Race,Gender, and Social Exchange in Young Adult Unions

Abstract

Social scientists often conceptualize romantic partner selection as an asymmetric exchange in which partners of different race or gender offer different desired qualities. For example, white women might leverage racial status into upward mobility by marrying socioeconomically advantaged minority men, or minority women might exchange beauty, sexual access, and domestic services for white men’s higher racial status and income. However, such approaches frequently assume gender and race asymmetry in preferences—for example, that men attach greater value to potential partners’ physical attractiveness than women do. These assumptions may be unwarranted, especially among contemporary young couples. In turn, assuming asymmetry in exchange can generate misleading results if partnering patterns are actually symmetric. Accordingly, we use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), including a supplementary sample of romantic partners, to reconsider recent findings with an emphasis on evaluating (a)symmetry.     

A Survival Analysis of Timing of Entry into Prostitution: The Differential Impact of Race, Educational Level, and Childhood/Adolescent Risk Factors

Using survey data obtained from 309 women working in street-level prostitution in Phoenix, Arizona, this investigation examines the influence of minority status, educational level, and the experience of risk factors in an individual's childhood or adolescence on the hazard rate for age of entry into prostitution. Findings of this study show that women engaging in prostitution have limited educational backgrounds and often do not complete high school. Results indicate that both white and minority women engaging in prostitution experienced high rates of physical and sexual abuse in childhood, as well as parental substance abuse. When compared to minority women, white women are more likely to have experienced any one of these three risk factors thought to influence entry into prostitution, yet event-history analysis indicates that minority women consistently experience significantly higher hazard rates for entry into prostitution. Findings suggest the need for future research to better assess the impact of race—in the form of socioeconomic and social disadvantages associated with minority status—as it relates to entry into the sex trade.     

How many hours do you have to work to be integrated? Full‐time and part‐time employment of native and ethnic minority women in the Netherlands

Labour market integration of ethnic minority women is central for economic integration, as they may experience a double disadvantage: both as a woman and as a migrant. This presumed double disadvantage has recently become the focus of both Dutch integration and emancipation policy. To test several assumptions underlying this, we analyse to what extent labour market participation of different groups of women and the hours they work are influenced by human capital and household characteristics. Our results show some remarkable differences in employment patterns. Controlling for educational level, partnership and the presence of children, it was found that native women more often work in part‐time jobs than ethnic minority women. For native Dutch women, the number of children influences both the employment decision and the number of hours worked, whereas for ethnic minority women, this only effects full‐time employment.     

Racial Reconciliation or Spiritual Smokescreens?: Blackwashing the Crisis Pregnancy Center Movement

Beginning in the early 2000s, evangelical crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) sought to establish themselves in areas where they perceive Black women, who have disproportionately higher rates of abortion relative to other racial-ethnic groups, will be drawn to their services. These efforts are tied to larger racial reconciliation efforts by white evangelicals. To this end, in this article we explore how the evangelical CPC movement understands Black women’s higher abortion rates, the solutions they seek to offer Black women to persuade them not to abort, the expansion of the movement into minority areas and how the CPC movement justified this encroachment, and the role of Black leaders and symbolic inclusion through “blackwashing” in this expansion. Drawing upon an ethnographic content analysis, we argue that CPC activism in urban areas is not substantially different from its approaches in white and/or suburban areas and inclusion of Black perspectives and activists is limited to a surface-level veneer we refer to as blackwashing. Throughout the paper, we also provide a counter-narrative examining CPC activists’ claims about Black women and abortion and find many of them to be lacking in veracity.     

Black Minority Racial Status and Fertility in the United States, 1970

Abstract

Reversal in the trend toward convergence of black and white fertility rates in the United States between 1940 and 1970 has given rise to the theory of independent effect of minority racial status. The 1970 Public Use Sample is used in this study to extract data on a 1/1000 sample of all black and white women (excluding Spanish Americans) ages 15 to 59 in order to analyze relationships between fertility and other census variables. The results tend to support the theory of independent effect of minority racial status on fertility. The relationship is more pronounced for women under 35 than for women 40 and over. Distinctive patterns emerge by race and age cohorts.     

