GENDER, CLASS, AND THE ART AND CRAFT OF SOCIAL CAPITAL

Social capital is generally recognized as the positive outcome of sociability and social connection and, more specifically, as the capacity to realize economic benefits through social connections. Limited attention has been paid to understanding the potential of social capital at the intersection of socioeconomic disadvantage. The first part of the article examines assumptions of class and gender in the theoretical literature on social capital. The second part explores the influence of class and gender contexts on social networks among women living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Victoria, Australia. The analysis reveals the ways in which social network assets are conditional on socioeconomic and gender circumstances.     

EFFECTS OF INTERVIEWER GENDER, INTERVIEWER CHOICE, AND ITEM WORDING ON RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS CONCERNING SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

We examined factors influencing responses to questions on sexualbehavior among adult respondents 18–49 years old (unweightedN = 2,030) obtained through a random-digit dialing survey. Basedon self-disclosure and perceived control the ory, we hypothesizedthat giving people a choice in selecting the gender of theirinterviewer rather than being assigned an inter viewer, andusing questions that are "supportive" of what may be perceivedof as nonnormative behavior (enhanced items), would increasedata quality relative to, respectively, matched-or opposite-genderinterviewer conditions and standard worded items. The enhanceditems facilitated responding to a number of sensitive topics.However, the effects of item wording on item response are oftenmediated by interviewer conditions. The "choice" results suggestthat giving respondents greater control decreases question threat.However, the overall findings argue for matching respondentsand interviewers on gender over opposite-gender interviewersor allowing respondents to select their interviewer's gender.Wording and interviewer manipulations reduced the discrepanciesbetween men's and women's self-reports of sexual behavior, butthey did not eliminate them, and in some cases they had no effect.The present findings suggest that males tend to be influencedby variations in item wording, interviewer gender, and respondentcontrol across a somewhat wider range of sexual topics. In general,the findings recommend matching respondents and interviewerson gender and the use of more supportive wording in sexual behaviorquestions. However, for assessment of some topics (e.g., sexualviolence) in particular segments of the population (e.g., men),other procedures, such as increasing respondent control, maybe a better choice. Overall, the data support the view thatin terms of preferred procedures, not all sexual topics arecreated equal.     

GENDER AND THE CONSULTING ACADEMIC ECONOMIST

We surveyed academic economists on their experiences and perceptions of legal consulting. Nearly two-thirds have consulting experience and 40% have consulted within the last 5 years. Base hourly rates average $244, with a median of $200. Women are less likely than men to have served as consultants and charge lower rates than comparable men, but there are few differences by gender in willingness to consult. Women report substantially more negative bias and are less likely to consult in complex cases or to have a high profile role in litigation. (JEL J44, J71, K41)     

THE PROCESS OF INTIMACY: SIMILARITY, UNDERSTANDING AND GENDER

This study examined gender and three aspects of marital intimacy using a method to establish both objective and subjective indices of intimacy. Fifty couples answered the Personal Assessment of Intimate Relationships (Schaefer & Olson, 1981) twice: once as a self-report and once to respond as they predicted their spouses would answer. Couples who were less accurate in predicting each other's responses also diverged in their experience of intimacy and reported lower intimacy. Results suggest that high intimacy is based on both understanding and similarity of intimate experience. Women reported significantly higher levels of intimacy and were also better than men in predicting their partners' feelings. These findings suggest that women may be more attuned to intimacy or that definitions and assessment of intimacy are gender biased or both.     

GENDER AND THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF EDUCATION

Does education improve health more for one sex than the other? We develop a theory of resource substitution which implies that education improves health more for women than men. Data from a 1995 survey of U.S. adults with follow‐ups in 1998 and 2001 support the hypothesis. Physical impairment decreases more for women than for men as the level of education increases. The gender gap in impairment essentially disappears among people with a college degree. Latent growth SEM vectors also show that among the college educated, men's and women's life course patterns of physical impairment do not differ significantly.     

