Spring 2010

WGS 393 • WOMEN & CHANGING WORLD OF WORK

Course Description

This course deals with the dramatic impact of social, demographic, and labor force changes on social policies related to women and family. The seminar will consist of an examination of policies focused on aspects of marriage, family and work for adult women, minorities, and the elderly. In previous generations, a women's welfare was based upon her husband's earnings. That world has changed profoundly. Increasingly, a women's economic security is her own responsibility, and social policies including retirement policies, must change to reflect that new reality. In barely two generations norms and expectations concerning work and family have altered greatly. Women who are today in their fifties and sixties have grown up in a world in which marital disruption has become common. Unlike their grandmothers, younger generations of women, especially the more educated, can not count on their husbands or guarantee their economic security. Women no longer work to simply supplement their income but to build their own nest egg. As a result, many single women find themselves at a serious disadvantage in the event their marriage or work fails.

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