Women Sociologists in the Midwest: A Status Report*

This report examines the status of Midwest women sociologists in occupational attainment and professional participation, and seeks to answer three questions: (1) What is the current status of Midwest women sociologists? (2) What changes have occurred in the status of Midwest women sociologists in recent years? and (3) How does the status of women sociologists in the Midwest compare to their colleagues nationally?     

Identity in transition: how formerly homeless individuals negotiate identity as they move into housing

It is unclear what happens when stigmatized individuals undergo status transitions into non-stigmatized groups. This paper explores changes in housing status, identity, and social relationships over time and their impact on formerly homeless individuals. Drawing on longitudinal qualitative interview data collected over six months from seven individuals transitioning out of homelessness and into government supported housing, this paper examines identity changes during such a status shift. Analysis shows that individuals distanced themselves from both homeless and formerly homeless people, and connected with others through groups not affiliated with homelessness or shelter life. When exiting a stigmatized status, like homelessness, social distancing may be particularly important as it helps redefine the self as apart from that previously held stigmatized status. Implications for research and policy are discussed.     

Patterns of union membership and relative wages

This paper, using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, examines the effects of union membership on the wages of white males. The empirical relationship between current wage and union status is estimated controlling for union status in years before and after the current year. The resulting status profiles are four years long in contrast to one or two years used previously. Results indicate that wage changes experienced when workers join or leave unions vary significantly and systematically across these profiles. For example, a status change that appears to be long-term is associated with larger absolute wage changes than short-term changes in status. The authors thank Jeff Moore for comments and suggestions on an early draft of this paper and express special appreciation to John Raisian for his painstaking and valuable review of a recent draft. We are, of course, responsible for remaining errors.     

Rebuilding Status Consistency in a Post-communist Society. The Czech Republic, 199197

In this paper we perform an empirical analysis of status consistency in a postcommunist society. We supply three arguments as to why the various dimensions of social status can be expected to have crystallized following the fall of communism. First, post-communist societies have experienced a significant increase in income and wealth inequality. Second, there have been significant changes in the class structure and, third, processes that generate inequality and social structure have been changing as well. The analysis demonstrates the increase in status consistency in the Czech Republic in the period 1991-97. Further, we explore the degree of status inconsistency in different subpopulations and the political consequences of status inconsistency.     

Cognitive and Behavioral Changes in Children Resulting from Parental Divorce and Consequent Environmental Changes

Operationalizing divorce as environmental change helps to understand the processes leading to the development of psychopathology in some children of divorce. Children living with their divorced mothers and children living with their married, natural parents completed change measures (Recent Life Changes Questionnaire, Environmental Change Questionnaire), a behavior checklist (Child Behavior Checklist) and a cognitive/perceptual characteristics measure (Semantic Differential). Significant F-ratios were obtained for the main effects of parent marital status and extent of environmental change and for the interactions of marital status with environmental change and marital status with age at divorce. Processes leading to child psychopathology were identified as types of changes, changes in parent-child relations and increased demands on the custodial parent. Conceptualizing divorce as environmental change has significant implications for the development of primary prevention programs for this population of children.     

Trends in Women's Career Patterns and in Gender Occupational Mobility in Britain

This paper uses retrospective data from the SCELI surveys to make a detailed investigation of changing career patterns and gender differences in occupational status over the period 1946–86. A summary variable is developed and used to examine the relationships between changing employment trends and respondents' occupational status. Occupational status, as the Hope-Goldthorpe scale value, is measured throughout the life-course and changes over time are examined. The main findings of the study are that despite the increase in women's qualifications and the proportion of women in the workforce, their human capital has not greatly increased although their careers have become increasingly variable. Men and childless women experience occupational status increasing over life-course and time but part-time employed women do not. Class of origin is more important to status for men than for women, while qualifications are important for both. Women's careers are increasingly affected by discontinuity and part-time employment.     

Suicide and Educational Attainment in a Transitional Society*

The sociological evidence available to date has not firmly established the relationship between suicide and social status. It is postulated here that societies in different stages of development may manifest different patterns of etiology of suicide, and thus the suicide rates of different social strata may change over time. Educational attainment is used as an indicator of social status, rather than “usual” occupations as in previous studies. From an analysis of a transitional society, it is concluded: first, the relation between suicide and social status is negative; and second, with coming societal changes, it is likely that the relation between suicide and social status will also change.     

The Impermanence of Permanence: The Rise of Probationary Immigration in Canada

This article engages with arguments that contemporary immigration politics is defined by a “loss of settlement” by examining recent developments in Canadian immigration and refugee policy that have made permanent residence less permanent. We suggest that the rise of probationary immigration has been facilitated by horizontal status stratification within groups that were historically marked by relative status equality. In order to examine this claim empirically in the Canadian context, we analyze the rise of temporary foreign worker recruitment, the move from “one-step” to “two-step” immigration, and changes to refugee policy that, for the first time, linked loss of refugee status to the loss of permanent resident status.     

