9309275 OBERHAUSER In areas like the Appalachian states where manufacturing and mining employment has declined in recent decades, households have placed greater reliance on women to generate income. Increasing numbers of women have become active members of the workforce, although many continue to engage in income-generating activities like telephone solicitation, child care, computer-related work, and housecleaning while based at their homes. Because of the informal character of women's housework, relatively little attention has been devoted by scholars to its nature and its role in both social and economic spheres. This research project will constitute a case study of household economic strategies during economic restructuring over the last few decades by examining the nature and role of women's housework in three economically diverse regions of West Virginia. The study will consist of two related parts. In the first part, aggregate data on socio- economic variables like employment, labor-force participation, household composition, and income will be gathered and analyzed to identify general trends and to distinguish among patterns in the different regions. In the second part of the project, 75 women houseworkers will be interviewed at length to provide information about gender relations in the household and women's home-based economic strategies. This project will provide valuable new information about this understudied form of work, and it will expand general understandings of the complex interactions between social and economic requirements and the ways that women simultaneously respond to both sets of requirements. In addition to its contributions to basic knowledge, the results of this project will benefit regional development efforts and community development programs by making them more aware of the potentials for and needs of women working at home. ***
