Entering the Political Elite in Canada: The Case of Minority Women as Parliamentary Candidates and MPs*

Cette recherche analyse les femmes des minorités ethniques comme nouveau groupe social visant à accéder à l'élite politique. Elle est axée sur les conséquences liées à leur appartenance à une «double minorité». L'analyse examine deux modèles de cheminement de carrière qui offrent des caractérisations alternatives quant aux obstacles de recrutement auxquels se heurtent les nouveaux groupes sociaux et qui créent des attentes différentes quant aux ressources détenues par les femmes des minorités, comparativement à celles des groupes plus établis. Les résultats principaux, fondés sur un sondage canadien de 1993 sur les candidats parlementaires et completés par de l'information sur les députés, appuient davantage le modèle de «compensation» et, en général, semblent indiquer que l'inégalité continue de caractériser le processus d'accès à l'élite politique. This study examines minority women as a new social group seeking access to the political elite, emphasizing the consequences of their “double minority” status. The analysis considers two career path models that make alternative characterizations about the recruitment barriers faced by new social groups and that yield different expectations about the resources held by minority women compared with more established groups. The main results, based on a 1993 Canadian survey of parliamentary candidates, supplemented by information on MPs, indicate more support for the “compensation” model and, generally, suggest that inequity continues to characterize the process of political elite access.     

Institutionalization and disengagement among the elderly*

Lanalyse qui suit présente les résultats d'une étude empirique comparant les relations sociales parmi les gens âgés demeurant au sein de la communautéà celles qui prévalent dans les foyers pour vieillards, et ce à partir d'un échantillon aléatoire de la population d‘àge avancé du Manitoba pour l'année 1971. Les résultats indiquent que ces vieillards, tout comme les résidents des “ghettos gris,” ont des niveaux d'interaction sociale plus élevés et plus satisfaisants que les vieillards qui demeurent au sein méLme de la communauté. De telles observations nous semblent importantes non seulement du point de vue de notre compréhension des “institutions totales,” mais aussi par rapport aux problèmes plus généraux du vieillissement et du “désengagement.” Le fait que la participation aux événements interactionels soit plus élevée parmi les résidents de ces foyers (et des autres “ghettos gris”) correspond à cette théorie du vieillissement qui voit le “désengagement” chez les vieillards comme une réponse spécifique à la position qu'ils occupent au sein de la structure de stratification d’âges du capitalisme avancé. This paper presents the results of an empirical analysis of the relationship between institutionalization and disengagement based on a random stratified sample of the elderly population of Manitoba in 1971. The results indicate that the institutionalized elderly, like other residents of “grey ghettos,” have higher levels of social interaction and derive greater satisfaction from their social relations than do the elderly residing in the larger community. It is suggested that these findings are not only significant for our understanding of the nature of “total institutions” but are also suggestive with respect to the more general issue of disengagement and aging. The fact that involvement in interactional events is greater among the institutionalized elderly (and other residents of “grey ghettos”) is consistent with a theory of aging which views disengagement among the elderly as a response which is historically specific to the position which they occupy within the structure of age stratification characteristic of advanced capitalism.     

The Multiplication of Opportunities: A Model of Sponsored Mobility,Coventry, England, 1420–1450*

Le degré de mobilité d'un système social est le résultat conjoint de la vitesse avec laquelle les postes deviennent disponibles à la suite d'une evolution structurelle ou de l'usure et de la manière dont on favorise le déplacement des membres dans cette structure. Cet article illustre le fait que le niveau de mobilité pour un taux donné d'usure et d'expansion atteint le plus haut sommet dans le cas d'un type de mobilité contrôlée (“sponsored”) ou fondée sur l'ancienneté. La plupart des individus augmentent leurs revenus, accroissent leur autorité et leur prestige quelque peu lorsque le recrutement et la promotion des membres sont contrôlés par l‘élite sociale et que le degré d'apprentissage et le niveau de l'expérience deviennent les principaux critères de promotion. Dans un tel regime peu de candidate vivent l'expérience d'une mobilité descendante. Cette affirmation repose sur les rapports de taxation et autres données venant de Coventry, Angleterre, pour la période 1420–50. Elle provient aussi de comparaisons établies à l'aide de données canadiennes. On y développe un modèle pour expliquer pourquoi une mobilité dirigée et contrôlée augmentera invariablement les occasions d'avancement à tous les niveaux d'expansion structurale. The amount of mobility in a social system is a joint function of the rate at which vacancies are created by structural expansion and attrition, and the way in which movement through the structure is organized. This paper shows that the amount of mobility for a given rate of attrition and expansion is maximized by a “sponsored” or “seniority” type of mobility. Where recruitment and promotion are controlled by the social elite, and amount of training and experience are the main criteria for promotion, most men are upwardly mobile in income, authority, and prestige to some degree and almost none are downwardly mobile. This is verified by tax payment and other data from Coventry, England, in the period 1420–50, and by some comparisons with Canadian data. A model is developed to explain why sponsored mobility will invariably multiply the opportunities for advancement at any given rate of structural expansion.     