Are we investing less in the next generation? Historical trends in time spent caring for children

Historical and current data sets are used to trace the time married women and men spend caring for their own children on a daily basis. The data are also used to estimate the total time parents spend in raising two children to the age of 18. The analysis is restricted to primary child care time; i.e., the actual, direct administration of personal care, including physical care (feeding, bathing, dressing, putting to bed) and such other direct personal care as teaching, chauffering, supervising, counseling, managing, training, amusing, and entertaining. Secondary parental child care time is not studied. Although white married women spent about. 56 hours per day per child in primary child care in the 1924–1931 period, by 1981, the time had decreased to about 1.00 hour per day per child. Married men spent 0.25 hours per day per child in 1975, the first year for which national data exists. By 1981, this figure had increased to 0.33 hours per day per child. Raising two children to age 18 required about 5,789 hours of a white, employed, married woman's time and 14,053 hours of a white, unemployed, married woman's time in 1981. Husbands of white, employed married women spent about 1,500 more hours in raising two children to age 18 than the husbands of white, unemployed married women.His research interests include the economics of family time use, household production, consumption, and demand.Her research interests include household production, family structure and family well-being, and family policy.     

The representation of women and girls of color in United States crime news

There is a large body of literature examining the media portrayals of white females as both victims and offenders in crime news, but very little is known about how minority females—including Black, Latina, Middle Eastern, Native American, and Asian women and girls—are portrayed in these roles. In this literature review, I discuss general stereotypes surrounding women of color and their depictions within crime news stories as both victims and offenders. An examination of crime news media portrayals of minority females reveals that outdated and harmful stereotypes provide media personnel frames with which to write their stories. The negative portrayals of minority women and girls—as both victims and offenders—serve to reinforce racist beliefs and affect how consumers view political issues.     

MINORITY CONCENTRATION, DISADVANTAGE, AND INEQUALITY IN THE NONMETROPOLITAN UNITED STATES

The implications of the residential concentration of minority populations are issues of vital concern in the United States. Much of the previous minority concentration literature has focused on African-American residents of metropolitan communities. This article expands on this literature by exploring a variety of minority groups in nonmetropolitan communities. It was found that the minority residents of communities with large minority populations were in worse socioeconomic conditions than the minority residents of predominately white communities. Further, for most socioeconomic variables, it was found that as minority concentration increased, white residents tended to do better. In addition, the extent of racial inequality between minority and white residents was greater in communities with larger minority populations. Implications of the above findings are discussed.     

Age-Condensed and Age-Gapped Families

ABSTRACT

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey, Mature Women's Cohort, this study found that not only is a sizable minority of mature women likely to reside with their aging parents and relatives in any given survey year, but that this trend increases over time. Unexpectedly, black women were found to be more likely than white women to reside in age-gapped families, signifying that they were more likely than white women to delay childbirth. Black women also were found to have greater frequencies and prevalence of residing in intergenerational families than white women. This pattern indicated, by extension, that intergenerational responsibilities might be a greater factor contributing to delayed childbirth for black women than was the case for white women. As expected, few aging parents or relatives were found in age-condensed families. The presence of grandchildren, rather than a respondent's own children, apparently accounted for this finding. This pattern suggested that, for maturing women who had been teenage mothers, the flow of intergenerational responsibilities proceeds more extensively in the direction of subsequent generations rather than toward previous generations.     

Beyond the Numbers: Institutional Influences on Experiences With Diversity on Elite College Campuses

In this article we bring together the burgeoning qualitative literature on the socializing influence of residential colleges, the survey‐based literature on campus racial climate, and the literature on diversity work in organizations to analyze how two elite universities’ approaches to diversity shape students’ experiences with and feelings about diversity. We employ 77 in‐depth interviews with undergraduates at two elite universities. While the universities appear comparable on measures of student demographics and overall diversity infrastructure, they take different approaches. These varying approaches lead to important differences in student perspectives. At the university that takes a power analysis and minority support approach, students who participate in minority‐oriented activities develop a critical race theory perspective, while their white and nonparticipating minority peers frequently feel alienated from that programming. At the university that takes an integration and celebration approach, most students embrace a cosmopolitan perspective, celebrating diversity while paying less attention to power and resource differences between racial groups. The findings suggest that higher education institutions can influence the race frames of students as well as their approaches to multiculturalism, with implications for their views on a variety of important diversity‐related issues on campus and beyond.     

