Feminist scholars have theorized that the workplace is gendered and heteronormative1, but little research quantifies the economic consequences of those organizations. This study investigates income discrepancies between gay men and straight men and between lesbians and straight women, to quantify these consequences. Using the National Survey of Family Growth 2006-2010, and controlling for several correlates of income, I use ordinary least squares regression to test the hypothesis that lesbians have higher incomes on the average than straight women do, and that straight men earn more than gay men. I also use hierarchical regression to test the relative strengths of the associations between income and possible causes of variation in it. The study found that gay men earn more than straight men because of higher educational attainment, and that lesbians earn more than straight women, though this finding is not statistically significant. / Master of Science

Military wives continue to represent the majority of military spouses and as a result, most research on military spouses has focused exclusively on them. Utilizing data from the 1999 Survey of Active Duty Spouses, one goal of this study was to address this gap in the literature by examining how male and female military spouses differ. The results indicated that military husbands were more likely to have military experience themselves than military wives. Military husbands were also more likely to be older than female spouses and less likely to have children. Men were also more likely to indicate that their employment was not a concern during the family's last permanent change of station move. The primary goal of this study was to examine the influence of gender on military spouses' support for their active duty spouses' retention in the U.S. Military. Previous research has indicated that spousal support plays an important role in military personnel's retention decisions. Other factors that were considered for their influence on spouse support for retention included age, race/ethnicity, education, children, personal military experience, employment concerns during the family's last move, the hours worked per week by the active duty spouse, the rank of the active duty spouse, and the military spouse's satisfaction with the military lifestyle. The results of this regression analysis indicated that military husbands are less supportive of their active duty spouses' retention than military wives. Satisfaction with the military lifestyle was found to be the most significant predictor of military spouses' support for their active duty spouses' retention in the U.S. Military. Of the other factors, age, race/ethnicity, education, the hours worked per week by the active duty spouse, and the presence of children in the family were also found to be significant predictors of spouse support for retention. As satisfaction with the military lifestyle was demonstrated to be a significant influence on spouse support for retention, this study also involved an examination of gender differences in satisfaction with the military lifestyle. Gender was not found to be a significant influence on satisfaction with the military lifestyle. Factors that were found to significantly influence satisfaction included the military spouse's age, race/ethnicity, concerns about employment, hours worked per week by the active duty spouse and the rank of the active duty spouse. Concerns about employment during the family's last move and the hours worked per week by the active duty spouse were both found to have a negative influence on military spouses' satisfaction with the military lifestyle. / Ph. D.

Work and its effect on women’s empowerment and gender equality has been a long, on-going debate since the middle of the 20th century – not at least in development contexts, where women have been recognized to play a crucial role. The discussion has moved from only emphasizing women’s participation in the labor market, to also stress the need to recognize and value the unpaid, domestic work that women perform every day. Many feminist scholars have witnessed how the neglecting of housework and childcare has left women with a double burden, since men’s responsibility in the family and household has been rather stagnant. Therefore, by interviewing 17 married, self-employed women in Kampala, Uganda, this study explores women’s reasons and experiences of organizing reproductive and productive labor, and their solutions for balancing the two working domains. Many scholars draw upon norms, attitudes and traditions, when explaining the gendered division of labor. This study shall argue too that it is indeed gender stereotypical perceptions that maintain the gendered patterns of reproductive labor. However, the results also point to a material, income-related dimension of gender equality – in a context where income is often a determinant of the woman’s workload within the household.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the gendered housework division in Greece based on research questions about participation by gender, chore types, and factors like age, education, and employment's influence, as well as uncovering related dynamics and trends. A quantitative analysis is employed using Greece's single time use survey conducted in 2013, which reveals substantial gender inequalities in housework division. Women dedicate nearly three times more than men daily to housework, even when employed in paid jobs. Age-wise, the gender gap persists, increasing with age. Core household tasks such as cooking, house cleaning, and laundry are dominated by women, while men spend more time on activities like gardening and repairs. Comparisons with European data highlight similar trends. A need for new surveys and gender norms exploration for policy change is evident.