Changes in the Canadian Business and Legal Elites, 1870–1970*

Cet article examine les origines sociales et les activités de deux élites canadiennes au dix-neuvième et vingtième siècle, à savoir l'élite des affaires et du droit. Il fournit une explication provisoire des transformations qui ont eu lieu quant à l'aecès à la richesse, à l'autorité, au prestige et à l'influence au cours des cent dernières années. En tant que travail d'exploration, cet essai révèle le besoin d'aborder l'histoire de la stratification au Canada d'une façon jusqu'à maintenant négligée, à savoir par l'analyse historique des institutions jouant un rôle dans la stratification. This paper examines the social origins and activities of two Canadian elites, those of business and law, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It attempts a provisional explanation of the changes in access to wealth, authority, prominence, and influence that have occurred in the last hundred years. As an explanatory study, this paper suggests the need for an approach to the history of stratification in Canada that has not received much attention heretofore; namely, the historical analysis of stratifying institutions.     

Status Attainment and Social Mobility

This paper discusses why and how the consideration of inter-individual genetic variation can enhance the explanatory power of sociological inquiries of status attainment and social stratification. We argue that accounting for genetic variation may help to address longstanding and in some cases overlooked causality problems in explaining the emergence of social inequalities—problems which may interfere with both implicit and explicit interpretations of a society as “open” or “closed,” as meritocratic or non-meritocratic. We discuss the basic methodological tenets of genetically informative research (Sect. 2) and provide empirical examples and theoretical conceptualizations on how genetic variation contributes to status attainment (Sect. 3). This is followed by a discussion of gene-environment interplay in relation to more abstract ideas about social mechanisms that generate inequality, touching on normative implications of these ideas as well as considerations from a social justice perspective (Sect. 4). Finally, we briefly review the potential benefits as well as pitfalls of incorporating genetic influences into sociological explanations of status attainment. As we will argue, understanding how social influences impinge on the individual and how genes influence our lives requires sophisticated research designs based on sound sociological theory and methodology (Sect. 5).     

Status Inconsistency and Participation in Social Movements: an Application of Goodman's Hierarchical Modeling*

Goodman's hierarchical modeling is used to analyze the status inconsistency configuration of 67 active participants in an anti-pornography social movement and 44 persons who actively opposed the movement. The substantive results indicated the need to interpret status inconsistency effects in light of the second-order interaction of all three stratification variables—education, occupation and income. We found that inconsistencies between two of the stratification dimensions changed the association between the third dimension and participation in a social movement in the positive direction. A modification of the over-rewarded/under-rewarded inconsistency hypothesis was advanced as a special case of the general finding. The methodological results indicate that the Goodman hierarchical modeling technique is a promising system for establishing empirical linkages between significance testing and substantive interpretations with regard to the area of status inconsistency.     

Understanding Men’s Prenatal Experience and the Father Involvement Connection: Assessing Baby Steps

Cabrera, Fagan, and Farrie’s research provides a useful springboard to encourage scholars to think broadly and productively about theoretical, substantive, methodological, and social intervention issues related to men’s prenatal experiences, transitional life course events, and subsequent engagement with their young children. To their credit, the authors have taken valuable “baby steps” on the path to building a more nuanced understanding of the conditions and processes comprising this complex matrix of phenomena. The authors make a unique contribution to the literature by using panel data to examine how three factors, defined as “life transitions” (father identity salience, fathers’ relationship quality and residential status with the child’s mother, fathers’ employment status), might mediate the link between unmarried prospective fathers’ prenatal and postnatal experiences. In the spirit of advancing a research agenda in this area, I stress the merits and limitations of the data Cabrera and her colleagues use while elaborating conceptual and methodological themes to guide future research.     

