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.     

The representation of women in top ranked sociology departments

This paper compares the status of women in highly ranked sociology departments with their status in departments nationwide. The top ranked departments influence the profession markedly through their disproportionate share of the nation’s graduate students and faculty, and their production of more than half of the faculty in graduate departments. Women on top ranked faculties are more often at advanced ranks with tenure than their national peers, but there are proportionally fewer of them than in departments across the nation. Gender gaps in rank and tenure are also narrower in top ranked departments. Although women graduate students are less common in top ranked than in national departments, the former have financial assistance more often. Recent hiring practices have merely maintained women’s current level of representation, but men are disproportionately vacating faculty positions. With most departments growing slowly, if at all, this will result in a small increase over time in women’s fraction of faculty positions. where he is developing, with colleagues, a longitudinal model of the institutional factors that promote and impede progress in affirmative action in academia, and is completing a study of “double jeopardy” for minority women sociologists. This study was funded, in part, by the American Sociological Association, the Pacific Sociological Association, the University of Oregon Center for Women in Society, and an Arizona State University support grant. However, these organizations are not responsible for the views expressed in the paper.     

Lessons Learned: Pedagogical Tensions and Struggles with Instruction on Multiculturalism in Social Work Education Programs

While the importance of multiculturalism to social work education and practice has been extensively theorized in the social work literature, very little empirical attention has been paid to the concrete experiences of social work students within the classroom. The socializing influence of pedagogy is one aspect of the professionalization process that must be considered in addressing issues of diversity and inclusion in graduate education programs. This article addresses this gap by describing and analyzing the narratives of 15 minority graduate social work students. It examines their perception and experiences with instruction on multiculturalism with the graduate curriculum and the meaning they assign to these experiences. Their narratives illuminate the myriad ways that the curriculum excludes minority students and reproduces social inequality. Social work education has a responsibility to eliminate racism and inequality from the content of its courses and in its teaching methods. The identification of these negative socializing messages may assist educators in structuring curricular and pedagogical practices that can facilitate the academic success of all students.     

The Path to Social Work: Contextual Determinants of Career Choice among Racial/Ethnic Minority Students

While the importance of multiculturalism to social work education and practice have been extensively theorized in the social work literature, very little empirical attention has been paid to the concrete experiences of social work students with instruction on multiculturalism. The experience of students within the multicultural classroom is one aspect of the professionalization process that must be considered in addressing issues of diversity and inclusion in graduate education programs. This article addresses this gap by describing and analyzing the narratives of 15 minority graduate social work students. It examines their perception and experiences with the graduate multicultural curriculum and the meaning they assign to these experiences. Their narratives illuminate the myriad ways that the curriculum excludes minority students and reproduces social inequality. Social work education has a responsibility to eliminate racism and inequality from the content of its courses and in its teaching methodologies. The identification of these negative socializing messages may assist educators in structuring curricular and pedagogical practices that are compatible with the multiethnic groups that both serve and are served by the profession.     

Desegregation in Higher Education: An Examination of Traditionally Black and White Institutions*

Using the data collection techniques of historical analysis, secondary analysis of EEO-6 records, mailed questionnaires, and personal interviews, race relations among trustees, administrators, and faculty in the southeastern United States were examined during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The conclusion that blacks at traditionally white institutions (TWI) (1) had more tenuous job status, (2) experienced less job satisfaction, (3) experienced greater degrees of institutional alienation, and (4) more often stated a need for affirmative action programs than did their white colleagues at the same institution will surprise no one. Similar patterns and perceptions were found for whites at traditionally black institutions (TBI) where whites were in the “minority.” Although whites at TBIs remained members of the societal majority group as traditionally defined in the sociology of intergroup relations, their position and perceptions within specific TBIs were remarkably similar to the experience of black professionals at TWIs. Some implications for policy are drawn.     

Outsider Scholars and Outsider Sociologists

If we take the time to look at the academy writ large and sociology as a discipline specifically, we can readily find the evidence to confirm a long‐standing exclusion of certain scholars from the academic mainstream. This exclusion is especially evident in the case of scholars of color, but also includes women, nonelites (e.g., college and graduate students who lack academic social capital from elders who have been through it and could help), and those who wish to push for a more humanist scientific agenda over purist positivist science. Sexism and racism keep us from seeing the best of our ideas emerge to bring the discipline forward. As if the pursuit of good work and good works are mutually exclusive, an embrace of purist positivism leads us to shun antiracist, antisexist, nonhumanist science, labeling it “advocacy” or worse, “activist,” and conversely, ceding ground to those who wrap themselves in “objectivity” even as they may further regressive agendas. This article makes a case for the existence of an “outsider scholar,” and outlines sociology's outsider problem. I argue that this problem endures at all levels of the academic endeavor, from undergraduate education all the way through to the ranks of administration. I conclude by offering remedies to lead us toward a more inclusive and social justice‐oriented sociology.     

