Gender differences in patterns of publication in leading sociology journals, 1960–1985

This paper examines the impact of the recent feminization of the sociological profession on gender differences in patterns of publication in leading sociology journals. Our findings show that women are better represented in the leading journals in an absolute sense, but continue to be underrepresented relative to men. Moreover, while women are better represented in the leading journals than in the past, they more often occupy marginal locations within the structure of the discipline. Finally, we discuss the likely implications of the feminization of sociology on the production of knowledge within the discipline as a whole. His interests include social theory, stratification, organizations, and the sociology of science. His interests include criminology, criminal justice, and the sociology of science. Ann M. Rotchford is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her interests include organizations and sex stratification. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1988 Southern Sociological Society meetings.     

Teaching, tracking, and marketing our product

Many sociology departments have faced difficult times in the past decade. This article examines how this crisis confronted two universities in North Carolina and the strategies which they used to strengthen their departments. Major emphasis is given to how state associations can assist departments in developing applied curriculum, publicizing their successful endeavors, and recruiting students. The article also provides insights about dealing with outcomes assessment as well as administering internship programs. Jan Rienerth teaching interests are in women’s issues, applied sociology, and experimental learning. Her research has focused on women and the elderly in prison. Martin Shultz primary research area involves the long term changes in the American family, especially divorce. In the past ten years, he has developed additional interests in applied sociology with an internship program. Richard Caston interests include socio-economics, health, and applied research.     

Welfare and adolescent sex: The effects of family history,benefit levels,and community context

To examine whether welfare serves as an incentive to early childbearing, this article explores the first steps in the process of becoming a teenage parent: risk of first voluntary sexual intercourse at an early age and, among teens having sex, contraceptive use at first intercourse. Alternative operationalizations of welfare include the AFDC benefit level in the state of residence, the ratio of the benefit level to family income, community-level welfare receipt, and family history of welfare receipt. Results do not support the hypothesis that higher welfare benefits provide an incentive that hastens sex or reduces contraceptive use. Analyses provide moderate support for a culture of poverty perspective among girls. Intergenerational welfare receipt has a borderline significant effect on the timing of first sex, and maternal welfare receipt predicts nonuse of contraception at first sex for girls. Strong support is found for a stressful life experiences perspective, in which both parental marital disruption and nonvoluntary sex predict earlier voluntary sex. Analyses were supported by a grant from the Office of Population Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, under Grant # APR 00000959. Her research interests include teenage childbearing, family processes, public policy, and survey methodology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Donna Ruane Morrison is a Senior Research Associate, and her research interests include the effects of family structure and processes on the well-being of children. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University. Dana A. Glei is a Research Analyst, and her research interests include employment, gender, and teen pregnancy and childbearing. She received her M.A. from the University of Virginia.     

The components of family policy education

The study of family policy in the United States began relatively recently. The academic community increasingly has shown interest in this new policy arena. Much of the conceptual writing on family policy emerged from disciplines such as family studies, social work, political science, economics, and sociology. These academic units have recently modified their course curricula to include more family policy content. These family policy education efforts are discussed in this article. Specific suggestions are made concerning the development and content of family policy education, broader educational training for those who want to pursue a career in family policy, and future goals and directions for family policy education. She received her Ph. D. in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests are in the family and health policy arenas, with particular focus on ethnically diverse populations. Her most recent research is on homeless children and mothers. She received her Ph.D. in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota. Her teaching and research interests are workplace and family issues and family policy and impact analysis.     

Informal caregivers' leisure time and stress

This article explores the disruption informal caregiving creates in the caregiver's family life and the relationship between leisure and stress caused by caregiving. The study finds that the caregiving setting, caregiver's sociodemographic characteristics, and economic variables (i.e., wage rate, nonwage income, and Medicaid coverage) significantly affect the caregiver's leisure. Additionally, reducing leisure leads to emotional and physical stress and less satisfaction with life overall. The article concludes with implications for public policy. Her research interests include long-term health care and medical service utilization for minority populations. She holds a doctorate from Northwestern University. He has published extensively in the areas of health services research and nonprofit organizations. His doctorate is from the University of Virginia.     

