"The New Paradigm: Changing American Workplace and Family Life"

Cornell University ILR Credit Interns in Washington D.C.

Co-taught by:

Francine Moccio, Professor, Director, Institute for Women and Work, Cornell ILR and Betty Friedan, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Cornell ILR

Description

This seminar will provide an interdisciplinary focus on public policy issues related to the changing American workplace and its impact on working families with an emphasis on the anthropology of work. The seminar will look beyond issues of women and men about balancing the responsibilities of work and family life. Seminar topics will include such issues as the relationship between the growing contingent work force and family responsibility; redefining a career in today''s restructured economy; part-time work, pay parity and family life; labor reforms and the growing wage gap; as well as the future role of collective bargaining in addressing work and family policies. Each session will explore a different facet of these and other hidden effects of the restructured workplace on the relations among jobs, home and society through assigned readings from economics, anthropology, sociology and industrial and labor relations literature. A strong emphasis will be placed on class participation and discussion as well as guest lectures by legislators, scholars, writers and advocates involved in the conception, enactment, implementation and assessment of work and family related public policies.

The seminar presentations and discussions will underscore the need to monitor the progress and prospects of American public policy by presenting a cross-cultural comparison with the social and economic policies of European countries that comprise the newly formed European Union (EU); as well as other relevant countries of the developing world.

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Download a Sample Course Syllabus (Fall 2000)

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