CONTESTING OUR EVERYDAY WORK LIVES: The Retention of Minority and Working-Class Sociology Undergraduates

Efforts to improve retention and graduation among minority students have been commonplace in higher education, but few such efforts have been undertaken in sociology. In this presidential address, I document that in sociology, as in other disciplines, disproportionate numbers of African American and Latino/a students do not graduate. I examine sociological research on the barriers to success that face students of color in predominantly white colleges, and on what can be done to help overcome these barriers. An example of a successful program to increase the graduation rates of minority and working-class students in sociology is discussed, and the sociological discipline is challenged to use its knowledge and insights to help improve opportunities for minority and working-class students in sociology.     

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.     

Critical Diversity and Departmental Rankings in Sociology

This paper examines whether racial and gender diversity are related to the rankings of sociology programs at research universities. It uses data from the 2011 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Rankings of U.S. Research Universities to examine the competing expectations of the “critical diversity perspective” and the “diversity as process-loss” perspective. The results are counter to the expectations of the diversity as process-loss perspective, which predicts that diversity (and efforts to achieve it) are harmful to organizations. The results are fully consistent with the critical diversity as value-in-diversity perspective, which predicts that as organizations become more diverse, they benefit relative to their competitors. The results show that, net of research rankings, 1995 rankings, faculty publication rates, visibility of faculty publications, percentage of faculty with grants, scholarly awards, program size, region, and whether the institution is public or private, diversity is positively associated with departmental rankings of sociology programs in research universities. The implications of these findings for diversity in sociology are discussed.     

Racially Charged Cookies and White Scholarships: Anti-Affirmative Action Protests on American College Campuses

Between 2001 and 2012, students at colleges throughout the United States protested affirmative action policies using various tactics, most notably anti-affirmative action “bake sales,” where the price of the goods was based on the race of the purchaser: white males were charged the most; blacks and Latinos, the least. Other means of protest included “whites-only” or equal opportunity scholarships, an “equal opportunity carnival,” and other satirical productions. Through qualitative content analysis of print and online materials about each protest, I found that the motivations of these protesters can be understood using Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s theories of color-blind racism, particularly the concepts of “abstract liberalism” and “minimization of racism.” I also contend that a secondary goal of these demonstrations is to establish white racial identity as a public identity upon which claims of “reverse discrimination” and oppression can be built.     

Transforming an MFT program: a model for enhancing diversity

Marriage and family therapy programs need to go beyond the typical practices of recruiting and retaining students of color. Marriage and family therapy educators must assume positions of leadership by transforming graduate programs to reflect a deep, active, systemic commitment to both diversity and social justice. In this article, we argue that it is through this type of transformation that programs become truly ready to support students of color and to prepare all therapists to advocate for equity in a diverse, often unfair society. This article offers a model that addresses readiness, recruitment, retention, assessment, and professional development from this perspective.     

Affirmative Action for the Physically Disabled in Social Work Education

Physically disabled people belong to a distinctive minority group for whom affirmative action measures in social work education and employment are long overdue. That the disabled have been neglected is reflective of their circumstances generally and of the existence of other priorities for affirmative action in social work. The author discusses why affirmative action for the disabled is warranted, identifies issues and needs that must be considered in developing affirmative action programs, and suggests means for identifying and recruiting qualified disabled students.     

Human capital,social integration,and tournaments: A test of graduate student success models

A tournament model emphasizes variation in graduate department resources and environments and is compared to human capital models of graduate student success. Success is defined as participation of sociology students in professional activities and commitment to various professional aspirations. Data from a random survey of 25 sociology graduate programs provided student achievement indicators and department resource factors that are regressed on student success rates. Both the department resource factors and student background variables show substantial effects on success, and human capital factors are moderated by the opportunity structure of the graduate program itself. Women students have lower academic aspirations and racial/ethnic minority students participate in professional activities at lower rates, when student achievement factors are controlled. Academic and private-sector career goals and department resource effects on graduate student involvement are discussed. This article is a revision of a paper presented at the American Sociological Association meetings, August 1991.     

