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This book looks at the routine taken-for-granted features of work as experienced by professional women in bureaucratic environments. It shows why these trivial features are not trivial, but add up to a good part of what all work is composed of. Finally, it considers why the women interviewed in this study encountered and experienced their professional careers in the ways they did. There are many books on the general subject of women at work and the sociology of work, but few deal with what the work consists of, how it is accomplished, what one needs to know to undertake it competently, and how it is experienced by the worker. This book deals with all these issues, and more, that are typically overlooked in the literature on women at work in particular and on work in general.
List of contents
Introduction
Qualitative and Quantitative Studies of Work: Some Essential Differences
Understanding Work and Workers: A Respect for Trivia and the Need for Rich Description and Subjective Assessments
Office Work: Joan, Publication Coordinator
Good Work and Bad Jobs: Ann, Principal Administrative Analyst
God Bless the Children: Toni, Educator and Child Care Administrator
God Help the Needy: Fran, HIV Clinic Director
Public vs. Private Practice: Freda, Clinical Psychologist
Summary and Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
About the author
JERRY JACOBS is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Syracuse University and author of 13 books, including
Fun City (1974, 1978, 1983),
The Moral Justification of Suicide (1982), and
The Mall: An Attempted Escape from Everyday Life (1984).