Adjusting for Change of Status in International Migration: Demographic Implications

The calculation of net immigration for the purpose of estimating the resident population in Australia is based on net permanent and long–term (12 months or more) movements into and out of the country. All international movements with duration of stay in Australia or travel abroad of less than 12 months (defined as short–term) are excluded. However, changes between short–term and long–term/permanent status can occur when people extend or shorten their stay or travel. Because net immigration is a significant component of Australia’s population growth (accounting for 40–50 per cent of annual growth), adjusting for these changes in migration status is thought to result in better estimates of net immigration and the resident population. The paper shows that adjusting for change of status can have a large impact on net immigration, particularly when the immigrant intake is small. Failure to adequately adjust for change of status can also lead to misleading conclusions about the relative contributions of net temporary and permanent movements to total net immigration. The effect on the resident population, however, is relatively small, being less than 1 per cent of the total population. The paper also addresses the question of how important it is for countries to adjust for change of migrant status in international migration statistics in the context of increasing international mobility.     

Upgraded to Bad Jobs: Low‐Wage Black Women's Relative Status since 1970

Labor market changes complicate the analysis of black women's status relative to white women because education, occupational attainment, and race–gender are now less predictive of earnings. Low‐wage black women's relative status has improved somewhat from 1970 to 2000, contrary to the well‐documented decrease in relative status reported for all black women wage earners since 1980, but their dramatic occupational upgrading was not responsible for the trend. White‐collar occupational positions formerly responsible for white women's relative earnings advantage no longer deliver that reward, as restructuring has produced a proliferation of bad jobs across occupational groups. This study argues that increasing exposure to precarious work is crucial to understanding changes in low‐wage black women's relative economic status since 1970.     

The role of emotion dysregulation in the association between subjective social status and eating expectancies among college students

Abstract

Objective: Research suggests that college is a risky period for changes in eating behavior and beliefs. Although social health determinants relate to health behavior changes, research has not explored subjective social status, one’s societal standing, in terms of eating expectancies among college students. The present study examined the emotion dysregulation in association between subjective social status and eating expectancies among college students. Participants: Participants were a diverse sample of 1,589 college students (80.4% females; M_age?=?22.2?years, SD?=?5.27) from an urban university. Results: Results showed a significant indirect association of subjective social status via emotion dysregulation in relation to expectancies of eating to help manage negative affect, to alleviate boredom, and to lead to feeling out of control. Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that college students with lower subjective social status may have a higher risk for dysregulated emotions, and consequently, expressing maladaptive eating expectancies.     

The majority legal status of women in southern Africa: implications for women and families

Women in many countries of southern Africa do not have majority status or have only recently gained this right. Majority status grants individuals adult legal status and the right to bring matters to court, own and administer property, have legal custody of children, and contract for marriage. This article summarizes the legal status of women in Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Lack of majority status contributes to the ongoing risk of poverty for women and makes them overly dependent on men. Compounding the situation in these countries is the presence of a dual legal system. Improving the situation of women and their families involves targeting changes in the legal system, influencing implementation of laws, educating women about their rights, and giving women needed support to seek their legal rights. The legal status of women must be viewed in the context of historical changes in the economic, educational, political, and cultural developments of society.The research for this paper was conducted during her previous faculty affiliation with the University of Michigan, School of Social Work. Her research interests include the impact of social change on women and families, rural mental health services, and health and mental health linkages. She received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University and her M.S.W. from the Columbia University School of Social Work.Her research interests are gender, work and family, culture and power, social transformations in rural and peri-urban communities, critical education, women and community politics, history of women, family and kinship issues, and community-based program development and evaluation. She received her M.S.W. from Dalhousie University, Halifax.     

Elderly narrative reflections on the contradictions in Turkish village family life after migration of adult children

International and domestic labor migrations are changing the face of many countries. Those economic and demographic transitions collide with cultural expectations and ways of conducting intergenerational relations. This paper is a narrative analysis of some of those changes from the perspective of the elderly who remain behind in a small village in central Turkey. In particular, their narratives focus on filial expectations of sons and daughters, the status of mothers-in-law, health and economic well-being, and the future of village life. While these “left behind” elderly feel a loss of status and control and fear for their futures as their children pursue lifestyles unfamiliar and threatening to them, they are nevertheless gradually negotiating these changes and redefining late life to adapt to new circumstances and maintain their family relations.     

