by amelia on
May 27, 2008 at 10:51 am
A recent story in the Boston Globe addresses the persistent absence of women in fields such as science and engineering. The significant gender gap in these careers is often blamed on science and math classes in schools, apparent differences in aptitude, as well as potentially sexist companies. Although women make up nearly half of those participating in the paid labor market, they hold only a small proportion of careers requiring high-qualifications and receiving high earnings. Women make up only 20% of our country’s engineers, less than 30% of chemists, and only about 25% of those specializing in computing and mathematics.
The Globe reports:
“Over the past decade and more, scores of conferences, studies, and government hearings have been directed at understanding the gap. It has stayed in the media spotlight thanks in part to the high-profile misstep of then-Harvard president Larry Summers, whose loose comment at a Harvard conference on the topic in 2005 ultimately cost him his job.”
“Now two new studies by economists and social scientists have reached a perhaps startling conclusion: An important part of the explanation for the gender gap, they are finding, are the preferences of women themselves. When it comes to certain math- and science-related jobs, substantial numbers of women - highly qualified for the work - stay out of those careers because they would simply rather do something else.”
“One study of information-technology workers found that women’s own preferences are the single most important factor in that field’s dramatic gender imbalance. Another study followed 5,000 mathematically gifted students and found that qualified women are significantly more likely to avoid physics and the other ‘hard’ sciences in favor of work in medicine and biosciences.”
Read more.
by amelia on
May 08, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Science Daily reports on a new study from Christine Whelan at the University of Iowa which suggests that men whose mothers earned a college degree and worked outside the home seem to have an effect on how they choose their wives.
Whelan’s study, which focuses on high-achieving men (defined as those who are in the top 10% of earnings for their age as well as those with a graduate degrees), are likely to marry a woman whose education mimics their mothers’. Of these high achieving men in the study, almost 80% of them whose mothers had college degrees married women with college degrees.
In addition, of those men whose mothers had graduate degrees, 62% of high-achieving men married other graduate degree holders, and 27% got hitched to women with college degrees.
Science Daily reports:
“‘Successful men in their 20s and 30s today are the sons of a pioneering generation of high-achieving career women. Their mothers serve as role models for how a woman can be nurturing and successful at the same time,’ said Whelan, a visiting assistant professor of sociology in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. ‘One man I interviewed put it like this: “If your mother is a success, you don’t have any ideas of success and family that exclude a woman from working.” This Mother’s Day, I think we should thank those moms for leading the way toward gender equality for a younger generation.’”
by amelia on
Apr 18, 2008 at 8:30 am
Talking about marriage? Call in the sociologists!
In a recent article from TheStreet.com, Lyneka Little reports on the conclusion that marriage can be a ‘double-edged sword,’ providing positive and negative benefits to each member of the couple. The effects have proven to be disproportionately favorable for married men, who make more than their single counterparts. Read more…
“‘Marriage works as a two-edge sword,’ says Stephen Sweet, an assistant professor of sociology at Ithaca College in New York. On the plus side, there is often much stability to gain from tying the knot.”
“‘Married people are better off than single people based on economic status, social status and happiness,’ Sweet says. ‘The economic gains of marriage can come from aligning yourself with another individual and increasing social capital.’”
”…Other jobs where a ring could raise your profile? Judge, clergyman and police officer. A police officer may want to show a stable life and marriage can help that, says S. Alexander Takeuchi, a professor of sociology at the University of North Alabama.”
“And how about your productivity? ‘Once you get married, you’re going to spend more time with your spouse and family,’ and it may affect your job productivity, according to Takeuchi. For those in a creative career, Takeuchi says, ‘the amount of time that you can spend to think and visualize things, and use your imagination decreases.’”
by amelia on
Apr 10, 2008 at 9:04 am
The Independent Lens is currently collecting photographs that illustrate what it means to be an American through the website Flickr.com to integrate into an upcoming PBS documentary called ‘A Dream in Doubt.’ This documentary, based on the premise that the American Dream is becoming increasingly elusive, highlights the racial stereotypes in the U.S. including the wave of hate crimes following September 11th. The documentary is set to air on PBS Tuesday, May 20, 2008.
See the photography collection.
by amelia on
Apr 06, 2008 at 8:41 am
In a new editorial from the Freakonomics bloggers at the New York Times asks, “Do Hamburgers Cause Crime?” A new paper from Jennifer Dillard of the Georgetown Law School investigates the effects of lengthy employment on the ‘kill floor’ of slaughterhouses to a dramatic increase in the risk of psychological problems, like post traumatic stress disorder. Dillard argues that from a legal standpoint, these workers should be compensated under O.S.H.A.
In their discussion of Dillard’s new work, the Freakonomics blog authors also highlight sociologist Amy Fitzgerald’s paper which concludes that communities with slaughterhouses experience a ’spill-over’ effect from this type of work, resulting in much higher rates of violent crime than other communities with similar demographic characteristics.
by amelia on
Mar 25, 2008 at 7:21 am
The Chicago Sun-Times picked up on a recent study published by sociologist Sylvia Fuller in the American Sociological Review.
Sun-Times reporter Francine Knowles reports:
“Sociologist Sylvia Fuller looked at data on roughly 6,000 workers during their first years in the labor market. For workers who stayed put, in the first five years of a job, each year of tenure is associated with roughly 2.4 percent higher wages for men and 2.9 percent higher wages for women, according to the research. Fuller also found that high-mobility workers tend to spend more time unemployed, and a greater portion of their job changes are the result of layoffs, contributing to lower wages.”
by amelia on
Mar 11, 2008 at 2:17 pm
A recent study from York University indicates that nearly 43 percent of ‘personal support’ workers experience physical violence in their workplace everyday. This group of workers is predominantly made up of women and many of them are immigrants or from other minority groups. These workers experienced being slapped or hit with an object, being pinched, having their hair pulled, or even being poked or spit on. The workers also reported receiving unwanted sexual attention in the workplace.
CNW reports:
“What we found is disturbing,” says Pat Armstrong, a professor in York’s Department of Sociology, and study co-author. “Canada’s levels of violence towards long-term care workers are significantly higher than the other countries we looked at. The situation is out of control, as one respondent put it.”
Workers at 71 unionized long-term care facilities in Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia were surveyed about their experiences of physical violence, unwanted sexual attention, and racial comments. They were nearly seven times more likely to experience such daily violence than workers in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden…
Armstrong says most violent incidents go unreported.
“Workers are afraid to report violent incidents, fearing that they will be blamed. Or they simply don’t have the time to do so. Alarmingly, workers inform us that they are expected to take such abuse. They are told to ‘lighten up,’” she says.
The study also establishes a correlation between levels of violence and heavy workloads placed on staff. The main difference between Canada and Nordic countries is staffing levels.