Unemployed Blue Collar Women, 1980

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.