A comparison of the allocation of male and female occupational prestige*

Ce travail cherche à répondre à deux questions: de quel façon le sexe d'un ouvrier influence l'évaluation du prestige professionnel, et quelle est la relation existant entre la composition des sexes par rapport aux occupations, et l'évaluation du prestige professionnel lorsque le sexe des ouvriers est pris en considération. Trois échelles du prestige professionnel (traditionnelle, masculine, féminine) sont créées. Les résultats indiquent des différences dans l'ordre hiérarchique et les niveaux moyens du prestige professionnel masculin et féminin. De plus, la composition par sexe des occupations influence le statut social des occupations de deux façons différentes. This paper is concerned with two questions: how does the sex of the worker influence the evaluation of occupational prestige, and what is the relationship between the sex composition of occupations and the evaluation of occupational prestige when the sex of the worker is taken into consideration? Three occupational prestige scales (traditional, male, and female) are created. The results show differences in both the rank order and mean levels of male and female occupational prestige. In addition the sex composition of occupations is shown to influence the social standing of occupations in two separate ways.     

The race relations problematic in American sociology: A case study and critique

This article reports the results of an analysis of all racial and ethnic relations articles published in the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Social Problems, from January 1969 through December 1995. The analysis identifies by journal: 1) major methodological orientation(s); 2) how the concepts of “race,” “ethnicity,” and racial and ethnic relations are operationalized, which is useful for examining tendencies toward, or against, reification; 3) substantive content—that is, what a sociology of racial and ethnic relations is; and 4) primary context—that is, are racial and ethnic relations treated as a substantive subdiscipline in their own right, or are they merely a topic of interest for other subdisciplines such as social psychology? In brief, although some differences exist between the journals, all four journals publish disproportionately racial and ethnic relations research that: 1) is highly quantitative as opposed to theoretical, conceptual, or sociohistorical; 2) reifies U.S. Census definitions of race and ethnicity as opposed to critically evaluating such definitions; 3) social psychologizes racial and ethnic relations, or subsumes such relations under stratification processes; and 4) subsumes the racial and ethnic relations problematic under subdiscipline rubrics other than a sociology of racial and ethnic relations. The conclusion discusses the implications of these findings; for example, by virtue of what they publish, these journals construct a paradigmatic frame that gives precedence to, or legitimizes, some views and excludes, or de-legitimizes others.     

North Central Sociological Association Presidential Address the Community College Conundrum: Pitfalls and Possibilities of Professional Sociological Associations

Abstract

This presidential address examines the “community college conundrum” within our discipline. Although it is reported that 44 percent of first-time undergraduate students attend community colleges, community college faculty are underrepresented in the American Sociological Association (ASA) and within our regional associations. This lack of participation has two roots: (1) our disciplinary lack of interest in studying community college education as a unit of analysis; and (2) the failure by sociologists to understand community college education as a social justice concern. Data for this study include an assessment of membership and participation in our disciplinary associations, content analysis of the journal Teaching Sociology, and a review of ASA syllabi sets. Findings reveal a common theme: community college sociologists are ignored and afforded a marginal status—a “less than” status—within our discipline. Recommendations include calling on the ASA and all sociologists to recognize the importance of community colleges in doing the work of “public sociology.”     