DOES THE RIVER SPILL OVER? ESTIMATING THE ECONOMIC RETURNS TO ATTENDING A RACIALLY DIVERSE COLLEGE

This article evaluates the frequently argued but heretofore little tested hypothesis that increasing minority representation in elite colleges generates tangible benefits for majority‐race students. Using data on graduates of 30 selective universities, we find only weak evidence of any relationship between collegiate racial composition and the postgraduation outcomes of white or Asian students. Moreover, the strongest evidence we uncover suggests that increasing minority representation by lowering admission standards is unlikely to produce benefits and may in fact cause harm by reducing the representation of minority students on less selective campuses. While affirmative action may still be desirable for the benefits it conveys to minority students, these results provide little support for “spillover” effects on majority‐race students. (JEL I2, J15, J24)

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What Can I Do? Applying Classroom Knowledge to Service Work, or Doing Practice Sociology

Faculty members are frequently asked by students and parents, “what can I do with a Sociology degree?” This paper suggests ways to address the question and take action to insure that majors have the knowledge and skills to be successful in the job search and the work world. In addition, the paper indicates ways that combining service learning and applied sociology serves goals of students, faculty, universities, and communities. Approaches to teaching applied (practice) sociology in departments and to integrating service learning and course content show the “natural synergy” between the two types of learning. Finally, the article discusses practical issues related to service learning in applied settings: getting the support of faculty and administrators; convincing students of the benefits of service learning; revising curricula; and setting up the service learning experiences. The conclusion is that combining service learning and applied sociology courses has positive results for all involved.     

Towards a Critical Global Race Theory

The meanings attached to “race” across the globe are myriad, particularly as anti‐Islamic discourse once again links race and religion. Yet scholars lack a common terminology to discuss this phenomenon. This article hopes to expand critical race theory and scholarship across national lines. This critical examination of recent race‐related scholarship provides scholars with empirical suggestions to uncover and document the different processes, mechanisms, trajectories and outcomes of potentially racialized practices that essentialize, dehumanize, “other,” and oppress minority groups while imbuing privileged groups with power and resources in nations across the globe. Ten empirical indicators will allow international researchers to assess the particular situation of different groups in different nations to determine whether, and the extent to which, they are subject to racialization. Specifically, this paper calls for a unified terminology that can accurately account for and address race when and where it occurs and a global broadening of a critical comparative dialogue of racial practices.     

The Plexiglass Ceiling: The Careers of Black Women Lawyers

The study describes the ways in which race and gender shaped the career transitions of Black women lawyers, whose careers were affected by the opportunities generated by the Civil Rights Movement during the decade between 1973 and 1983. The author concludes that although the affirmative action policies and programs that diminished discrimination at the entry level of the profession dramatically increased the number of Black women lawyers during the period of study, a “Plexiglass ceiling” limited their choices. Their careers have been influenced negatively by both race and gender, which circumscribed their opportunities to practice in high status, powerful, and financially remunerative sectors of the profession.     

Save the World on Your Own Time: Or, What’s the Matter with Sociology?

This essay explores the question of why sociology departments, compared to other university departments, are often viewed negatively by higher-level administrators (deans, provosts, chancellors and presidents). We are asked to consider, as sociologists, how departments are ranked and evaluated by administrators. The characteristics of any good university department are identified (e.g., grants, support from alumni, publications, quality of teaching, national rankings, student enrollments); and, the characteristics of dynamic and healthy departments are outlined (e.g., student learning is primary; there is a commitment to the goals of the larger organization; leadership is provided by the unit to solve all-university problems; there is a focus on learning; faculty are productive; there are strong communication links across the organization). The question is posed and then systemically answered as to how sociology departments compare in terms of these standards. It is suggested that a major factor in terms of how and why sociology departments are negatively evaluated is the fact that sociology uses narratives of power and explanations of organizational behavior that are inherently oppositional, i.e., there is an “us” and “them” mentally that sometimes develops. Other reasons for organizational marginalization are identified such as the “canon wars” and their lingering effects, and the fact that the sociological enterprise has been diluted by the teaching of “sociology” in many other campus units, such as composition programs. Finally, questions are raised about how sociology, as an intellectual enterprise, differs from other disciplines in terms of pedagogy, the sequencing of courses, “grand” theory, and forms of apprenticeship. It is recommended that sociologists act positively to help the organizations within which they work to identify common problems and solve them. It is argued that sociology can and should “own” the area of civic engagement as a means of making a positive and distinctive contribution. Sociological “stories” grounded in the reality of everyday life are compelling. It is suggested that sociologists need to deepen connections with their communities and to offer real solutions to real problems.     

Educating for Organizing in U.S. Sociology: A Missing Component in Scholar-Activist Pedagogy1

In this essay, I argue that sociology programs should offer curricular opportunities for undergraduate students to study the actual mechanics of social change in the form of explicit training in the philosophies and practices of community organizing and direct action. That training, I assert, is separate from a content-driven approach to the study of social movements, or the inclusion of community-based research courses. Grounded in an analysis of the roots of the discipline of U.S. sociology as situated in the practice of empirically informed democratic engagement, I shift the focus away from a debate over whether or not critical pedagogy is, or should include, activism. Instead, I focus on the extent to which our students are, in practice, learning concrete organizing skills to change power relations, regardless of the content area or pedagogical style. In doing so, I bring back into the conversation a tradition that the profession seems to have forgotten, and think of ways in which contemporary sociology programs in the United States can better contribute to the advancement of a grassroots, or a humanistic public sociology.