‘My Work Never Ends’: Women’s Experiences of Balancing Unpaid Care Work and Paid Work through WEE Programming in India

This paper seeks to lay bare the contours and consequences of the relationship between paid work and unpaid care work for women in low-income households, in order to better understand the relationship between women’s participation in paid work and ‘economic empowerment’. It is also interested in analysing whether, and if so how, women (may) achieve a positive balance between their unpaid care work and paid work responsibilities such that their economic empowerment is optimised (women’s entry into paid work is enabled without deepening their time poverty or worrying about the quality of care received by their family), shared (across generations, so that other women/girls in the family are not left to bear the burden of care), and sustained (such that the quality of care provided to children improves as a result of their mother’s paid work). The paper seeks to do this by mapping the social organisation of care in low-income households across four sites in India, and assessing how women cope with their dual burdens. By focusing our analysis on two ‘women’s economic empowerment programmes’: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Rajasthan and the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Madhya Pradesh, we also seek to analyse how women’s economic empowerment policy and programming can generate a ‘double boon’: paid work that empowers women and provides more support for their unpaid care work responsibilities.International Development Research Centre (IDRC)UK Department for International DevelopmentHewlett Foundatio

Social Protection and Child Protection: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

There is widespread recognition that children are a particularly vulnerable group; they have different basic needs than adults do, they are dependent on others for the fulfilment of their needs and the denial of those needs can have far-reaching and long-term adverse consequences (Roelen and Sabates-Wheeler 2012, White, Leavy, and Masters 2003, Sabates-Wheeler, Devereux, and Hodges 2009). The policy areas of social protection and child protection are part and parcel of the response to children and their vulnerabilities. Nevertheless, both policy areas have largely developed in silos (Roelen, Long, and Edstrom 2012). This holds in both academic and policy terms. Whilst issues of child protection are mostly dealt with in disciplines of child psychology and childhood studies, social protection is largely appropriated by economists and social scientists. Similarly, national governments, international organisations and NGOs often deal with issues of child protection and social protection in different departments and through distinct sectoral policies. It is increasingly recognised that this dichotomy is artificial (Shibuya and Taylor 2013), and that it compromises the effectiveness of the response to the wide set of needs of vulnerable children

External validation and update of a prediction rule for the duration of sickness absence due to common mental disorders

Purpose: The objective of the present study was to validate an existing prediction rule (including age, education, depressive/anxiety symptoms, and recovery expectations) for predictions of the duration of sickness absence due to common mental disorders (CMDs) and investigate the added value of work-related factors. Methods: A prospective cohort study including 596 employees who reported sick with CMDs in the period from September 2013 to April 2014. Work-related factors were measured at baseline with the Questionnaire on the Experience and Evaluation of Work. During 1-year follow-up, sickness absence data were retrieved from an occupational health register. The outcome variables of the study were sickness absence (no = 0, yes = 1) at 3 and 6 months after reporting sick with CMDs. Discrimination between workers with and without sickness absence was investigated at 3 and 6 months with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results: A total of 220 (37 %) employees agreed to participate and 211 (35 %) had complete data for analysis. Discrimination was poor with AUC = 0.69 and AUC = 0.55 at 3 and 6 months, respectively. When ‘variety in work’ was added as predictor variable, discrimination between employees with and without CMD sickness absence improved to AUC = 0.74 (at 3 months) and AUC = 0.62 (at 6 months). Conclusions: The original prediction rule poorly predicted CMD sickness absence duration. After adding ‘variety in work’, the prediction rule discriminated between employees with and without CMD sickness absence 3 months after reporting sick. This new prediction rule remains to be validated in other populations

Comparison of different luminex single antigen bead kits for memory B cell-derived HLA antibody detection

Transplantation and autoimmunit

Breast Cancer, Sickness Absence, Income and Marital Status. A Study on Life Situation 1 Year Prior Diagnosis Compared to 3 and 5 Years after Diagnosis

Background: Improved cancer survival poses important questions about future life conditions of the survivor. We examined the possible influence of a breast cancer diagnosis on subsequent working and marital status, sickness absence and income. Materials: We conducted a matched cohort study including 4,761 women 40–59 years of age and registered with primary breast cancer in a Swedish population-based clinical register during 1993–2003, and 2,3805 women without breast cancer. Information on socioeconomic standing was obtained from a social database 1 year prior and 3 and 5 years following the diagnosis. In Conditional Poisson Regression models, risk ratios (RRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to assess the impact of a breast cancer diagnosis. Findings: Three years after diagnosis, women who had had breast cancer more often had received sickness benefits (RR = 1.49, 95 % CI 1.40–1.58) or disability pension (RR = 1.47, 95 % CI 1.37–1.58) than had women without breast cancer. W

Poor Children in Rich Households and Vice Versa: A Blurred Picture or Hidden Realities?

