Market work and household production in Brazil

This thesis is composed of three papers in which the research questions are related to the double burden that accrues to Brazilian women. The first and second papers address this issue by looking at expenditure decisions about home production. The first paper examines whether the expenditure decisions about production goods, such as white appliances, relative to entertainment goods, such as TVs, are the outcome of a bargaining process between husbands and wives. The second paper looks at the demand for maid services and for production durable goods, examining the extent to which other household members substitute for maid services and durable goods in home production. The third paper addresses the effects of Brazilian women's double burden on their labor market participation by examining whether the occupational choice of Brazilian women is affected by their gender roles and whether entry into other occupations that are not identified as female occupations has become easier since the introduction of anti-discrimination laws in the labor market. The first paper combines two Brazilian data sets: a Brazilian household expenditure survey, Pesquisa de Orçamento Familiares (POF), and a Brazilian household survey, Pesquisa Nacional Por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD). The results of the first paper indicate that the decision about durable goods ownership is the outcome of a bargaining process between husband and wife. The test on the coefficients of the marriage market variable and the indicators of households in which only the wife and households in which only the husband makes expenditure decisions corroborate the expectations about wives' preferences for production goods. The same data sets as the first paper are used in the second paper. The finding of the second paper indicates that if the marriage market is favorable to women, that is if the ratio of women to men goes from 1.07 to 0.96, the increment in the household probability of owning at least one maid's substitute durable goods is equivalent to 24% the impact of moving a household up one income quintile. Moreover, the results indicate that daughters' time substitutes for wives' time and maid services in home production. Parents may want daughters trained in home production to be able to perform their future role as wives. However, this training comes at a cost to daughters' investment in formal education, narrowing their future career options. The data used in the third paper come from a Brazilian household survey, Pesquisa Nacional Por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD). Gender roles are responsible for women to choose female-dominated occupations, married women are 1.14 times more likely to work in female-dominated occupations and having a child six years and older increases on average by 12% the probability that women work in female-dominated occupations instead of genderintegrated occupations in 2001. However, it becomes easier for all types of women to enter into male-dominated and gender-integrated occupations in 2001 compared to 1981.

Design investigation of the Lake Calumet Complex: improving water quality to regenerate local industrial, community, and ecosystem resources

This design thesis is an inquiry of the highly industrialized urban landscape of the Lake Calumet Complex on the South Side of the City of Chicago. It examines geologic and anthropogenic strata within this region as waste used for staging various social, industrial, and ecological systems. Today, these social, industrial, and ecological systems are not responsive to each other and certainly do not possess resilient attributes that would allow them to interact within the landscape in perpetuity. The resulting design strategy seeks to re-think the treatment of waste in the landscape into a new framework for future park design. This park will serve as grounds to interweave these complex systems in order to rehabilitate ecosystem functions and improve water quality. Additionally the park hybridizes many social and ecological functions to improve community recreational opportunities and gain public acceptance and appeal.

Searching for knowledge in the belly of the beast: diversity, social equity and the African graduate student mother's experience in US higher education

Diversity has become a buzz word in public discourse and in educational circles. Higher education institutions in the US have increasingly used this word as a cornerstone of their mission statements and have made increasing efforts to attract students from different backgrounds. As part of the increase in diversity efforts among US colleges, is a significant rise in the number of international students. Attracting international students has become a priority for U.S. universities regardless of size or location. This study examines the intersection between the structure of American educational environment and the blended identities of African Graduate Student Mothers. Within the context of contemporary diversity efforts in US educational institutions, this study examines both the structural environments and the socio-cultural constructs that affect the experiences of African graduate student mothers. Based on a qualitative research interview design, a total of nineteen African graduate student mothers at a Mid-Western University in the US were interviewed individually and in groups over a six weeks period. Results from this study show that apart from the difficult and often dehumanizing treatment African student mothers endure from immigration and consular officials in their various countries and ports of entry, they often find themselves at the margins of their various programs and departments with very little support if any. This is because most of them enroll into graduate programs after arriving as dependants of their spouses; a process that does not allow them to negotiate for departmental commitments and support prior to their arrival. Not only do these women face racial discrimination from white professors, staff and fellow students, but they also experience discrimination and hostilities from African Americans and other minority groups who see them as threats to the limited resources that are often set aside for minority groups in such institutions.