GOOD PEOPLE DOING DIRTY WORK: A STUDY OF SOCIAL ISOLATION*

Everett Hughes (1964), in his essay “Good People and Dirty Work”, implies that those who engage in dirty work may be defective in some way, a view that reflects society's perception of dirty workers. However, many of them perceive themselves to be good people doing dirty work. In this paper we examine the consequences of this disjunction between the audience's and the self's perception. We examine members of a dirty work occupation: bailbondsmen. Many of these individuals are found to be socially isolated. This isolation is the result of their belief that they have been unjustly accused of corrupt and corrupting behavior and their desire to be seen and accepted as respectable. Rejected by members of respectable society and rejecting association with like others who may taint their attempts for respectability, they become socially isolated. Ironically, by proclaiming their innocence they, unlike their truly accused counterparts, find little social support or possibility of becoming integrated into respectable society.     

COUNSELING BATTERED WOMEN FROM FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCHES*

In addition to the emotional, physical, and economic issues that all abused women face, battered women from fundamentalist churches have religious issues that need to be addressed. While therapists usually leave discussion of such matters to the clergy, in the case of domestic violence, the fundamentalist clergy is likely to be unsupportive or to even unknowingly endanger battered women because of their legalistic attitudes about marriage and sex roles. It is, thus, imperative that the professional counselor understand these issues and be willing to discuss them. This article explains five teachings of fundamentalist churches, explores how they help perpetuate violent relationships, and offers suggestions to therapists on how to speak with clients about these issues.     

A POPULATION PROFILE OF VERY OLD MEN AND WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

This article presents the first population profile of men and women age 85 and over. It was developed with the 1980 census PUMS sample A, of which nearly 70% were women. Men were better off than women in both socioeconomic and relational characteristics in that they had higher personal incomes from nearly all sources and were far more likely to be married and living independently. They were not found in nursing homes in as great a proportion as were very old women. In a sense, then, the generalizations about the very old have a female bias.     

HETEROGENOUS COUPLES IN HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGES: GAY MEN AND STRAIGHT WOMEN*

This article, which is based on in-depth interviews of gay men who had been married, focuses on the nature of the spousal relationship and the almost inevitable marital disruption. It describes the conditions which bring about the man's disclosure of his homosexuality, the means of disclosure he uses, the wife's response, and the interactional effects the disclosure and response have on the marriage relationship. Most of the marriages ended in divorce. Regardless of whether the wife was accepting or rejecting of her husband as a homosexual, she appeared to be an enabler of his transition to a homosexual lifestyle. Implications for counseling are discussed.     

FROM RACISM TO TOKENISM: THE CHANGING FACE OF BLACKS IN NEW YORKER CARTOONS

Cartoons published in the weekly magazine New Yorker duringthe years 1946–87 were analyzed to determine how oftenblacks appeared as characters and whether the proportion ofblacks portrayed had changed over time. Cartoons were furtherexamined for possible changes in the styles of characterizationof U.S. blacks since the post-Word War II period. Although blackcharacters were extremely rare throughout the 42 years, therelative numbers of blacks depicted decreased with the passageof each time period. Styles of portraying black characters alsochanged markedly over the years, in keeping with the changingstatus of blacks in the United States. All cartoons from theearliest period presented U.S. blacks in stereotypic occupationalroles, cartoons in the late 1960s and early 1970s were dominatedby racial themes, and blacks appeared in "token" roles in themajority of cartoons from the most recent period investigated.In the entire 42 years, only a single U.S. black appeared asa main character in a cartoon in which race was completely irrelevant.     

LIVING ALONE IN OLD AGE:

We examine the social organization of "living alone" using both the narratives of elderly women and the academic, professional, and popular cultural textual discourses in which ideological practices are organized about this manner of living and housing. Using institutional ethnography, we examine the organizing practices of living alone through an analysis of the gender and class relations in the institution of housing. We argue that housing regimes are the work of those involved: ordinary people, builders, developers, bankers, psychologists, gerontologists, social workers, foundations, federal employees, demographers, and magazine publishers. The work activities are ordered, successfully or not, by culturally standard idealizations of old age relevant to the ideologies of the various participants in the housing regime. Such practices make women's own knowledge invisible and authorize the housing regime to define and ameliorate the situation of living alone, especially with respect to the maintenance of "independence" under contemporary capitalism.     

CAREER COMMITMENTS OF AMERICAN WOMEN:

The side bets of career commitment in the form of education, occupational preparation, employer selection, full-time involvement, role-conflict avoidance, incorporation of the career into the self-concept and the building of a relatively congruent construction of reality are examined for a sample of metropolitan women aged 25 to 54. The most committed select a specific occupation, obtain appropriate education and job training and organize their role cluster, generalized self and construction of reality around being career women or at least paid workers. It is possible, however, that some of these side bets are very difficult to establish in the conservative climate of current America.     

WOMEN AND CRIME: AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

This paper analyzes the determinants of female participation in criminal activities through the use of an economic model of crime. The model is tested empirically on 1970 state data on female arrests and the results are generally consistent with the theoretical predictions. The major findings are that the probability of arrest and the probability of conviction have significant deterrent effects on female property crime, the labor force participation rate of married women has no effect and the average number of preschool children in husband-wife families has a negative and significant effect. The decrease in the average number of preschool children per husband-wife family that took place between 1960 and 1970 is shown to have accounted for more than half of the increase in female property crime that occurred during that decade .     

