quite problematic.

Dr. Williams quotes several men who say that they did not have the money to attend medical school and thus they became nurses. I don't buy that one bit! You can get loans for med school if you have the grades. Getting into medical school is difficult for anybody. Undergraduate nursing courses don't stress a premedical curriculum in the way that science departments do. Getting into medical schools is such an intense weeding process that the argument the informants present here cannot possibly true.

From the start, Dr. Williams confesses that finding female Marines to talk was much easier than finding male nurses. I know it's taboo to rank oppressions, but I wish the author had spoken about how male femininity is punished in society more than female masculinity. Parents discipline girly boys and laugh off tomboyishness. Women can wear pants, but men are punished for wearing dresses. Thus, maybe men will be punished more for entering nursing than women who enter the Marine Corps.

I enjoyed this book, just as I do everything Dr. Williams writes. She is an insightful and promising academic. Gender radicals and traditionalists should investigate what she has to say.

Editorial Review:

Nurses and marines epitomize accepted definitions of femininity and masculinity. Using ethnographic research and provocative in-depth interviews, Christine Williams argues that our popular stereotypes of individuals in nontraditional occupations--male nurses and female marines for example--are entirely unfounded. This new perspective helps to account for the stubborn resilience of occupational stratification in the face of affirmative action and other anti-discrimination policies.

Collecting Garbage: Dirty Work, Clean Jobs, Proud People

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Unique Insight into Dirty Work 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Great book! Perry provides a unique insight into a job we all often ignore. Perfect book for those students interested in the Sociology of work. The book also includes a historical view of the development of the San Francisco area in the 60's and 70's.

Royal Blue: The Culture of Construction Workers (Case studies in cultural anthropology)

Herbert A. Applebaum

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The Tyranny of Experts: Blowing the Whistle on the Cult of Expertise

Morris E. Chafetz

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Editorial Review:

How authorities seek to influence America's political, social, and moral climate far beyond the bounds of their expertise.

The Quality of Work: A People-Centred Agenda

Graham S. Lowe

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Editorial Review:

This book is designed to spark debate about the impact of current trends in employment. Based on years of research on employment practices in Canada, Lowe argues that employment figures are a poor measure of economic health and an inadequate basis for policies. Instead, he proposes that we reorganize the workplace around the idea of meaningful work--work that offers personal development, a social purpose, a decent standard of living, and a sense of economic security. Far from being whimsical or fiscally irresponsible, quality work can lay the groundwork for better lives for workers and a strong, stable economy.

The Sociology of Journalism

Brian McNair

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Editorial Review:

What are the social consequences of journalistic activity for individuals, groups and institutions? What role does journalism play in liberal democratic societies? How have changes in technology and the advent of rolling news programmes affected contemporary journalistic practice? And what are their relationships with their institutions, the owners who control those institutions and the politicians who seek to regulate them? This book aims to offer an authoritative and thought-provoking insight into contemporary journalism and its role in today's society. The author points out that journalism courses rarely ask their students to consider the conditions for journalism's existence, where it comes from, what it is for, and how it works. This text asks those questions and suggests ways in which they might be answered.