Decomposition of regional metropolitan and nonmetropolitan income inequality

This paper examines the inequality characteristics for regional per capita personal income in metropolitan and nonmetropolian areas. Total inequality is disaggregated into between and within portions. The findings show no statistically significant differences between metro and nonmetro. For both metro and nonmetro during the early 1970s decade, there was a general trend toward equality whereby the nonmetro areas’ income approached the metro areas’ income but showed significant divergences thereafter. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A00DH021 0000

Isolated housewives and complex maternal worlds: the significance of social contacts between women with young children in industrial societies.

This article reconsiders the picture of the mother of young children in industrialised societies as the 'isolated housewife', suggesting this notion is by no means straightforward. We suggest there is considerable evidence for the existence of mothers' social contacts and their significance both as 'work' and 'friendship' in industrial societies. A pre-occupation with the notion of the 'isolation' of 'housewives' has led social researchers to neglect sustained examination of the social relationships within which many/most mothers are involved on a day-to-day basis. Complexities of interpretation, for example what 'isolation' can actually mean, need to be drawn out from the existing literature. Evidence presented from two recent ethnographic studies shows patterned opportunities/constraints occurring in relation to mothers' social contacts within localised settings, whether through organised groups or other personal ties. The complex nature of individual women's social contacts is thus brought out. Some key questions are raised for the importance to sociology, anthropology and social policy of these apparently insignificant or invisible women's networks