SUICIDE AS AN INDEX OF ROLE STRAIN AMONG EMPLOYED AND NOT EMPLOYED MARRIED WOMEN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA*

Une comparaison est effectuée entre les taux de suicide chez les femmes mariés qui travaillent et chez celles qui ne travaillent pas afin de tester 1'idée que les coûts de travailler, à savoir, les conflits de rôle et la surcharge, sont plus importants que les a vantages économiques et ceux provenants des liens sociaux. L'analyse des taux de suicide en CB en 1961 et 1971 suggère cependant que les bénéfices dépassent les coûts. L'examen des taux de suicide chez les femmes de d'autres états maritaux suggère que 1'avantage principal de travailler est social plutôt qu'économique. D'autres explications des résultats sont discutées. Suicide rates of married women who work are compared with the rates of those who do not in order to test the proposition that the costs of working, that is, role conflict and role overload, outweigh the economic and affiliative benefits. Analysis of suicide rates in BC in 1961 and 1971 suggests, however, that the benefits of working outweigh the costs. Consideration of the rates of suicide among women of other marital statuses suggests that the main benefit of working may be affiliative rather than economic. Alternative explanations of the findings are discussed.     

WOMEN SOCIOLOGISTS IN THE MIDWEST: A STATUS UPDATE

In this article, an earlier study of the status of academic women sociologists in the Midwest that was extended to 1984–1985 is discussed. Type of appointment, rank, and chairpersons, as well as position in a Ph.D. rather than an M.A. program were used in the study as indicators of employment status. Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) leadership positions and participation in the annual MSS meeting served as indicators of professional participation. The results show that gains in employment status for women slowed in the 1980s. Employment of women in sociology department positions, especially in full-time positions and higher ranks, continued to lag behind the proportion of women Ph.D.s in the field. Women were overrepresented in the secondary labor market of part-time employment. However, women are now almost as likely to be employed in Ph.D. as well as M.A. programs. While gains in employment status generally slowed, professional participation has accellerated in recent years. Possible explanations for the differential penetrability of the two realms are offered. The appropriateness of statistical parity as a standard for evaluating equality in academic employment also is discussed. This article proposes that structural barriers to employment equity for women may not be more significant than direct discrimination.     

DOMESTICATING WOMEN, CIVILIZING MEN: Rousseau's Political Program

I argue in this study that when Rousseau's oeuvre is read as a whole, the novels as well as the conventional texts of political theroy, it reveals a political program for reform of the ancient regime. This reform is founded on a reform of domestic mores. Rousseau's attendant conception of the relations between private and public spheres is more unified than that found in modern sociology. Rousseau shows that the domestic role of women is a structural precondition for a “modern” society.

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ALWAYS SINGLE AND SINGLE AGAIN WOMEN: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

What is it like to be a single woman today? Are the experiences of women who have always been single different from those who find themselves single again after having been married? How can family therapists promote the development of single women both individually and relationally? The purpose of this phenomenological, multiple-case study was to investigate perceptions of being single among heterosexual single women between the ages of 30 and 65. Nine focus group interviews and a semistructured, mailed questionnaire were used to collect the data. Constant comparative analyses were used to develop the findings. The findings were organized around the most salient theme that emerged from the analyses: single women have unresolved or unrecognized ambivalences about being single. This overaching theme was supported by three subassertions: (a) single women are aware of both the advantages and the drawbacks of being single; (b) single women are ambivalent about the reasons for their singleness; (c) although content with being single, many women simultaneously experience feelings of loss and grief. Implications for the clinical practice of family therapy and future research on single women are discussed.     

WOMEN AND THE AGED AS MINORITY GROUPS: A CRITIQUE

Cet article examine de façon critique les arguments pour et contre l'application du concept de groupe minoritaire à deux sous-groupes qui traditionnellement n'ont pas été inclus sous ce concept: les femmes et les gens âgés. Les débatants ont eu tendance à utiliseressentiellement la même definition de groupe minoritaire, y incluant à la fois des éléments de structure sociale et des éléments socio-psychologiques. Mais ils ne sont pas d'accord sur l'importance relative de ces éléments et sur les évaluations et interprétations de l'évidence empirique pertinente. Les débats montrent que le concept de groupe minoritaire, malgré son attrait idéologique, est encore ambigu, mal operationalisé et ne rend pas sensible aux changements temporels dans la position du groupe. Les efforts récents de redéfinition et d'élargissement de ce à quoi il se supporte n'ont pas réussi à résoudre les problèmes conceptuels et méthodologiques sous-jacents. Des suggestions sont faites dans ce sens. This paper critically examines contrasting arguments over the extension of the minority group concept to two subgroups outside the traditional minority perspective: women and the aged. The participants in these debates have tended to utilize an essentially similar definition of minority group which encompasses both social structural and social psychological elements. But they have disagreed on the relative importance of these elements and on the evaluations and interpretations of relevant empirical evidence. The debates reveal that the minority group concept, though ideologically attractive, is still ambiguously defined, poorly operationalized. and insensitive to changes in a group's position over time. Recent attempts at redefining it and broadening its referents have not succeeded in clarifying the conceptual and methodological issues underlying the current debates. