Glass Ceiling or Iron Cage: Women in UK Academia

This paper reviews some of the literature on women's position in the academic workforce in the UK, and considers an informal study conducted by the author of 12 women academics. A central consideration is the relationship between women's quantitative under-representation in the academy and women academics' self-concept and consciousness of their own abilities.     

A New Marriage Squeeze for Black Women: The Role of Racial Intermarriage by Black Men

Recent declines in the rate of marriage among Black women have been accompanied by substantial increases in rates of interracial marriage, especially between Black men and non‐Black women. Explanations for the retreat from marriage among Black women have focused on deficits in the quantity and quality of available partners, and the role of racial intermarriage largely has been ignored. This study examines the impact of interracial marriage by Black men on the marriage prospects of Black women. First, our analysis of data from the 1990 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) reveals that intermarried Black men are selective of those with the highest levels of education, income, and occupational prestige. Second, multilevel analyses, using both the IPUMS and Panel Study of Income Dynamics, show that the level of intermarriage in metropolitan areas is significantly related to the marital behaviors of Black women. Local rates of intermarriage among Black men reduce the likelihood that Black women currently will be married and that they will make the transition to marriage. These effects are especially acute for highly educated Black women whose marriage markets are defined by those Black men who are most likely to intermarry. Finally, our analyses indicate that intermarriage affects the marital prospects of Black women by negatively affecting the pool of economically attractive marriage partners in the metropolitan area.     

Black Women Achievers: An Isolated Elite

This report deals with the marginality of upwardly mobile black women and the sociological consequences of their marginal status in contributing to their social isolation and their mate selection chances. I examined two ideal types of women achievers, Type A and Type B, and the way in which they respond to their alienation.     

Getting Into It: Farm Roles and Careers of New Zealand Women1

Abstract Researchers have challenged the stereotype that farm women's roles and influence are primarily domestic by documenting the number of women's on-farm roles. This study extends this approach by considering the interrelationships among women's roles and influence in reproductive and productive domains. A qualitative research method was used to investigate women's ways of describing the range of their on-farm roles and the process of entry into and exit from those roles. Participants were farm women from south island, New Zealand. Findings showed women's wide range of involvement in household and farm labor, management, and ownership of their farms. Levels of involvement differed throughout the three phases of their farm careers: making a place, getting into it, retirement. Hypotheses were developed from the findings for further delineation of the range of women's on-farm involvement and barriers and opportunities to the development of women's on-farm careers.     

Unpacking Civic Engagement: The Sociopolitical Involvement of Same-Gender Loving Black Women

Employing a national sample of over 600 same-gender loving (SGL) Black women, we explore the relative impact of community-level support/comfort and the importance of sexual orientation and racial identity on two dependent variables—sociopolitical involvement within lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities as well as sociopolitical involvement within people of color (POC) communities. Findings indicate that feelings of connectedness to the LGBT community are the most important predictor of sociopolitical involvement within both LGBT and POC communities; while, counterintuitively, being comfortable within the LGBT community had a negative impact. Further, the impact of the importance of identity was negligible.     

The Use of Spiritual-Focused Coping Among Working-Class Black Women

Abstract

This study explored the use of spiritual-focused coping as a way of managing stress among working-class Black women. It was hypothesized that Black women would use spiritual-focused coping as a first response to stress and that they would find it to be the most helpful in coping with stress. It was also hypothesized that there were additional factors, such as age, place of origin, household composition and number of children in the household that influenced the use of spiritual-focused coping and the level of stress among this population. A total of 119 respondents, from four different sites in New Jersey completed a four-part questionnaire that included a demographic portion, the African American Women's Stress Scale (AWSS), the Ways of Coping Scale (WOC), and an open-ended question. Results of this study highlight the importance of spiritual-focused coping as a form of coping that is used by working-class Black women to help them to manage stress.     

Political Ambition Among Black and White Women:

A two stage socialization model is used to analyze ambition among black and white women who are active in party politics. It is hypothesized that learning or activities considered atypical for women will stimulate ambition among women, but that patterns of significant factors may vary across races. The general hypothesis is sustained, although the staged model is given only marginal support. The ambition of white women is linked to nontraditional sex role beliefs, while black women's ambitious linked to current activities and the existence of parental interest in politics. Both sets of ambitious women report atypical sex role education in their backgrounds.     

The Political Glass Ceiling

Abstract

Why has the integration of women into elective office, particularly Congress, been so slow? We argue that incumbency and the general lack of competition in American elections serve as a “political glass ceiling,” having a dampening effect on the number of women running in both primary and general U.S. House elections. With data from House elections from 1978-1998, we find that although there have been general upward trends in the number of women running in primaries, winning primaries, and winning election to Congress, there is a distinct gender gap between the parties. The growth in the presence of women since 1988 is largely a Democratic phenomenon. In addition, women are strategic in their decisions regarding whether or not they will run; the likelihood of success influences the decision to become a candidate. Women are far more likely to run in districts with an open seat than they are in districts where they would face a safe incumbent. This implies that the number of women entering the House depends upon the political cycle of redistricting or unanticipated events and “crises” that create large numbers of open seats.     

The Electoral Glass Ceiling

Abstract

Scholars such as Kahn and others have shown that the print news media have covered women candidates in ways likely to diminish their electoral viability. Those effects have yet to be verified in a non-experimentalsetting or extended to television. We offer non-experimental evidence of news-based effects for print news and television. We examine the effects of media coverage patterns by analyzing Senate races using the 1988-92 ANES Senate Election Study. Our results provide consistent support for the contention that news media coverage has disadvantaged women candidates in the eyes of voters. This work suggests a need for greater attention to research on broadcast news coverage of women candidates.     

Rural Black Women and Depression: A Contextual Analysis

We use ecological systems theory to guide our investigation of depression among a sample of 102 married Black mothers residing in the rural South. Using self‐report data collected via computerized interviews during home visits, we conduct multivariate regression analyses, exploring the associations between depression and (a) spousal support and conflict, (b) cocaregiver support and conflict, (c) child conduct difficulties, and (d) socioeconomic risk. We hypothesize that each of these variables are associated with mothers' depression scores and that the extent to which these familial variables and depression are associated will vary across socioeconomic contexts. Socioeconomic risk, child conduct difficulties, and conflict with a cocaregiver were associated with women's depression in the full model. The moderational hypotheses were upheld for the variables of spousal support and child conduct difficulty. Spousal support and depression have a strong negative association under conditions of high socioeconomic risk and a nonsignificant relationship when socioeconomic risk is low. The association between child conduct difficulty and depression was exacerbated under high socioeconomic risk.     

Foreign Employers as Relief Routes: Women,Multinational Corporations and Managerial Careers in Japan

This article argues that multinational corporations may provide critical relief routes for women workers' progress in managerial careers in national contexts where their career paths with domestic employers remain blocked by traditional and institutional practices. It illustrates this possibility through a study of two women managers at the local head office of a foreign‐owned multinational retailer in Japan and their career trajectories. The alternative career paths through foreign employers are not without their contingencies and constraints, and the article identifies the limitations of the transformative potential foreign employers could have in the larger realm of women's managerial employment in a restrictive context such as Japan. Noting that globalization incorporates different groups of workers into the global economy with different costs and rewards, the article concludes by calling for a more nuanced understanding of women's employment with multinationals and for further research that remains cognizant of the multiplicity of experiences in different contexts.