Inequality of access: characteristics of the Canadian corporate elite*

Modelé sur l'étude des élites de corporations, faite par John Porter, ce texte met à jour jusqu'à 1972 une analyse des caractéristiques sociales de cette élite. L'étude compare les moyens de mobilité dans l'élite et la classe d'origine pendant ces deux périodes et fait voir que les voies d'accès aux corporations dominantes sont de plus en plus réservées aux membres de la classe supérieure. La mobilité de la classe ouvrière a baissé. La « compradorisation » ou la manifestation dans l'élite de la pénétration étrangère dans l'économie canadienne a favorisé une plus grande mobilité pour la classe moyenne au Canada que ne l'a fait l'élite canadienne. Il reste cependant un noyau de capitalistes canadiens puissants qui a de solides racines dans la classe supérieure. Le monde privé des gens puissants est examiné pour découvrir les rapports sociaux et la sélection sociale dans l'élite. Cet examen montre que les forces sociales traditionnelles ont téndance à devenir plus exclusives alors que des forces sociales nouvelles amènent de nouveaux types sociaux au pouvoir. Modelled after John Porter's 1951 corporate elite study, this paper updates an analysis of the social characteristics of this elite to 1972. By comparing means of mobility into the elite and class of origin for the two periods it finds that access to dominant corporations has become increasingly confined to members of the upper class. Mobility from working class origins has declined. Compradorization, the elite reflection of foreign penetration of Canada's economy, has provided more mobility for middle class Canadians than has the indigenous elite. There remains a powerful core of indigenous Canadian capitalists firmly rooted in the upper class. The private world of powerful people is examined as a means of elite interaction and selection. It is shown that traditional social forces tend to become more exclusive while new social forces bring new social types to power.     

Adjudicating Frame Shifts and Frame Disputes in the New Millennial University: The Role of the Dean

This paper argues that sociological theory provides a sound basis for analyzing the social organization and reorganization of the college or university and for guiding the activities of the college dean. Frame analysis theory, developed in the study of social movements, and the attendant concepts of frame shifts and frame disputes, are drawn on to facilitate understanding of the organizational change being experienced by many comprehensive universities today. Various university constituencies proffer sometimes competing frames that can be characterized as “old school” vs. “new school” or “theoretical” vs. “practical,” yet collective and at least moderately harmonious action is required to attend to the tasks at hand. More specifically, the processes of frame alignment detailing the way that the frames held by various individuals and groups link to larger frames, offer a valuable theoretical tool for a dean. The dean’s task is one of adjudicating frame disputes within the college, navigating frame shifts in the university and reframing the concerns of the college to both internal and external audiences. The author concludes that the use of frame analysis demonstrates that sociological theory can be a vital contributor to the leadership of colleges and universities and to leaders’ understanding of the changes occurring therein.     

Social stratification,voting behaviour,and the images of Canadian federal political parties*

Nous servant des sondages faits sur les élections nationales canadiennes de 1965 et 1968, nous développons l'analyse d'ogmundson sur l'esprit de vote des différentes classes sociales, dans l'enquête de 1965. Dans son étude, il comparait les résultats obtenus quand les orientations de classes des partis politiques étaient formulées de trois façons possibles: d'après les jugements des experts, d'après la moyenne des évaluations données par les répondants du sondage de 1965, et d'après les estimations idiosyncratiques de chaque répondant. Les deux derniers critères étaient pris des évaluations de chaque parti, selon une échelle sémantique à sept points, qui avait, comme points axiaux: “pour la classe moyenne” opposéà“pour la classe ouvrière.” Notre analyse répond à trois questions: premièrement, si les découvertes de base d'Ogmundson pour 1965 tiennent pour 1968; deuxièmernent, si les évaluations sur les partis par les répondants, d'aprés une deuxième échelle établie parles points “de gauche” opposées à“de droite,” donnent des résultats comparables, aussi bien sur les échelles que dans les sondages. Finalement, en utilisant une analyse de facteur, s'il y a, sur l'ensemble de treize échelles employées dans chaque enquête, quelque évidence d'un facteur de classe dans les évaluations données aux partis. La réponse est affirmative pour la première question et négative pour la seconde. Dans le cas de la troisième, un seul facteur fixe apparaît pour chaque parti, comme décrit par ses électeurs. La structure de ce facteur est commune à tous les partis dans les deux élections, et cela n'a pas grand chose à faire avec les orientations de classe perçues par les répondants. On explore toujours les implications théoriques de ces données. Using the 1965 and 1968 Canadian national election surveys, we extend Ogmundson's analysis of the “class” vote in the 1965 survey. He compared the results obtained when the class orientations of political parties were defined in three alternative ways: according to the judgments of experts: according to the mean ratings given by respondents in the 1965 survey; and according to each respondent's idiosyncratic ratings. The latter two criteria were taken from ratings of each party along a 7–point semantic differential-type scale which had as its end points “for the middle class” v. “for the working class.” Our analysis answers three questions: first, whether Ogrnundson's basic findings for 1965 hold also for 1968: second, whether respondents' ratings of the parties along a second scale anchored by “left-wing” v. “right-wing” yield comparable results across scales and Surveys; third, using factor analysis, whether there is any evidence for a class-based theme in the ratings given parties on the set of thirteen scales employed in each survey. The answer is affirmative to the first question and negative to the second question. In the case of the third question, a single unrotated factor emerged for each party as described by its voters. The structure of this factor was common to all parties in both elections, and it appeared to have very little to do with their perceived class orientations. Theoretical implications of these findings are explored.     

