This is why I love
CCF, which I blog about here a lot because they're just such darn good providers in the knowledge business. This week they're issuing a press release on the importance of a time use survey, with contemporary spin and flair--and an important message with policy application: "Save ATUS." What's ATUS you ask? Here's a sneak peak at the release, courtesy of Virginia Rutter, who just sent it to me. Feel free to pass it on!:
Making Time for Work and Family: Got Data?For Family Social Scientists, the American Time Use Survey Provides Valuable Information on Work, Family, and How We Endure the Conflict between the Two
June 4, 2008 Chicago Il ---- Mothers do more paid work—14 hours more—than they did 40 years ago. They do less housework—exactly 14 hours fewer—too. But they do 4 hours more of childcare than in the past. How do we know? Suzanne Bianchi, University of Maryland sociologist, and her colleagues used the
American Time Use Survey (ATUS), a time diary study that has been collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics since 2003.
Dads are stepping up in new ways too. Men have steadily increased their participation in housework and child care over the past 30 years. And contrary to claims of some earlier studies, dads who work less than full-time don't use their extra time just to watch TV. Part-time worker dads do more housework (about an hour more) than full-time worker dads, and about 40 minutes more childcare. We know about these changes thanks to forthcoming work from Liana Sayer (Ohio State University) and Sanjiv Gupta (University of Massachusetts at Amherst) in which they analyzed the 2003-2005 ATUS.
But if women have given up 14 hours a week of housework and taken on 14 more hours of paid work, what else have they given up to put in 4 more hours of childcare? Here the news may be less rosy. It appears that social bonding with spouse, kin, and friends is being sacrificed to the higher standards for time with children. Bianchi and colleagues' analysis of the ATUS reveals that, compared to 20 years ago, married working moms now spend less time with their spouse—while single moms spend less time with friends and family.
SCIENCE HELPS US KEEP UP WITH SOCIAL CHANGEThese facts illustrate the on-going revolution in how Americans spend their time—what they do at work, how men and women organize family schedules, and how children and teens spend their days. To understand changes in family life and to guide policy makers—and families themselves—about the best ways to adjust to new patterns of work and parenting, researchers collect such information. This in turn becomes the basis for news stories, advice columns and television programs that citizens rely on—and are hungry for.
The American Time Use Survey is one of those key resources. (For more information on ATUS visit
http://www.bls.gov/tus/home.htm and www.saveatus.org.) As researcher Bianchi explains, "ATUS provides essential information about how Americans spend their time—time spent caring for children, cleaning the house, working for pay, and caring for sick adults." We all rely on these jobs being done in order to keep our society running well: but it is vital for us to know how, when, and by whom they are done in our changing social world.
"The
Council on Contemporary Families uses this kind of scientific research in order to understand the complex and changing dynamics of the family," reports Evergreen State College Professor Stephanie Coontz, CCF's Director of Research and Public Education. "Many CCF briefing papers and fact sheets rely on data from the time-use studies." (A host of examples are at
http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/briefpapers.php.)
"The complexity of coordinating families' work and school schedules with the need for health care, down time, cultivation of intimacy, and everyday chores presents new challenges to couples, parents, and children in the way they spend their days," explains Coontz. "Changes in time use help us understand how families cope with modern stresses--and also what happens when they cannot cope. Right now, the economy is slowing down, but many families find themselves speeding up. Unless we keep on top of these changes, we cannot analyze what kinds of practical support and information families need. Making sure that the data continue to be collected is an issue that cuts across partisan divisions, uniting family researchers from many different points of view."
For further information on the American Time Use Survey, visit
http://www.bls.gov/tus/home.htm.
WELL DONE, CCF!
A quick hit on a new study: The Clayman Institute at Stanford University has produced a report exploring hiring and retention issues for dual-career academic couples, and how they differ from those issues for faculty in other kinds of relationships. The full report is available for download here.
Last week I gave a blogging workshop at the University of South Carolina Upstate, where I also did a talk. And I'm thrilled to share that the feminist group on campus has now launched their blog! I love their description:
Just two quick hits about women as op-ed writers and women as sociologists (how's that for a connection?!) before I really sign off:
Well here's reason to feel depressed: In today's Inside Higher Ed, Scott Jaschik reports that interviews with 80 female faculty members at a research university — the largest qualitative study of its kind — have found that many women in careers are deeply frustrated by a system that they believe undervalues their work and denies them opportunities for a balanced life. While the study found some overt discrimination in the form of harassment or explicitly sexist remarks, many of the concerns involved more subtle “deeply entrenched inequities.” These include: unintended bias and outdated attitudes, devaluing positions once women hold them, and service and gender.
This is why I love CCF, which I blog about here a lot because they're just such darn good providers in the knowledge business. This week they're issuing a press release on the importance of a time use survey, with contemporary spin and flair--and an important message with policy application: "Save ATUS." What's ATUS you ask? Here's a sneak peak at the release, courtesy of Virginia Rutter, who just sent it to me. Feel free to pass it on!:
Interesting piece in today's NYTimes by Tamar Lewin, titled ‘Sisters’ Colleges See a Middle Eastern Bounty. It seems women’s colleges are a dwindling breed in the United States. So this spring the admissions deans of the five leading women’s colleges — Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley and Smith — went recruiting to a place where single-sex education is more than a niche product: the Middle East. Read the rest.
The Mama PhD gals have started their blogging over at Inside Higher Ed--and what interesting timing. Turns out two new studies suggest that academe may hinder parenthood, and that as a result many female academics may be opting not to have kids. Watch for the Mama PhD anthology in July.
My father always told me, "Follow your passion and the money will follow." Since leaving the academia track, I've definitely been following my passion, and the money, well, still kinda waiting for it to catch up in spades. Along the way, however, I've found my bliss so I know that there's no turning back. The topic is the focus of a blogger roundup over at The Art of Nonconformity. Definitely worth checking out. And big thanks to Marci Alboher, who has covered the topic in her New York Times column Shifting Careers, for the heads up.
Caroline Grant, coeditor of the forthcoming anthology Mama, PhD: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life, just gave me the heads up that InsideHigherEd.com is launching a new Mama PhD blog, and seven of the book's contributors -- Libby Gruner, Megan Kajitani, Susan Bassow, Dana Campbell, Liz Stockwell, Anjalee Nadkarni and Della Fenster -- will be blogging regularly for them. As Caroline notes, "This is a terrific opportunity to bring the discussion of academic work/ family life balance issues out of the book, into the blogosphere and from there into classrooms and campus administrative offices." Hells yeah.
The Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia University announces a fall conference:
Herbert Allen has an interesting op-ed up over at the New York Times today, in case you missed it. Allen makes a case for a form of revenue sharing among colleges and universities that would allow the poor schools back into the competition for the best teachers and students. Writes Allen,
From the academic forefront come some very cool resources, of course, these days. In case you missed it(!), the Summer 2007 issue of the journal Feminist Studies focuses on Feminism and Mass Media. It includes an essay on the feminist cultural work of The Sopranos by my gal Lisa Johnson ("Gangster Feminism"). And on a very different subject--so different that I can't even think of a way to link other than the fact that I admire all the authors--the University of Michigan Press is coming out this month with a book on everything you need to know about advancing academic women in science and engineering, Transforming Science and Engineering: Advancing Academic Women, wouldn't you know. Take that, Larry Summers ole pal.