Cette thèse porte sur les inégalités dans le vécu de l’allaitement maternel. Elle vise à : 1) étudier où se situent les aspirations prénatales d’allaitement des mères et leurs réalités postnatales; 2) explorer la manière dont les différences sociales peuvent façonner le vécu de l’allaitement maternel ; 3) saisir leur articulation. Dans le cadre de cette recherche, la collecte des données s’est déroulée en quatre volets : un suivi longitudinal du prénatal au postnatal avec 20 femmes primipares; la tenue de journaux de bord par les mères ; des entretiens semi-dirigés avec 21 professionnelles de l’allaitement ; de l’observation lors de cours prénataux et de soutien à l’allaitement. Comme l’échantillon est composé de mères qui expérimentaient l’allaitement pour la première fois, les écarts entre l’imaginaire et le réel ont entraîné des désillusions pour la totalité des participantes, et ce, à différents niveaux : 1) entre les aspirations initiales et les recommandations de la santé publique (allaitement exclusif jusqu’à six mois et poursuite jusqu’à deux ans et plus) ; 2) entre les aspirations des mères et les réalités d’allaitement ; 3) entre la conception normée d’un allaitement dit « réussi » selon les recommandations de la santé publique et cette même conception telle que vécue par les femmes. Ensemble, le vécu des mères et l’expérience des professionnelles permettent de montrer qu’en réalité, ce sont les interactions constituant la positionnalité des femmes qui « contraignent » l’allaitement. Ils contraignent dans les deux sens du terme : pour le limiter ou au contraire pour le rendre moralement obligatoire. L’analyse du discours des participantes rend compte du fait que ces contraintes à l’allaitement sont inégalement distribuées et se basent principalement sur des rapports sociaux de sexe/genre, d’ethnicité, de classe, d’immigration et de « race ». Finalement, une tendance émerge parmi les professionnelles de l’allaitement rencontrées, la majorité estimant qu’elles font varier leurs pratiques en fonction de la clientèle, que cette différenciation est nécessaire et que d’y arriver est un motif de fierté. Si les catégorisations ont tendance à exagérer l’homogénéité des groupes et à produire des stéréotypes, elles ont également des effets concrets sur les services. Cette thèse permet de mieux comprendre l’ambivalence au cœur de l’expérience de l’allaitement ainsi que les rapports complexes qu’ont les mères avec les recommandations de la santé publique, la promotion de l’allaitement et les professionnelles de l’allaitement. / This thesis examines diversity and inequalities in breastfeeding experiences. It seeks to: 1) understand how mothers’ initial breastfeeding aspirations compare with their post-birth realities; 2) explore how inequalities related to gender, “race”, class, and immigrant status influence breastfeeding experiences from the perspective of both mothers and breastfeeding professionals; and 3) capture how mothers articulate and make sense of their diverse experiences . In this study, four data collection techniques were used: longitudinal semi-structured interviews with 20 first-time mothers conducted when they were pregnant and then approximately six months after the birth of their child; documentary analysis of maternal diaries; semi-structured interviews of 21 breastfeeding professionals; and observation during prenatal classes and breastfeeding support sessions. As the sample is composed of women attempting breastfeeding for the first time, many women felt disillusioned by three types of discrepancies they felt between what they imagined breastfeeding would be and the reality of their experiences: 1) between the initial aspirations and recommendations of public health and medical literature; 2) between their own expectations and their lived realities of breastfeeding; and 3) between the standardized conceptions of successful breastfeeding experiences according to public health recommendations and the concept of success as experienced by the women. Further, the data from both mothers and breastfeeding professionals demonstrate that constraints on breastfeeding are unevenly distributed and founded mainly on social relations such as sex, gender, ethnicity, class, immigration, and race. This study also discovered a tendency among breastfeeding professionals to pride themselves on their ability to differentiate between their clientele on the basis of these categories. While sometimes appropriate, these classifications tend to exaggerate the homogeneity of subgroups, relying on and reproducing stereotypes. An important implication of this is that such practices lead to substantial differences in the services rendered by these professionals. Overall, this thesis provides a better understanding of the ambivalence at the center of the breastfeeding experience and the complex relationships mothers undertake with public health recommendations, the promotion or encouragement of the act of breastfeeding and breastfeeding professionals.