Minutewomen,Victims, and Parasites: The Discursive and Performative Construction of Women by The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps

This study uses data from 40 interviews and 80 hours of participant observation to examine the discursive and performative (embodied, enacted, and nonverbal) position of women in twenty‐first‐century militia–nativist organizations, using the case study of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC). The case of the MCDC demonstrates that the organization produces competing narratives for understanding the role of white and migrant women in U.S. society. White American women are constructed as victims of immigration, while white women within the organization are viewed as capable colleagues. Migrant women are produced as both parasites on American society and victims of Mexican male sexuality. As this article shows, women's demands for agency, their political drives, their ascribed race, and their intentions shape their discursive production.     

Pension prospects of minority ethnic groups: inequalities by gender and ethnicity

Minority ethnic groups have low income in later life from private pensions, partly due to shorter employment records in Britain since migration. Yet disadvantage and discrimination in the labour market, as well as differences in cultural norms concerning women's employment, may lead to persistence of ethnic variation in private pension acquisition. Little is known about the pension arrangements made by men and women in minority ethnic groups during the working life. This paper examines the extent of ethnic disadvantage in private pension scheme arrangements and analyses variation according to gender and specific ethnic group, using three years of the British Family Resources Survey, which provides information on over 97,000 adults aged 20-59, including over 5,700 from ethnic minorities. Both men and women in minority ethnic groups were less likely to have private pension coverage than their white counterparts but the extent of the difference was most marked for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Ethnicity interacted with gender, so that Blacks showed the least gender inequality in private pension arrangements, reflecting the relatively similar full-time employment rates of Black men and women. A minority ethnic disadvantage in private pension coverage, for both men and women, remained after taking account of age, marital and parental status, years of education, employment variables, class and income. The research suggests that minority ethnic groups - especially women - will be disproportionately dependent on means-tested benefits in later life, due to the combined effects of low private pension coverage and the policy of shifting pension provision towards the private sector.     

Man Up,Man Down: Race–Ethnicity and the Hierarchy of Men in Female‐Dominated Work

Scholars have largely overlooked the significance of race and socioeconomic status in determining which men traverse gender boundaries into female‐dominated, typically devalued, work. Examining the gender composition of the jobs that racial minority men occupy provides critical insights into mechanisms of broader racial disparities in the labor market—in addition to stalled occupational desegregation trends between men and women. Using nationally representative data from the three‐year American Community Survey (2010–2012), we examine racial/ethnic and educational differences in which men occupy gender‐typed jobs. We find that racial minority men are more likely than white men to occupy female‐dominated jobs at all levels of education—except highly educated Asian/Pacific Islander men—and that these patterns are more pronounced at lower levels of education. These findings have implications for broader occupational inequality patterns among men as well as between men and women.     

KIDS' APPROACHES TO WHITENESS IN RACIALLY DISTINCT SUMMER DAY CAMPS

This study explores how preadolescents engaged in different interactional approaches to whiteness in racially distinct summer camps. Kids in the predominantly white and predominantly black contexts created peer cultures that differed in the following ways: (1) how they marked and defined whiteness, (2) how they made subject positions toward whiteness problematic, and (3) how they maintained different racial hegemonies. Mere numerical majority/minority relations, as well as differences in racial hegemony, caused kids to vary the meanings of whiteness, especially as the value of maintaining color-blind and color-aware orientations fluctuated. The findings suggest that the racial composition of a context may be key to encouraging recognition that white racial subjectivities are as subject to multiple interpretations, expressions, and embodiment as are racial subjectivities of color.     

