@article{Osnowitz_2010, place={Washington DC: American Sociological Association.}, title={Work and Family Inequality and Gender ( Social Research: Consumption and Design)}, url={https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/work-and-family-inequality-and-gender-social}, abstractNote={Social research affects our lives in many ways: as workers, consumers, activists, and citizens. Media reports of social research influence public attitudes about people, institutions, businesses, social problems, policies, and programs. Researchers make myriad decisions about the questions they ask, the data they collect, their methods of analysis, and the audiences that hear about their findings. Recognizing these decisions—and considering their alternatives and implications—you can participate in the process by which studies inform policy, action, and debate. Understanding the ways in which studies are designed, implemented, and reported therefore provides a means by which you can become a critical consumer of research. In this course, we will read published studies with the aim of identifying the research methods on which the conclusions rest. Making researchers’ questions and strategies our central focus, we will, in a sense, work backwards, analyzing sources of data, the fit between evidence and analysis, and the decision-making process that led to the findings. A central goal of this course is to demystify social research. Another goal is to develop an analytic vocabulary with which to critique social inquiry. A third goal is to apply that analysis to the process of research design. Course readings will therefore provide a range of models for designing your own research project on a topic of your choice. With only a few exceptions, the examples each week will address some aspect of the work-family nexus—that is, the connection between paid employment and family needs. An understanding of this work-family link has long been a source of conflict, accommodation, and change, and it informs such policies as welfare reform and family and medical leave. Throughout the semester,then, we will discuss the implications of the studies we read, both for social policies and organizational practices that affect individual choices and actions. Yet another goal for the course, therefore, is to consider the application of research in a variety of contexts. }, journal={TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology}, author={Osnowitz, Debra}, year={2010}, month={Apr.} }