Each month, we select up to 10 publications from those that have recently been entered into the Literature Database.

A year ago, there were approximately 6,200 citations in the Literature Database. As of November 2005, we now have over 6,800 citations.

Click here for a direct link to the Sloan Literature Update articles in the Literature Database.

Albison, C.R. (2005). Bargaining in the shadow of social institutions: Competing discourses and social change in workplace mobilization of civil rights. Law & Society Review, 39(1), 11-50.
Using interviews with workers who negotiated contested leaves from their workplaces, the author investigates the influence of social institutions over the mobilization of workers’ rights to leaves. The presence of policies and laws such as the FMLA do not eradicate the negative effects of beliefs and expectations about work, gender, illness and disability. This can result in workers not using all or part of their legally guaranteed available leaves. The author discusses how institutions and power shape workers’ agency and the possibilities for changing norms in response to legal reforms.

Global Perspectives-  Baird, M. (2004). Orientations to paid maternity leave: Understanding the Australian debate. The Journal of Industrial Relations, 46(3), 259-273.
The paper provides a review of the current debate on Australia’s lack of a universal paid maternity leave provision. Presently, approximately 60% of employed women in Australia do not have access to paid maternity leave. The paper presents a typology of three prevailing orientations to the paid maternity leave debate: the ‘welfare orientation’, the ‘bargaining orientation’, and the ‘business orientation.’ The characteristics of each orientation, including the dominant discourse, a principal agency, a primary mechanism, and a set of expected outcomes are identified and examined. The author contends that none of the existing orientations adequately address and recognize women’s dual roles in contemporary society as producers and reproducers. As a result, these orientations hinder the introduction of a universal paid maternity leave policy. The author introduces and proposes a fourth orientation to the debate, the ‘new equity orientation’, which has a dominant discourse of social justice, equality, fairness, and women’s rights. The author argues that the new orientation is required in order to progress the development of a universal paid maternity leave provision in Australia, because it acknowledges and integrates the economic and social roles of women in the 21st century. Annotated by Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, Doctoral Researcher, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom.

Buzzanell, P. & Liu, M. (2005). Struggling with maternity leave policies and practices: A poststructuralist feminist analysis of gendered organizing. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 33(1), 1-25.
This study examines fifteen women’s work-related experiences while pregnant, on maternity leave, and upon return to their workplaces. The authors interviewed women who reported feelings of discouragement on a written survey given to 102 women on their maternity leave experiences. Using a feminist lens, the authors examine how the women positioned themselves in relation to gendered discourses and discuss possibilities for maternity leave practices and policies.

Global Perspectives- Gottschall, K. & Bird, K. (2005). Family leave policies and labor market segregation in Germany: Reinvention or reform of the male breadwinner model? Review of Policy Research, 20(1), 55-135.
This article considers the working patterns of West German women entitled to various forms of parental leave, beginning in 1979 with the introduction of the Mutterschaftsurlaub, a legal framework that allows women to interrupt their employment in order to raise their children. Findings demonstrate that leave policies and changing regulations have resulted in the institutionalization of a “baby break” for young female workers that can lead to exclusion from the work force as well as the perpetuation of traditional gender roles and relations. The effects of these policies and regulations on the employment patterns of mothers are examined and discussed.

Global Perspectives- Henderson, A. & White, L.A. (2004). Shrinking welfare states?: Comparing maternity leave benefits and child care programs in European Union and North American welfare states, 1985-2000. Journal of European Public Policy, 11(3), 497-519.
This article follows the progress in program design, coverage and government funding of maternity and paternity leave programs, child care, and early childhood education over the last fifteen years in several European and North American countries. The authors use data to determine whether welfare states are shrinking or expanding and how the different countries vary from one another. Findings reveal that the welfare state is generally resilient in the areas studied and that the decisions governments make about the relationship between the family and the state may determine the size of the welfare state more than societal or political factors.

Koss, N. (2003). The California Family Temporary Disability Insurance Program. American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law, 11, 1079-1087.
Former California Governor Gray Davis signed the Family Temporary Disability Insurance (FTDI) program into law in September of 2002, making California the first state to offer any sort of paid family leave. This article discusses the need for this law in addition to the national FMLA, particularly for lower income workers unable to take unpaid leave, as well as the opposition to the program from the state’s business lobby. The author concludes that family leave will soon be “considered a fundamental part of an employee’s work benefits” and addresses the need for a federal paid family leave law.

Global Perspectives- Tanaka, S. (2005). Parental leave and child health across OECD countries. The Economic Journal, 115, F7-F28.
This article examines the relationship between parental leave and child health outcomes in eighteen Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1969 to 2000. Using data from the International Labor Organization (ILO), the OECD, the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Health for All (HFA) database, and the U.K.’s Work Life Research Centre, the author investigated the effects of paid and non-paid maternal and paternal leave on factors such as infant mortality rates, low birth weight, and child immunization coverage. Findings indicate that the use of paid leave dramatically decreases infant mortality, while other leave has no discernible effect. The author includes a discussion of the effects of other related social policies such as public expenditures on family services.

Wayne, J.H. & Cordeiro, B.L. (2003). Who is a good organizational citizen?: Social perception of male and female employees who use family leave. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 49(5-6), 233-246.
This study asked 242 undergraduate students to read mock personnel files and rate the male and female employees, some of whom had taken personal leaves to care for a newborn, a sick child or a sick parent in the course of their employment, on their citizenship behaviors. Findings reveal that female employees were not rated differently, regardless of their utilization of leaves, while male leave takers were given lower compliance and altruism scores. The authors make recommendations for future research and practice in the area of citizenship behavior.

Lein, L., Benjamin, A.F., McManus, M. & Roy, K. (2005). Economic roulette: When is a job not a job? Community, Work and Family, 8(4), 359-378.
This article reviews the work patterns of 99 low-income mothers in three cities—Boston, Chicago and San Antonio—to illustrate and analyze their work-life experiences. Findings reveal that there are a multitude of factors that can threaten the work, welfare and social networks that the women surveyed rely upon for their families’ survival. Participation in welfare-to-work programs often result in low-paying, unstable jobs that fail to result in steady programs, and even with public assistance, the women surveyed tend to rely upon social networks for support and remain in poverty. Recommendations are made for employment and welfare policies that would better serve low-income families in the attempt to move towards self-sufficiency.