The roles of role strain,economic resources and time demands in explaining mothers' life satisfaction

Time diary and questionnaire data from mothers who are full-time homemakers, members of dual-earner households, and heads of single-parent households are analyzed to determine the influence of family structure, economic resources, and time demands on their life satisfaction. The multivariate analysis reveals that family structure is moderately related to mothers' satisfaction with progress in life but not to satisfaction with life as a whole. Mothers' satisfaction with life as a whole does vary with their life cycle stage, economic situation, and their use of time.Her research interests include time use of household members and CADD education for interior design students. She received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University.Her research assesses the impact of household composition changes on economic well-being. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University.     

Are minority women sociologists in double jeopardy?

We examine whether minority women in academic sociology face disadvantages that exceed those that would be expected by simply compounding the disadvantage of being a woman with that of being nonwhite or Hispanic. In a national survey of sociology departments, evidence of such “double jeopardy” appears in minority women’s severe underrepresentation among full professors, in both very small and very large departments, in undergraduate programs, in the Northeast, and in public institutions. Minority women are somewhat better represented among graduate students, but disadvantaged relative to minority men in their share of financial support. A pool of doctoral students now exists from which minority women faculty may be recruited, but these women appear to be leaving faculties faster than they are being replaced. His research interests include intergenerational family structure, social support across the life course, and U.S. antipoverty policy. He is currently collaborating on a longitudinal study of institutional predictors of the pace of affirmative action for women faculty in sociology. Her major research interest is in the area of work and personality. She is collaborating on a longitudinal study of women and minorities in U.S. sociology departments.     

Lessons from the past,directions for the future

The authors provide a retrospective look at time use research since the turn of the century by identifying shortcomings in previous attempts at measuring time allocation patterns and in the models used to examine time use by individuals and households. Suggestions are offered for improving measurement in future empirical work. Fruitful areas for future time use research are identified.Her research interests include family time use, consumer decision making, adoption, and family policy.His research interests include parental child care and the effects of technical change on time use patterns.Her research interests include valuation of unpaid work in national income accounts.Her research interests include family time use and patterns in time use.     

A call for greater attention to the role of employers in developing,transforming, and implementing family policies

The authors contend that employer-initiated workplace policies should be considered as part of the patchwork that constitutes U.S. family policy. To provide a background, historical evidence of employer-initiated policies intentionally used as family policies is summarized. The view is then explicated that failure to take economic conditions and workplace policies into account may lead to faulty conclusions about the reasons for major changes in family life. The current status of selected employer-initiated workplace policies and recent trends is summarized. Next, some of the dilemmas inherent in considering connections between government- and employer-initiated policies are identified. Finally, suggestions for future directions are offered. The article should be considered with the following caveat in mind: the focus is exclusively on the influence of policies on families, but families are not merely reactive. She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests center on relationships between jobs and family life, with emphasis on work-family relationships in small businesses, and on adult workers as developing individuals. Her research interests focus on the intersection of social problems and family problems, including families and work, coping with unemployment, and adult children as caregivers of dependent parents. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University.     

Family structure,family organization,and quality of family life

This study examines how family organization is associated with the quality of family life for parents in first marriages, remarriages with biological children, and several types of stepfamilies. Data are drawn from the 1987–1988 National Survey of Families and Households; only married couples in which both spouses participated in the survey and who had children under age 19 in the household are considered (N=3,120). Results indicate that respondents in different family structures differ in the perceived quality of parent-child relationships, that differences in family structure are not related to differences in family organization, and that some aspects of family organization are related to marital quality and the quality of parent-chil relationships. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicate that family structure and family organization are independently related to the quality of family life. This research was supported by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant R15 HD28198-01. The National Survey of Families and Households was funded by a grant (HD21009) from the Center for Population Research of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The survey was designed and carried out at the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the direction of Larry Bumpass and James Sweet. The fieldwork was done by the Institute for Survey Research at Temple University. A previous version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, Orlando, November 1992. Her research interests include the work/family interface and family policy. She received her Ph.D. from Wayne State University. His research interests include the effects of divorce and remarriage on parents and children. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Her research interests include adolescents and adoption. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Delaware.     

