Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gender Differences in Experiencing Unemployment

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This dissertation investigates how unemployment shapes gendered inequalities in the family and the labor-force. Qualitative studies of unemployment have focused almost exclusively on men. Even when women have been included in the sample, studies have not analyzed how unemployment likely has different meanings and consequences for the families of men and women because of the different gender roles men and women occupy at home. By conceptualizing unemployment as an event that impacts both men and women in qualitatively different ways, this dissertation seeks to fill this gap. First, how do men and women imbue meaning to their unemployment? Second, if unemployment holds different meanings for men and women, how do they contend with emotional and gendered divisions of labor in the home during unemployment? Third, what are the long-term implications of unemployment for men and women's orientations to the labor force, and does unemployment shape women's decisions to drop out of the labor force? These questions will be answered with data from in-depth interviews with 50 unemployed college-educated, married, heterosexual individuals (25 men and 25 women) who are part of dual-earner couples with children, and family observations with a subset of spouses and children of unemployed respondents. Respondents are recruited from job fairs, professional networking events and churches in the Greater Philadelphia Area. Insights from this study will help organizations and policy makers soften the blow of periods of unemployment and find ways to make transitions back to employment easier.