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January 27, 2012

[SSJ: 7119] Prof. Neil Gilbert & Dr Sophia Lee at Kyoto U.: Childlessness in the US, skill wage gaps and social policy

From: Tuukka Toivonen
Date: 2012/01/27

Dear SSJ members,

Please note these special talks on skill wage gaps in service economies (Dr Sophia Lee, Kyoto U.) & increasing childlessness in the US (Prof Neil Gilbert, U. of California, Berkeley) at Kyoto University on 10 February.

Further information:
http://www.gcoe-intimacy.jp/article.php/201201222113369
09_ja

Best regards,

Tuukka TOIVONEN
Green Templeton College
University of Oxford


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Skill Wage Gap in Service Economy


Sophia Seung-yoon Lee
GCOE Assistant Professor of Social Policy Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University


Time: 2012. 2.10. 15:00-16:00
Venue: Sociology Seminar Room, L521


While there has been comparatively less attention on deindustrialization compared with the effect of globalization, more recently scholars have been focusing on the causes and implication of deindustrialization in developed economies. It has been suggested that empirically there has been a major change in the structure of employment within the OECD between 1970 and 1990 and the relative importance of manufacturing has sharply declined. However, the term deindustrialization does not sufficiently describe the transitions that labour markets are experiencing in East Asia and the sharp decrease of the manufacturing sector does not apply to all OECD countries as well.
Distinguishing the difference between the concept of deindustrialization and tertiarization, the study aims to investigate the impact of increased employments in service sector on wage dispersion and income inequality.
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A MOTHER'S WORK: Why Are So Many Women Not Having Children?

Time: 2012. 2.10. 16:00-17:30
Venue: Sociology Seminar Room, L521

Professor Neil Gilbert
Department of Social Welfare
University of California, Berkeley

In 2002 nearly one in five women in their early forties were childless in theU.S., close to double the proportion of childless women in 1976. This development is historically unprecedented in the absence of plague and war, and during a period of record wealth. What
accounts for the startling rise in childlessness? In
seeking to answer these questions this analysis examines how the decline of motherhood is reinforced by the market culture of capitalism, along with expectations created by trend-setting professional elites, and the inability of so-called family-friendly social policies to harmonize the demands of work and family life. The analysis suggests that women's choices about how much of their lives to invest in childrearing and paid employment have been made in a social context that is heavily stacked against motherhood--regardless of women's individual needs and predilections. An alternative approach to social policy is proposed in light of this analysis.

Approved by ssjmod at 11:03 AM