Interview. Maria Isabal Plata,executive director of Profamilia,talks to Caroline Sweetman about the work of the organisation in Colombia

In this interview, Maria Isabal Plata discusses the work of the nongovernmental organization Profamilia in Colombia. Since its founding in 1965, Profamilia has assumed direct and indirect responsibility for nearly 70% of family planning (FP) and reproductive health activities in the country. These activities are complemented by a legal service program, an evaluation and research program, and a documentation center. In Colombia, women gained equal rights under the law in 1974 and a constitutional prohibition on discrimination in 1991, but sex stereotypes still dictate responsibility for family chores. When women realize their economic and social rights, poverty and inequalities will diminish. Thus, it is crucial to safeguard reproductive and sexual rights and ban violence against women. The traditional concept of family forces a disregard for the rights of family members and allows societies to oppose the interests of women. The aftermath of the UN Fourth Women's Conference in Colombia will be to work towards achieving full citizenship for women and democratic societies. The experience women's groups had at the conference has created a situation in which grassroots organizations can consider beginning to work with development organizations to achieve some of these goals.     

Family life cycle differences for shopping styles,information use,and decision-making

This article identifies shopping styles, information use, and decision-making differences by family life cycle stage in a purchase of a durable good. Data were collected using mailed questionnaires. The sample consists of 378 cases. Data are analyzed using factor analyses, analysis of variance, and cross tabulations. The shopping style factor indicates younger adults are brand conscious. The consumer factor indicates that people in older life cycle stages read more than people in younger life cycle stages. The inexperience factor indicates single parents, younger families, and younger adults are more inexperienced. The decision-making variable indicates that younger adults and single parents make decisions by themselves and younger families make decisions with their spouses. Reasons for purchases indicate that single parents do not own the product, older families are replacing, and retirees want new product characteristics.Leona K. Hawks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Home Economics and Consumer Education, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-2910. She received her Ed.D. from Brigham Young University. Her current research interests include consumer decision-making and behavior.Norleen M. Ackerman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Home Economics and Consumer Education, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-2910. She received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Her current research interests include consumer purchase behavior, family financial security, and life quality of farm families.     

A Civil Religion for World Society: The Direct and Diffuse Effects of Human Rights Treaties, 1981–20071

Much research has concluded that human rights treaties have a null or negative effect on governments’ human rights practices. This article reexamines the influence of human rights treaties, with a focus on two kinds of treaty effects: direct—the effect of treaties on the countries that ratified them; and diffuse—the effect of treaties on countries regardless of ratification. My analysis of two prominent human rights treaties finds that they often reduce levels of repression and abuse over time and independently of ratification. Some of these effects are nonlinear, reversing direction as time elapses or as more countries become party to the treaties. These findings are interpreted with reference to world polity institutionalism in sociology, and especially the “Durkheimian” strains of this approach. Human rights norms as embodied in treaties operate as a kind of civil religion for world society. These norms not only have long‐term direct effects among countries that ritualistically ratify human rights treaties, but they also diffusely impact countries irrespective of formal endorsement.     

Travelling theory in China: contextualization,compromise and combination

In this article we explore the dissemination of human rights ideas in China through an ethnographic study of three women's organizations: the government's ‘letters and complaints’ department, the governmental NGO affiliated with it, and a legal aid centre; all are located in Beijing. We argue that there are two paths in China for the transmission of international human rights ideas – a government one and a non‐government one. The government path, featured as contextual and compromising, is rooted in socialist and collective values, and the governmental organizations we studied function squarely within the domestic legal framework and the concept of ‘women's rights and interests’. The non‐governmental path, by contrast, characterized by vernacularization, namely a combination of international ideas with local practice to promote legal reform in China, is the result of economic development and interactions with the international community. Both paths interact within their different spheres to further the development of women's rights.     

