March 19, 2012 at 2:30-4:00pm in AA160

Theme: WORK

Presenters:

Annie (XiaoYu) Gong (sociology):

“Money, Attitudes and Gender: An analysis of how gender-role attitudes and earnings affect the hours of housework”

This paper uses the US General Social Survey (2002) to examine the relationship between the number of hours of housework done by each spouse, the relative income of each spouse, and gender-role attitudes in the United States. This paper first tests the effect of wives’s contribution to family income and the reported hours of housework. Consistent with the exchange-bargain theory and the doing gender theory, the findings support the hypothesis that women’s housework hours decrease as their income increases. Once women’s earnings surpass their husbands’, however, women’s hours of housework increase as their income increases. The findings also show that some gender-role attitudes correlate with the hours of housework wives report, while other attitudes do not. The paper will suggest further directions for research.

Chris Sheppard (Sociology)

The Profession of Film Criticism in the 21st Century

The establishment of film criticism as a profession has been a dynamic process. Initially tied to the rise of film as an artsitic medium, film criticism has seperated from film to become an autonomous profession. This work employs Andrew Abbott’s theory on the systems of professions.

The profession now faces many unique threats, such as the rise of informal journalism (blogging), and a cultural shift towards a democratization of opinion (propagated through the internet). Film criticism has been forced to adapt to these changes.

By examining new and complex organization, such as the Toronto International Film Festival, may give insight to where these professions have migrated to. As the number of professions within cultural industries have been rising, we need to understand how they are being developed, and what may threaten them. Unlike more established professions, such as: medical doctors, lawyers, accountants; cultural professions are more susceptible to threats from new technologies and cultural shifts.

Sherri Helwig

Status of the Artist

Canada is home to many professional artists, and to unique “Status of the Artist” legislation that supports the collective bargaining rights of these independent workers. This talk will consider labour issues of artists and the resulting management challenges faced by arts organizations that engage them.