Work and Family – GSBGEN 376
Fall 2005
M/TH 10:00-11:30
Prof. Myra H. Strober
myras@stanford.edu
Phone: 650-723-0387 Office: 119 Cubberley
Teaching Assistant
Nicole Kangas – Office: Building 120, Room 243.
nkangas@stanford.edu
This course examines major issues in work and family: the rise in women’s
labor force participation and the movement of women into high-wage work,
earnings discrimination, occupational segregation, time-management and
work/life conflicts, the economic value of stay-at-home moms, the
economics of child care, and the role of public policy. Guest speakers will
discuss these issues with respect to their own careers and lives as well as the
roles their organizations play. The course will provide opportunities to
participate in two discussions outside of class and have lunches with
speakers.
A ten-page paper, focused on a topic within the scope of the course, will be
due at the end of the quarter and will comprise 50 percent of the course
requirement and grade. These papers will be individual (as opposed to
group) papers.
Class participation will comprise 25 percent of the course requirements and
grade, and participation in two discussions outside of class, and lunches with
speakers will comprise an additional 25 percent.
This course cannot be audited and it cannot be taken pass/fail.
Course requirements and grading.
1. Class participation (25% of grade)
Students are expected to attend class regularly and to read the materials
before class. From time to time, we will begin class with each student
writing a short summary of the readings for that class. Students are also
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expected to participate in class discussions. Quality (not quantity) of student
contributions (including the extent to which their comments assist others’
learning) is important.
Absences: If you must be absent, it is your responsibility to get notes and
learn what happened from a classmate. Please notify the TA, not the
professor, if you must be absent, as the TA keeps these records.
Unfortunately, there are no opportunities for making up classes you miss.
If you are absent more than two times (three times if you have not yet
accepted a job and are interviewing), or if the quality or quantity of your
class participation is unusually low, your class participation grade may be
decreased.
2. Outside class discussions and assignments (25 percent of grade)
Participation in two student-led group discussions outside of class is
required. There will also be opportunities to have lunches with speakers
outside of class. These smaller group settings permit deeper discussion, and
are an important part of the class experience.
3. An individual paper (50% of grade)
Focused on a topic within the scope of the course, the paper is due in class
on Thursday, December 8. A paragraph describing the paper topic is due
in class on Thursday, November 10. The paper topic, as described in the
paragraph, must be approved by Professor Strober. The paper should be a
maximum of ten pages, including all appendices, bibliographies, etc. No
electronic papers, please. Papers that will be (or have been) turned into
other professors for credit, must be approved by both instructors, in accord
with GSB policy and the honor code.
Required Texts (Required texts are also on Reserve at Jackson Library)
Myra H. Strober and Agnes M.K Chan, The Road Winds Uphill All the
Way: Gender, Work, and Family in the United States and Japan.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and
What to Do About It. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000
Course Reader. All articles listed on syllabus are in course reader.
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Recommended Books:
Frances K. Conley, M.D., Walking Out on the Boys. New York: Farrar,
Strauss, and Giroux, 1998. [Conley was the first female tenured full
professor of neurosurgery in the U.S. This is the story of her training and
her resignation of her position at Stanford to protest gender discrimination.]
Debra Meyerson, Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire
Change at Work. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2001. [The title
says it all. The book is well-written and inspiring.]
Allison Pearson, I Don’t Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy,
Working Mother. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. [This is a funny,
poignant, fictional account of a woman who tries to balance motherhood
with a career as a hedge-fund manager in London.]
Sheila Wellington, Be Your Own Mentor. New York: Random House,
2001. [This book provides a great deal of excellent advice. But you may
already know much of what it has to offer.]
Robin Wolaner, Naked in the Boardroom. New York: Fireside, 2004. [This
is an honest and practical book about succeeding in business from the
founder of Parenting magazine, who also became a vice president at Time
Warner.]
Laraine Zappert, Getting it Right. New York: Pocket Books, 2001. [This is
a study of Stanford MBAs.]
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DATES, TOPICS, ASSIGNMENTS
Monday, September 26- Women in the Work Force and The Ideal
Worker Norm
Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and
What to Do About It. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 13100.
Katherine Ellison, “Working Mothers of the World Unite,” San Jose
Mercury News, July 17, 2005, and Letter to the Editor, July 18, 2005.
Census Bureau, Facts for Mother’s Day, 2005.
Thursday, September 29 – Marriage, Partnership, and Family: Raising
Twins- Guest Speakers: Nicole and Jeff Kangas; and Doug Okun and
Eric Ethington
Stephanie Coontz, “The New Fragility of Marriage, for Better or For
Worse,” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 6, 2005.
Arlene Skolnick, “Grounds for Marriage,” in Marilyn Yalom and Laura L.
Carstensen (Eds.), Inside the American Couple: New Thinking, New
Challenges. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, pp. 149-163.