Family policy and critical science research: Facilitating change

The principles of critical science for policy research are outlined and one research project is used as a case study. The study was intentionally designed to facilitate changes that would positively influence the economic well-being of children from divorced families. The project uses the critical science processes of public dialogue about child support guidelines for purposes of collaborative problem solving. The normative theories of procedural and distributive justice are used to guide the research reporting. The project contributes to changes in the practices of estimating the income needs of children, changes in estimating the relative monetary contributions of their parents, and proposed legislation and modifications in the state child support guidelines. She received her Ph.D. in family ecology from Michigan State University. Her research interests include the valuing issues of family life quality, family decision making, divorce,and the economic adjustments of families to economic stressors. She received her M.A. degree in Family Education from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include decision making and parenting. She received her Ph.D. degree in anthropology from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include social and cultural change and the integration of research findings into public policy decision making.     

A mexican American woman encounters sociology: An autobiographical perspective

I attempt to show how my ideas about bureaucracy and Mexican American culture are a product of my life history and how I worked out key features of these ideas in teaching sociology at a small university. This was made possible because strategic sponsors helped me as an “outsider” to become a kind of “insider” within that social milieu. Her fields of interest are bureaucracy, family, social psychology and race and ethnic relations. She is currently writing a monograph on Mexican American family life.     

中东非政府人权组织的特征与挑战

20世纪七十年代末以来,中东地区人权语境逐渐宽松,颁布了各种伊斯兰特色的《人权宣言》,不同层次的人权组织在伊斯兰国家开展活动,这都为中东非政府人权组织的产生提供了理论和组织上的准备。非政府人权组织推动了中东人权观念和人权批判精神的成长,提升了中东各国政府对人权关注程度,并成为国际人权标准内化的重要媒介,缓解了社会内部的对立。"人权依赖综合症"影响到非政府人权组织的特征,人权组织多为社会精英阶层所领导,其活动多限于特定群体和地区。在现代社会,人权组织虽面临诸多挑战,但无疑已成为推动中东政治民主化和人权发展的潜在力量。     

Cognitive Value Commitments in Formal Theoretical Sociology

This paper aims to communicate some of the value commitments that characterize my approach to formal model building in theoretical sociology. It does this through a narrative method, an autobiographical account of shifts in intellectual interests through various phases of my career: from history to philosophy, from philosophy to sociology, from sociology to mathematics and back, followed by several long-term formal theoretical research programs. One of these, pertaining to the formal representation of institutionalized social action systems, is described in terms of its linkage to interpretive sociology, while also noting its limitations from a theoretical science point of view. By interweaving intellectual biography and intellectual history, the paper also provides some contextual background for appreciating the work of the other contributors to this symposium.     

How organizational characteristics shape gender difference and inequality at work

Why should students and scholars who are interested in gender difference and inequality study organizations? In recent years, as research on organizations has migrated to business schools and become less connected to other subfields of the discipline, the value of organizational sociology has become less evident to many. Yet characteristics of organizations contribute in important ways to producing different experiences and outcomes for women and men, by constraining certain individual actions and enabling or bringing about others. In this essay, we trace the consequences of four categories of organizational characteristics—the formal structure of work, employment practices, informal structure and culture, and organizational networks and fields—for gender inequality in three areas: workplace experiences, work–family conflict, and career outcomes. We close with some brief reflections on future directions for research linking organizations and gender.     

An ecological perspective on family policy: A conceptual and philosophical framework

This article develops a conceptual framework that places family policy within an ecological perspective. The ecological perspective is particularly useful in providing a means both to understand why diversity exists among families and to analyze how human-created rules disparately affect the environments faced by families within and across different societies. Examples are provided of how family policy is conceptualized by organizations and groups that are concerned with family issues, and these examples are critiqued from the ecological perspective. Finally, the article suggests that the values on which an ecological perspective of family policy are grounded can serve as a beginning point to develop a philosophical basis for the development of family policy. Her research interests include family policy and research at the national and international levels. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work and Economics from the University of Michigan.