Focusing on women in jobs that typify the vast majority of women's employment in the United States, sociologist and work and family expert Garey analyzes what it means to be at once a mother who is employed and a worker with children.

Today, when fifty percent of couples who marry eventually get divorced, it's clear that we have moved from a culture in which "marriage is forever" to one in which "marriage is contingent." Author Karla Hackstaff looks at intact marriages to examine the impact of new expectations in a culture of divorce.

Marriage in a Culture of Divorce examines the shifting meanings of divorce and gender for two generations of middle-class, married couples. Hackstaff finds that new social and economic conditions both support and undermine the efforts of spouses to redefine the meaning of marriage in a...

Untidy Gender takes readers into the interconnected worlds of Turkish maids and the women who employ them, tracing the incorporation of rural migrant women into the interiors of the domestic spheres of the urban middle classes. Firmly grounded in data collected through a representative survey of 160 domestic workers, in-depth interviews, and participant observation in the kinship-based communities of domestic workers, this book forges a new understanding of the complex interaction between gender and class subordination.

Ozyegin traces the lives of two kinds of workers: those from the...

The past is more relevant to the present than we often believe. There are historical roots to seemingly new concerns, frequently raised as social problems, which connect the beginning and the end of the twentieth century.

For example, ethnic enclaves, which provided employment networks for women, existed in domestic work long before their recent rediscovery among ethnic men. Female-headed households and single mothers have also been around for a long time, but in 1900 they had to support themselves in the absence of large state or federal welfare programs.

By creatively re-analyzing...