Monday, October 3- Physiological Issues- Guest Speaker: Marcia
Stefanick, Professor of Medicine and of Obstetrics and Gynecology (by
courtesy), Stanford University
Larry Cahill, “His Brain, Her Brain,” www.ScientificAmerican.com, April
25, 2005.
George Mussalli, “Ask the Experts: What are the Risks of Having A Baby if
I’m 35 Or Older?” www.babycenter.com, 2004.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “The Nation: Timeless; Buying Years for Women on
the Biological Clock,” New York Times Magazine, October 3, 1999.
Thursday, October 6 – Working in a Non-Profit: A Strategy to Better
Balance Work and Family?- Guest Speakers: Donna Hall, Executive
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Director, Women Donors; Kathy Meyer, Executive Director, Equal
Rights Advocates; and Von Ton Quinlivan, Member of Commissions,
Boards, and Candidate for Public Office
Rosalind Chait Barnett, “Women, Men, Work, Family: An Expansionist
Theory,” American Psychologist, October 2001, pp. 781-796. [You may
wish to skim this article, rather than read it in its entirety.]
Monday, October 10– Discrimination from a Legal Perspective- Guest
Speaker: Deborah Rhode, Professor of Law, Stanford University
Materials from Professor Rhode’s casebook will be available electronically
from Professor Strober.
Patrick McGeehan, “Morgan Stanley Settles Bias Suit With $54 Million,”
New York Times, July 13, 2004.
Thursday, October 13 – No Class
Monday, October 17 – Occupational Segregation and Discrimination I
Myra H. Strober and Lisa M. Catanzarite, “The Relative Attractiveness
Theory of Occupational Segregation by Gender,” in Petra Beckmann and
Gerhard Engelbrech (Eds.) Arbeitsmarkt fur Frauen 2000—Ein Schritt vor
oder ein Schrittzuruck?” Nurnberg: Institut fur Arbeitsmarkt und
Berufsforschung der Bundesanstalt fur Arbeit, 1994, pp. 116-139.
Linda Tischler, “Where Are the Women?” Fastcompany, February 2004,
p.52 and interviews with Charles O’Reilly and Catherine Hakim.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/79/women.html
Myra H. Strober and Jay M. Jackman, “Some Effects of Occupational
Segregation and the Glass Ceiling on Women and Men in Technical and
Managerial Fields: Retention of Senior Women,” in G.E. Bradley and H.W.
Hendrick (Eds.), Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management
– IV. Elsevier Science, 1994, pp. 593-598.
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Thursday, October 20 – Issues for Dual Career Couples - Guest
Speakers: Sharon Meers, Former Managing Director, Goldman Sachs,
San Francisco; and Steve Dostart, Dostart Development Company, LLC
Judith Steihm, “Invidious Intimacy,” Social Policy, March/April 1976,
pp. 12-16. [As you read this, ask yourself to what extent you think the
analysis is still applicable today, almost 30 years after it was written.]
Pamela Stone and Meg Lovejoy, “Fast-Track Women and the ‘Choice’ to
Stay Home,” in Jerry A. Jacobs and Janice Fanning Madden (Eds.)
Mommies and Daddies on the Fast Track: Success of Parents in Demanding
Positions. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science, Vol. 596, November 2004, pp. 62-83.
Monday, October 24 – Occupational Segregation and Discrimination II
June O’Neill, “The Gender Gap in Wages, circa 2000,” American Economic
Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2003, pp. 309-314.
Jane Waldfogel, “Understanding the “Family Gap” in Pay for Women with
Children,” Journal of Economic Perspectives (Winter 1998), pp. 137-156.
Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini, “Gender and Competition at a Young
Age,” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, May 2004, pp.
377-381.
Thursday, October 27 – Consulting as a Strategy to Balance Work and
Family-Guest Speakers: Robbie Baxter, Consultant, ; Catherine Foster,
Consultant, Policy Consulting; Niti Agrawal, Consultant, Stage Four
Solutions
Althea C. Huston and Stacey Rosenkrantz Aronson, “Mothers Time with
Infant and Time in Employment as Predictors of Mother-Child
Relationships, and Children’s Early Development,” Child Development,
April 2005, pp. 467-482. [You may wish to skim this article, rather than
read it in its entirety. Pages 467-470 and 478-480 are the most relevant parts
of the article for the course.]
Monday, October 31- No Class
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Thursday, November 3 – Different Paths to Success - Guest Speakers:
Robin Wolaner, Entrepreneur, CEO and Author of Naked in the Board
Room; and Joanna Strober, Venture Capitalist
Robin Wolaner, Naked in the Board Room. New York: Fireside, 2005,
Chapter 13.
Monday, November 7 – Case Study: The Graduates of Stanford and
Tokyo University
Myra H. Strober and Agnes M.K Chan, The Road Winds Uphill All the
Way: Gender, Work, and Family in the United States and Japan.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999, preface, and chapters 1 -5 (pp. 1-177).
