Unemployed Blue Collar Women, 1980

The purpose of this 1980 study was to explore the work and family lives of female blue collar workers. Particular emphasis was placed on examining the effects of involuntary job loss for these women and their families. Participants in the study were 414 female, mostly unionized workers of all ages from eastern New England. Two hundred seventy-three had been laid-off within the past six months, 141 were continuously employed. The women were employed as production workers in three industries that have traditionally employed large numbers of unskilled and semiskilled female workers: (1) the garment industry; (2) the electrical-goods industry; and (3) the food-processing industry. Many of the participants were immigrants or of Portuguese, Hispanic, Chinese, or Indo-Chinese background. Less than 10% of the sample had education beyond high school. Interviews covered the following topics: demographic background, job history, work satisfaction, wages and benefits, child care, experience of job loss, reemployment outcomes, attitudes about unions, social networks, marital satisfaction, household tasks, and use of unemployment compensation and social services. Participants also completed a physical health and emotions survey and a series of scales rating total family income, importance of job qualities, and cutbacks in expenses as a consequence of unemployment. In addition, approximately 40 of the participants also took part in an intensive, open-ended interview that solicited information about their work and family lives, problems, anxieties, and motivations.