Labor Policy and the Social Meaning of Parenthood
The article explores an aspect of the debate over the place of women in the paid labor force. Focusing on disputes over “protective” labor policies, “fetal protection” policies in particular, the essay discusses the implications of such policies for the social meaning of parenthood. Using data from interviews with 49 mothers and 37 fathers of children in neonatal intensive care units, the essay presents evidence suggesting that traditional social values inherent in female-exclusive labor policies are inadequate when one is dealing with the practical needs of parents. A policy that views women as nurturing and men as economically active resides in assumptions that women have the sole biological connection to children and overly determines a narrow conception of parenthood. The parents in this sample demonstrate the ongoing and complex negotiations involved in parenting, negotiations that labor policies have often ignored.
Israeli Parents' Worries about Their School-Age Children
This study describes the worries of Israeli parents regarding their school-age children. A total of 1,751 parents responded to a survey asking how worried they were about their children with regard to a list of 13 worries. Parents worried most frequently about a terrorist attack on their children, followed by injury in a traffic accident, injury during military service, and serious illness. Parents worried more about boys, mothers worried more than fathers, and parents with college degrees worried less than others. Results indicate that parents worry less when they feel they have some control over the risks their children face. Increasing parents' control over these risks may be a role for social work.
Learning to deceive.
In 1968 Paul Goodman, the radical social critic, came to Temple University, introduced himself as a social psychologist, and spoke eloquently against the war in Vietnam. None of this is surprising except for Goodman's self-identification as a social psychologist. Perhaps it should have struck a discordant note in the minds of his audience, but to those of us whose image of social psychology came from the uncritical textbooks of the sixties, a person of Goodman's commitments fit our image of what a social psychologist ought to be. To unsophisticated undergraduates social psychology seemed to be the relevant discipline. What other groups of scientists devoted their lives to research on prejudice, conformity, obedience to destructive authority, propaganda, conflict resolution, or any of a multitude of topics that seemed to penetrate to the heart of war, injustice, and other evils?