What's in the “old boys” network? Accessing social capital in gendered and racialized networks

Network processes have long been implicated in the reproduction of labor market inequality, but it remains unclear whether white male networks provide more social capital resources than female and minority networks. Analysis of nationally representative survey data reveals that people in white male networks receive twice as many job leads as people in female/minority networks. White male networks are also comprised of higher status connections than female/minority networks. The information and status benefits of membership in these old boy networks accrue to all respondents and not just white men. Furthermore, gender homophilous contacts offer greater job finding assistance than other contacts. The results specify how social capital flows through gendered and racialized networks.     

Ethnic Identity,Self-Esteem,and Interpersonal Relationships Among Multiethnic Adolescents

A sample of 70 multiethnic adolescents (22 Asian/white, 23 black/white, 25 latino/white adolescents) were surveyed regarding their ethnic identification, self-esteem, and familial and peer relationships. The adolescents identified as multiethnic and reported feeling a high degree of comfort and acceptance in bothh white majority and ethnic minority communities. An average level of self-esteem was found. The relationship bonds were strong with both sides of the family, although somewhat stronger with the family of the minority parent. The adolescent reported feeling accepted by both white majority and ethnic minority peers, but indicated a preference for an ethnically diverse group of friends.     

Keeping Leadership White: Invisible Blocks to Black Leadership and Its Denial in White Organizations

This paper explores why leadership, especially senior leadership in British organizations, is persistently nearly always white. The paper contends that beneath the veneer of our apparent commitment to equal opportunities, primitive often unconscious factors operate to ensure that leadership remains white, thus reproducing a racial hierarchy in the workplace. It argues that the barriers to black and minority ethnic people getting appointed to leadership positions in organizations today are largely invisible and are hidden within the psyches of decision makers, the cultures of white organizations, and their combined impact on the confidence of black and minority ethnic staff.     

Children,Kitchen, Church: does ethnicity matter?

Ethnic differences in the allocation of non-market time are important, as they may shed more light on the integration level of ethnic minorities and on the factors that affect both household productivity and ethnic identity. In this paper we examine the role of ethnicity and gender by analyzing differences in the time spent on a range of activities employing the 2000 UK Time Use Survey. Based on the economics of religion and identity economic models, we hypothesize that if ethnic minority women have lower opportunity costs of time and a strong ‘ethnic’ or ‘traditionally female’ identity, they will engage more in ‘traditional’ home activities. Double-hurdle regression results indicate that while the effect for childcare is not significant when estimated for parents only, non-white women spend significantly more time on food management and particularly religious activities than white women, with the greatest effect of the latter being for Pakistani and Bangladeshi women.     

Minority Group Status and Self-evaluated Class*

Self-evaluated class status is shown to vary among white Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and black Protestants. Holding economic status constant, Jews are most likely to select the middle- (or upper-) class label, followed by white Protestants, white Catholics, and black Protestants. Thus, the independent effect of minority status on self-evaluated class status reinforces the ranking directly attributable to the economic levels of each of the four groups. Also, the congruence between self-identified class and objective economic status is closer among Jews and white Protestants than among white Catholics or black Protestants. The hypothesis that affiliation with a minority necessarily reduces class consciousness was, therefore, not supported.     

Micropolitics of race and ethnicity in women's prisons in two political contexts

Research over the past two decades has focused on the topic of race as important for understanding order and compliance in men's prisons. However, relatively little research considers how subjective understandings of imprisonment are influenced by race, particularly in the case of women prisoners. The current study analyses 139 interviews conducted with women prisoners in California and England in order to determine how race and ethnicity shape prisoners' experiences and abilities to cope with institutional confinement. Findings suggest that women's understandings of their racial identities differ substantially in these two contexts. In California, where the conditions of confinement are more extreme and white women assume a minority status, racial identity emerges as a salient factor in coping with the adversities of prison life. By contrast, in England, it is the women of colour, and particularly foreign nationals, who have a greater appreciation of the role of race and ethnicity in their daily lives. These findings have implications for our understanding of how prisoners draw on their lived experiences to make sense of their carceral worlds.