You may prefer to skim the tables; the results are discussed in the text. Skip
pp. 76-84. Also skip pp. 73-76, unless you would like a refresher on how to
read and interpret regression results.
Thursday, November 10 – The Value of Caring Labor – The Wendt
Case
A paragraph describing the paper you will be writing for this course is
due on November 10 for Professor Strober’s approval.
Strober, “What’s A Wife Worth?” in Marilyn Yalom and Laura Carstensen (Eds.)
Inside the American Couple: New Thinking, New Challenges. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 2001, pp. 174-188.
Megan Gomola, “Something Old, Something New: On the ‘Romance’ of Prenups,”
Cornell Magazine, May 2001, pp. 24-25.
Monday, November 14 – Work/Life Issues I – Time Use
Mark Landler, “Europe Reluctantly Deciding It Has Less Time for Time
Off,” New York Times, July 7, 2004, p. 1
Lotte Bailyn, “Time in Organizations: Constraints on, and Possibilities for
Gender Equity in the Workplace,” in Ronald J. Burke and Debra L. Nelson
(Eds.), Advancing Women’s Careers. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers,
2002, pp. 262-272.
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Cynthia Fuchs Epstein and Arne L. Kalleberg, “Time and the Sociology of
Work,” Work and Occupations, February 2001, pp. 5-16.
Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, et.al, “Chapter 4- Part-Time Work as Deviance:
Stigmatization and Its Consequences,” in Epstein, et. al, The Part-Time
Paradox: Time Norms, Professional Life, Family and Gender. Routledge,
1999, pp. 29-37.
WEDNESDAY, November 16 – Combining Work and Family – Out-ofClass Exercise- Precise Time to be Arranged
Lotte Bailyn, “Breaking The Mold: Women, Men, and Time in the New
Corporate World. New York: The Free Press, 1993, pp. 55-63 and 97-104.
Thursday, November 17- Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads-Guest
Speakers: Amy Friedman, Steve Zuckerman, and others
Anne Marie Chaker and Hilary Stout, “Stay-at-Home Moms Struggle to
Revive Their Careers,” http://www.stltoday.com, May 17, 2004.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce, “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps:
Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success,” Harvard Business
Review, March 2005, pp. 43-54. Reprint R0503B
Monica McGrath, Marla Driscoll and Mary Gross, Back in the Game:
Returning to Business After a Hiatus: Experiences and Recommendations
for Women, Employers, and Universities,” Executive Summary, June 2005,
pp. 1-22.
Also browse www.RebelDad.com, weblog and website created by Brian
Reid
Monday, November 28 – Work/Life Issues II – Division of Household
Labor
Pat Mainardi, “The Politics of Housework,” in Robin Morgan (Ed.)
Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From the Women’s
Liberation Movement. New York: Vintage Books, 1970.
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Marilyn Gardner, “The Artful Dodge of Housework,” Christian Science
Monitor, July 6, 2005.
Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family. New York: Harper
Collins, 1989, pp. 156-175 (portions of chapters 7 and 8).
Gary S. Becker, A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1981, chapter 2 (Division of Labor in Households and Families), pp.
14-37.
Shelly Lundberg and Robert A. Pollak, “Bargaining and Distribution in
Marriage,” in Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996.
WEDNESDAY, November 30 – Out-of-Class Exercise on Household
Bargaining, Precise Time to be Arranged
Thursday, December 1 – Child Care
Suzanne W. Helburn and Barbara R. Bergmann, American’s Child Care
Problem: The Way Out. New York: Palgrave, 2002, Chapters 1 and 2, pp.
1-32.
Myra H. Strober, Suzanne Gerlach-Downie, and Kenneth E. Yeager, “Child
Care Centers as Workplaces,” Feminist Economics, (Spring 1995), pp. 93119.
Patrick J. Kiger, “A Case for Childcare,” Workforce Management, April
2004, pp. 34-40 (pages 37 and 39 not applicable).
Steven Greenhouse, “Child Care, the Perk of Tomorrow,” New York Times,
May 13, 2001. (Course Reader)
Monday, December 5 – Women in Venture Capital and Investment
Banking- Guest Speakers: Anita Stephens, OCP Capital; and Louisa
Ritter, Goldman Sachs
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Thursday, December 8 – Policies for Change
Final Paper is Due in Class today.
Douglas M. McCracken, “Winning the Talent War for Women: Sometimes
It Takes a Revolution,” Harvard Business Review, November-December
2000, Reprint R00611.
Strober and Chan, Chapter 7, Major Findings and Policy Recommendations,
pp. 203-225.
Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the
World is Still the Least Valued. New York: Henry Holt and Co., Metropolitan
Books, 2001, Conclusion: How To Bring Children Up Without Putting Women
Down, pp. 256-274 and notes on pp. 301-303.
Myra H. Strober, “Women in the Workplace: The Unfinished Revolution,” USA
Today, November 2003, pp. 28-29.