INTERVIEWER GENDER AND GENDER ATTITUDES

This research addresses the effects of interviewer gender onresponses to a broad array of gender-related survey questions,using data from a probability sample of adults in the UnitedStates. We focus on whether gender-of-interviewer effects areevident, whether they vary by respondent gender, and whetherthey vary across several attitudinal domains relevant to genderinequality. While many items do not show statistically significantgender-of-interviewer effects, we document significant effectsacross a variety of items. When such effects are evident, theytend to involve both male and female respondents expressingmore egalitarian gender-related attitudes or greater criticismof existing gender inequalities to female interviewers. Malerespondents offer significantly different responses to maleand female interviewers on questions dealing with gender inequalityin employment. For female respondents, interviewer-gender effectsare evident for items addressing gender-related collective action,policy, and group interests. Using multivariate models thatallow us to represent both respondent-level and interviewer-levelvariables, we find that interviewer-gender effects are statisticallysignificant in most attitudinal domains but that the interactionbetween interviewer gender and respondent gender does not tendto be statistically significant. We consider the implicationsof these findings both for understanding the survey processand for understanding gender relations more generally.     

ADDRESSING SOCIAL DILEMMAS WITH MASCOTS,INFORMATION, AND GRAPHICS

Reducing nonpoint source pollution is a complex social dilemma involving externalities, information asymmetries, and coordination problems. Using a laboratory experiment, this research investigates how mascots, public information, and data visualization can improve collective group behavior to address a social dilemma. Results show that groups reduce pollution in the experiment when a community mascot expresses negative emotions in response to poor water quality outcomes. Additionally, groups pollute less when they are provided public information about water quality, and abatement is greater when feedback is negatively framed. This study demonstrates how novel nonmonetary incentives can be used to achieve a collective environmental goal. (JEL D79, Q25, Q52, Q53, D83)     

JOB INSECURITY,STRESS AND GENDER

This study examined the complex relationships between gender, job insecurity and job-related stress. Previous findings have suggested that men experience greater job insecurity than women, and are more vulnerable to job-related stress. The current study tested the hypothesis that the gender ideology of employees moderates the effect of gender on job insecurity and stress. Data were obtained by questionnaires from a sample of 203 married employees. The results showed that traditional men experience greater job insecurity than traditional women. However, as hypothesized, egalitarian men and women exhibited similar degrees of job insecurity. Furthermore, job insecurity in traditional men and in egalitarian men and women was related to loss of control stress, financial stress and stress expressions at home, whereas traditional women were relatively protected from job-related stress. These findings illuminate the important moderating role played by gender ideology in the relationships between gender, job insecurity and stress.     

GENDER,MORTALITY, AND CORPOREAL INEQUALITY

Most previous empirical analyses of gender inequality have focused on modern economic indicators such as income. The advancement of theory on gender stratification requires detailed analysis of indicators with greater endurance and prevalence in world-historical terms. Sex mortality differentials are presented as cross-cultural indicators of corporeal gender inequality, defined as differential access to basic bodily resources for life and health. Indeed, mortality differentials represent a more fundamental form of gender inequality, in that women first must be alive before they may be denied access to other resources such as equal pay. Analysis of United Nations and World Bank data on developed and developing countries evidence the importance of ecological, economic, and familial explanations in determining corporeal gender inequality. Women's familial roles are found to be more important for gender inequalities in death at younger ages, and women's economic roles are more important for death at older ages. Implications of the results for mortality decline and gender stratification theory are discussed.     

GENDER, EARNINGS, AND THE ENGLISH SKILL ACQUISITION OF HISPANIC WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES

Using the 1980 and 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples, we find that labor market outcomes associated with English proficiency vary with respect to gender. For example, a synthetic cohort analysis provides evidence of gender-related differences in Hispanic workers' English skill acquisition. Moreover, we observe that Hispanic women face a lower English deficiency earnings penalty that rises more sharply with education than the penalty obtained by their otherwise similar male peers. Finally, English fluency appears to serve as a stronger occupational sorting mechanism for women than men. ( JEL J3, J1)     

HIGH SCHOOL CHOICES AND THE GENDER GAP IN STEM

Women are less likely than men to graduate with a degree in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). We use detailed administrative data for a recent cohort of Ontario high school students, combined with data from the province's university admission system, to analyze the sources of this gap. We show that entry to STEM programs is mediated through an index of STEM readiness that depends on end‐of‐high school courses in math and science. Most of the gender gap in STEM entry can be traced to differences in the share of college entrants who are STEM‐ready; only a small share is attributable to differences in the choice of major conditional on readiness. We then use high school course data to decompose the gender gap in STEM readiness into two channels: one reflecting the gap in the fraction of high school students with the necessary prerequisites to enter STEM, the other arising from differences in the overall fractions of females and males who enter university. The gender gap in the fraction of males and females with STEM prerequisites is small. The primary driver of the gap in STEM readiness is the low rate of university entry by nonscience‐oriented males. (JEL I21, 28, I20)     