An expanding evidence base suggests that children experiencing monetary and multidimensional poverty are not the same. This article breaks new ground by providing a unique mixed methods investigation of drivers of child poverty mismatch in Ethiopia and Vietnam, considering the role of measurement error and individualistic and structural factors. The analysis capitalises on large-scale secondary quantitative panel data and combines this with purposively collected primary qualitative data in both countries. It finds that factors at the household and structural level can mediate the effects of monetary poverty in terms of multidimensional poverty and vice versa, but that the size and sign of these effects are specific to place and time. The policy mix aiming to reduce all forms of child poverty need to be targeted on the basis of a multidimensional assessment of poverty and reflect the complex and contextspecific interactions between determinants of child poverty

Gender and age differences in the recurrence of sickness absence due to common mental disorders: a longitudinal study

Background: Common mental disorders (CMDs) are an important cause of sickness absence and long-term work disability. Although CMDs are known to have high recurrence rates, little is known about the recurrence of sickness absence due to CMDs. The aim of this study was to investigate the recurrence of sickness absence due to CMDs, including distress, adjustment disorders, depressive disorders and anxiety disorders, according to age, in male and female employees in the Netherlands. Methods: Data on sickness absence episodes due to CMDs were obtained for 137,172 employees working in the Dutch Post and Telecommunication companies between 2001 and 2007. The incidence density (ID) and recurrence density (RD) of sickness absence due to CMDs was calculated per 1000 person-years in men and women in the age-groups of < 35 years, 35-44 years, 45-54 years, and >= 55 years. Results: The ID of one episode of CMDs sickness absence was 25.0 per 1000 person-years, and the RD was 76.7 per 1000 person-years. Sickness absence due to psychiatric disorders (anxiety and depression) does not have a higher recurrence density of sickness absence due to any CMDs as compared to stress-related disorders (distress and adjustment disorders): 81.6 versus 76.0 per 1000 person-years. The ID of sickness absence due to CMDs was higher in women than in men, but the RD was similar. Recurrences were more frequent in women < 35 years and in women between 35 and 44 years of age. We observed no differences between age groups in men. Recurrences among employees with recurrent episodes occurred within 3 years in 90% of cases and the median time-to-onset of recurrence was 11 (10-13) months in men and 10 (9-12) months in women. Conclusions: Employees who have been absent from work due to CMDs are at increased risk of recurrent sickness absence due to CMDs and should be monitored after they return to work. The RD was similar in men and in women. In women < 45 years the RD was higher than in women >= 45 years. In men no age differences were observed

Methodologies in Development Studies:An Overview

The interdisciplinary nature of the field of Development Studies (DS) makes it hard to point towards a ‘signature’ methodology. Different development challenges bring different ideas about what the problem is (ontology) and how researchers can know about it (epistemology), as well as different research methods. The rationale for choosing a method can be ideological or pragmatic. In the field of DS, this often entails knowing what methods research commissioners see as credible and what types of evidence they find persuasive. The weight placed on the data generated by certain methods and the lack of critical attention to how it was actually produced shows the importance of a focus on methodology. In looking at, or for, the defining methodologies of DS, this chapter focuses on methodology in a relatively narrow sense: what types of sample and what combinations of methods are typically used by researchers within DS to construct credible arguments around questions of policy or practice. It describes which methodologies constitute the bulk of DS research through analysis of projects and outputs. Finally, it asks what people who generate and use DS research could do to increase its rigour and relevance (Gujit and Roche, 2014; see also Oswald, Leach and Gaventa, this volume) and how the political economy of development research funding might militate against this

Cancer Survivors’ Social Context in the Return to Work Process:Narrative Accounts of Social Support and Social Comparison Information

Purpose: Returning to work is a process that is intertwined with the social aspects of one’s life, which can influence the way in which that person manages their return to work and also determines the support available to them. This study aimed to explore cancer patients’ perceptions of the role of their social context in relation to returning to work following treatment. Methods: Twenty-three patients who had received a diagnosis of either urological, breast, gynaecological, or bowel cancer participated in semi-structured interviews examining general perceptions of cancer, work values and perceptions of the potential impact of their cancer diagnosis and treatment on work. Interviews were analysed using the iterative process of Framework Analysis. Results: Two superordinate themes emerged as influential in the return to work process: Social support as a facilitator of return to work (e.g. co-workers’ support and support outside of the workplace) and Social comparison as an appraisal of readiness to return to work (e.g. comparisons with other cancer patients, colleagues, and employees in other organisations or professions). Conclusions: Two functions of the social context of returning to work after cancer were apparent in the participants’ narrative: the importance of social support as a facilitator of returning to work and the utilisation of social comparison information in order to appraise one’s readiness to return to work. The role of social context in returning to work has largely been absent from the research literature to date. The findings of this study suggest that social support and social comparison mechanisms may have a significant impact on an individual’s successful return to the workplace

Psychosocial work conditions and registered sickness absence: a 3-year prospective cohort study among office employees

Purpose To investigate associations between a wide variety of psychosocial work conditions and sickness absence in a medium-sized company. Methods Prospective cohort study of 395 employees working in an insurance office. Self-reported psychosocial work conditions were measured by questionnaire in January 2002 and linked to registered sickness absence in the period January 2002 to December 2004 adjusting for earlier sick leave and psychological distress. Results The questionnaires of 244 employees were eligible for analysis. Decision authority and co-worker support were associated with sickness absence days, but their associations with sickness absence episodes were not significant. Role clarity was associated with the number of sickness absence days, but only with the number of short sickness absence episodes in women. Conclusions The wide variety of investigated psychosocial work conditions contributed little to the explanation of sickness absence in the medium-sized insurance office