Government Influence on the Social Science Paradigm*

A scientific paradigm includes a set of widely shared understandings that specify a discipline's research methodologies and substantive priorities. The impact of government sponsorship of academic social research on the paradigms of four social science disciplines is evaluated using a probability sample of 1,079 faculty members in the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology. The results indicate that federal government funding is allocated according to topical and methodological priorities that are distinct from the disciplines' self-defined priorities. It is also found that: (1) federal support of academic research has a significant impact on the substantive and methodological plans of social scientists; (2) social scientists who are financially dependent on government assistance are particularly responsive to government influence; (3) the condition of financial dependency on government funding is in part a product of prior federal investment in social research. An “externalist” thesis holds that the scientific paradigm is not autonomous and is significantly shaped by such outside factors as the political system, and these findings provide support for this thesis.     

Parenting,Uncertainty, and Expert Advice: How Privileged American Families Work with Private Counselors in Their Children's College Race

This article uses privileged families who hire Independent Educational Consultants (IECs) as an instance to examine how privileged parents collaborate with individuals whom they consider educational experts to support their children in the college race. We argue that advantaged parents' anxieties about their children have created a market for IECs who provide expert advice in order to mitigate the uncertainties that these parents experience and to manage various goals that they want to achieve at an important turning point in their children's lives. Drawing primarily on interviews with parents who work with IECs, we introduce the concept of “collaborative cultivation” to analyze the processes whereby advantaged parents rely on the expertise and expert status of private counselors to cope with their and their children's vulnerability in the college race while at the same time preparing their children for the unknown future. The parental method of “concerted cultivation” reveals how elite parents rely on individuals they perceive as experts to establish “bridges” between their own social worlds and the academic worlds that appear to beyond their control. This bridging labor points to the myriad cultural beliefs enacted to justify the child‐rearing goals that privileged parents wish to accomplish by working with IECs.     

Canadian literary and other elites: the historical and institutional bases of shared realities*

Cultures can be thought to consist of archaic, residual, emergent, and dominant elements. The classes and institutions responsible for the sustenance of these elements can vary from time to time and from place to place. In capitalist social formations, intellectuals in general have important roles to play in the propagation and sustenance of these elements. One group of intellectuals, the Canadian literary elite, despite the essentially petty and new petty bourgeois backgrounds of its members, is found to have similarities with the economic and political elites in terms of education. Furthermore, the group has considerable interaction within a number of Canadian literary societies. Experiences suggest a common consciousness on the part of most of the literary elite and the economic and the political elites and a resulting contribution of literary elites to the dominant cultural element and maintenance of the status quo. On peut penser que les cultures sont faites d'éléments archaïques, résiduaires, naissants et dominants. Les classes et institutions responsables du maintien de ces éléments peuvent varier d'une époque à l'autre et d'un endroit à l'autre. Dans les formations sociales de type capitaliste, les intellectuels jouent, en général, un rôle important dans la propagation et le maintien de ces éléments. En ce qui touche le domaine de l'éducation, on remarque des similitudes entre un groupe d'intellectuels - l'élite littéraire canadienne - et l'élite économique et politique, en dépit des origines essentiellement petit-bourgeois et arriviste des premiers. De plus, ils ont des relations suivies à l'intérieur même d'un nombre de sociétés. littéraires canadiennes. Les expériences acquises au sein de telles institutions suggèrent la possibilité d'un conscience commune à la majorité des élites littéraire, economique et politique, et, par conséquent, une contribution possible de l'Clite littéraire à l'élément culturel dominant ainsi qu'au maintien du status quo.     