THE SOCIAL CAPITAL RESOURCES OF GENDER AND CLASS GROUPS

ABSTRACT

Social capital resources affect careers. Yet, insufficient attention has been given to how access to social capital resources differs for social groups and, therefore, differentially affects careers. This study consists of in-depth interviews with 246 white interviewees from three parts of the U.S.: New Jersey, Tennessee, and Ohio. The interviews provide extensive details about how social capital resources affected the respondents' educational and employment endeavors. We found that men had greater access to social capital resources than women. Thus, career advantages accumulated for men, while career disadvantages accumulated for women. There were few class differences in access to social capital resources, but the middle/upper middle class had better career returns than the working class. Unlike many other studies of social capital resources and careers, our study examines the processes by which the resources were derived, how they were used, and how they affected careers. As such, we detail a primary mechanism of career disparities and, ultimately, socioeconomic inequalities.     

USING GENDER: THE PERSONAL,INTERPERSONAL, AND EMOTIONAL STRATEGIES OF DOMESTIC LABOR

Traditional research on domestic labor has conceptualized work done in support of the home as one of the quintessential ways of “doing” gender. New directions in gender and ritual theory raise the possibility that domestic labor may also be about strategy, usefulness and intentions. Through interviews with 24 married couples, I explore the subjective experiences of men and women as they “do” their domestic labor. I find that while husbands and wives are continuing to do gender as a response to interactional accountability demands, they also “use” domestic labor as a vehicle through which they (1) reciprocally craft their gender identity, (2) symbolically communicate with their spouse, and (3) garner emotional energy. Furthermore, the men and women strategically mobilized specific tasks that are most useful in achieving these goals inside their unique dyadic schemas. Through these narratives, I explore the possibility that men and women not only do gender but they can use gender as well.     

GENDER IDENTITY EXPANSION AND NEGOTIATION IN THE TOXIC WASTE MOVEMENT

Symbolic interactionism contends that identities are contextual, negotiated, shifting, and potentially transformed through activism. The research presented here suggests that gender identities of some women activists may undergo expansion as a consequence of activism, a shift premised on the empowering experiences of new activits in open organizational structures. Their gender identity expansion involves building on but not abandoning a previous definition of their womanhood. In this case study of a grassroots organization in the toxic waste movement, women activits negotiated expanded gender identities with their family members in a conflict-laden process. Some managed their reconfigured identity by closeting their new identity in certain interactional contexts and by using token gestures of their previous gender identity to mask the amount and significance of change. Others experienced frequent identity shifts as they moved between gender identity configurations. All of this underscores that identity is an ongoing, interactions accomplishment, continuously negotiated and renegotiated with varying degrees and contexts of change.     

HOLDING FAST: THE PERSISTENCE AND DOMINANCE OF GENDER STEREOTYPES

This paper investigates the persistence of gender stereotyping in the forecasting of risk attitudes. Subjects predict the gamble choice of target subjects in one of two treatments. First, based only on visual clues and then based on visual clues plus two responses by the target from a risk‐preference survey. Second in reverse order: first, based only on the two responses, then on the two responses plus visual clues. In isolation the gender stereotype and survey responses both inform predictions about others' risk attitudes. In conjunction with one another, however, the stereotype persists and dominates the survey response information. (JEL C91, D8, J16)     

GENDER AND ROMANTIC-LOVE ROLES

This research tests the notion that gender differences in love-role definitions contribute to male dominance in intimate relationships. Six factor-analytic scales—fidelity, communication, sacrifice, submission, centrality, and commitment—are used to measure love-role definitions. The scores from a sample of 285 college students generally oppose the hypotheses. There are significant gender differences, but they are not in the predicted direction. For example, women do not prescribe more sacrifice for a woman than they do for a man. The findings show that women are not handicapped in the competition for influence by the love-role definitions that they and men hold. However, it is suggested that the idea may have more validity for people who are uninfluenced by feminist views and for other samples.