Fragile families in the American welfare state

The proportion of children born out of wedlock is now over 40%. At birth, about half of these parents are co-habiting. This paper examines data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study (N = 4271) to describe for the first time the role of welfare state benefits in the economic lives of married, cohabiting, and single parent families with young children. Surprisingly, total welfare state benefits received by the three family types are relatively similar. Nearly half of the full incomes of fragile families come from welfare state transfers. For single parent families the proportion is slightly more than two thirds. Though aggregate welfare state transfers are approximately equal across family type and thus change very little as marital status changes, these transfers and the taxes required to finance them cushion family status changes and substantially narrow the gap in full income between married and fragile families.     

Subcultural Identity Work in Social Movements: Barriers to Collective Identity Changes and Overcoming Them

Over time, social movements must contend with a vast array of forces that can lead to changes in the movement's collective identity. As such changes may impact the alignment of movements and their membership, this study explores how changes are perceived by members and how they are interactively addressed. Drawing on ethnographic data gathered from two Native American social movement organizations, this study specifically asks why some changes suggested by movement members might be pursued and others are not. While movement members felt that there were a number of barriers to changes in their movements, the study revealed that it was the resonance of collective memories – presented during interactions as narrative commemorations – that encouraged the pursuit of suggested changes or the maintenance of a status quo.     

Changes in Self-Rated Health During the Transition to Retiring Living Among Medicare Managed-Care Recipients

ABSTRACT

Moving into a retirement community may be precipitated by or bring about changes in health status. We hypothesized that moving into a retirement community would be associated with a decline in self-rated health (SRH), but that health-related factors would mitigate this association. We analyzed data from 58,272 participants in Cohort 3 of the Medicare Health Outcome Survey. Individuals answered questions regarding living status in 2000 and 2002. Those who moved into a retirement community were compared with those who did not. The primary outcome was change in SRH. We created adjusted and unadjusted models. A total of 2,520 participants (4.4%) moved into retirement communities between 2000 and 2002. There were no substantial differences in the mean change in SRH between those who moved and those who did not. In adjusted and unadjusted models, moving was not significantly associated with changes in SRH. In an analysis stratified by SRH, only those with the best SRH had a significant decline in SRH during the move. SRH mainly remained stable for most people regardless of moving into a retirement community. These findings argue against environmental context being a main determinant of self-perceived health status among older adults.     

CHANGING ROLES OF ABILITY AND EDUCATION IN U.S. INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY

Using data on young adults from the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we investigate the changing roles of ability and education in the transmission of economic status across generations. We find that ability plays a substantially diminished role for the most recent cohort whereas education plays a much larger role. The first finding results primarily from a smaller effect of children's ability on status, the second from an increased correlation between parental status and educational attainment. A replication of the analysis by gender reveals that the changes in the role of ability are largely driven by men whereas the changes in education's role are largely driven by women. (JEL J62, I24)     

On the Meaning of Occupational Status: Implications for Stratification Theory and Research

Abstract

There is a controversy regarding the meaning of occupational status centering around the issue of whether status differences continue to entail deference entitlement. This article suggests that deferential behavior is still linked to occupational status differences but, as a result of the complexity of occupational systems in industrial societies, there have been changes in the settings in which displays of deference occur and in the manner in which deference is expressed A source of confusion in the debate on the meaning of occupational status is the failure to distinguish between differences in status and differences in the occupational characteristics on a basis of which status is accorded This distinction and its implications for class and power hierarchies are discussed The article concludes with an argument for the necessity of situating the process of status differentiation in “status assignment systems”.     

The Market Model and the Growth and Decline of Academic Fields in U.S. Four‐Year Colleges and Universities, 1980–20001

Conventional sociological accounts of the rise and fall of academic fields have been challenged by accounts based on the idea of market‐responsive change. In this article, we focus on the period 1980–2000, the period during which, according to its proponents, the market model of change became dominant in academe. We find changes in the student market to be strongly associated with increased institutionalization of academic fields. We also find the preferences of donors to be associated with increased institutionalization of academic fields. By contrast, we find relatively little support for labor market signals or changes in federal funding priorities as important influences on the institutionalization of academic fields. We find that higher‐status institutions are more market responsive than lower‐status institutions.     

Gender similarities and differences in the treatment, relapse, and recovery cycle

This study explores the influence of gender on changes in recovery status among participants in a longitudinal study. The study sample (N = 1,202; 60% female) is recruited on referral to treatment, and annual interviews are conducted from Years 2 to 6 following intake. At each annual observation, participants are classified into one of four statuses (recovery, treatment, incarcerated, and using), and the transitional probabilities and correlates of transitioning from one status to another are estimated. About 80% of the participants changed status at least once over the follow-up period. Women are one third less likely to transition from recovery to using; the predictors of transitioning to different statuses vary by gender. The implications of gender as a moderator of the recovery process are discussed.