“More Normal than Welfare”: The Mincome Experiment,Stigma, and Community Experience

Cet article traite de l'impact d'une expérience sociale menée dans les années 1970, l'Expérience du revenu annuel de base du Manitoba (MINCOME). J'examine le lieu de “saturation” de la MINCOME, la ville de Dauphin au Manitoba, où tous les habitants étaient admissibles à des versements de revenus annuels garantis pendant trois ans. À partir d'archives de récits qualitatifs des participants je montre que la conception et le discours autour de la MINCOME ont amené les participants à voir les versements d'un oeil pragmatique, contrairement à la perspective moralisatrice qu'inspire le bien‐être sociale. Conformément à la théorie existante cet article constate que la participation à la MINCOME n'a pas produit de stigmate social. Plus largement, cette étude discute de la faisabilité d'autres formes d'organisation socio‐économique à travers une prise en compte des aspects moraux de la politique économique. La signification sociale de la MINCOME était suffisamment puissante pour que même les participants ayant des attitudes négatives à l'égard d'aides gouvernementales se sentirent capables de recevoir des versements de la MINCOME sans un sentiment de contradiction. En occultant les distinctions entre les “pauvres méritants” et les “pauvres non‐méritants”, les programmes universalistes de support économique peuvent affaiblir la stigmatisation sociale et augmenter la durabilité du programme. This paper examines the impact of a social experiment from the 1970s called the Manitoba Basic Annual Income Experiment (Mincome). I examine Mincome's “saturation” site located in Dauphin, Manitoba, where all town residents were eligible for guaranteed annual income payments for three years. Drawing on archived qualitative participant accounts I show that the design and framing of Mincome led participants to view payments through a pragmatic lens, rather than the moralistic lens through which welfare is viewed. Consistent with prior theory, this paper finds that Mincome participation did not produce social stigma. More broadly, this paper bears on the feasibility of alternative forms of socioeconomic organization through a consideration of the moral aspects of economic policy. The social meaning of Mincome was sufficiently powerful that even participants with particularly negative attitudes toward government assistance felt able to collect Mincome payments without a sense of contradiction. By obscuring the distinctions between the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor, universalistic income maintenance programs may weaken social stigmatization and strengthen program sustainability.     

Reintegration as an Emerging Vision of Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking

This article examines the discoursal shift to “reintegration” within trafficking protection programmes and policy, with emphasis upon Cambodia. The evidence indicates that non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) are progressively making “reintegration” their primary protective objective. Yet a lack of conceptual clarity prevails and is being exacerbated by models and forms of guidance which position NGOs as directly undertaking or providing for the achievement of reintegration. This article argues that NGOs and their practitioners cannot “reintegrate” anyone – at least not in any substantive sense. Drawing upon the discourse within the field of protection practice, a dualist conception of reintegration is proposed as comprised of “procedural” and “substantive” elements. Accordingly, the procedural delivery of assistance may or may not support the substantive attainment of reintegration. It is argued that the emerging focus upon reintegration reflects a broadened vision of justice which warrants further research into the social and cultural foundations necessary for its achievement.     

The Allocation of Male and Female Occupational Prestige in an Ontario Urban Area: A Quarter‐Century Replication*

Une étude de 1975 portant sur L'évaluation du prestige des titres de profession spécifiés comme détenus par un homme ou une femme a été répétée en 2000. Les deux enquêtes ont été conduites à Kitchener‐Waterloo en Ontario. Alors que les données de 1975 accordaient un avantage de cinq points en moyenne aux hommes sur les femmes, ce fossé des sexes a disparu en 2000. Dans les postes où le travail est plus axé sur les personnes, les femmes se voient maintenant accorder un plus haut prestige que les hommes. L'article fait référence à la manière dont ces changements sociaux sont liés au cours du dernier quart de siècle à une convergence dans L'identification sexuelle des professions. Les sources de variation dans les évaluations de L'échantillonnage de 2000 sont analysées et considérées comme minimes quoique les répondants ayant un plus haut degré d'éducation classent toutes les professions légèrement à la baisse. A 1975 study on the evaluation of the prestige of occupational titles specified as held by a man or a woman was replicated in 2000. Both surveys were collected in Kitchener‐Waterloo, Ontario. While the 1975 data revealed an average five‐point advantage to men over women, this gender gap had disappeared by the year 2000. In more people‐oriented work, women are now accorded higher prestige than men. The paper refers to how these social changes are linked with convergence over the quarter century in the sex typing of occupations. Sources of variation in ratings within the 2000 sample are examined and found to be minimal, although more highly educated respondents grade all occupations slightly on the low side.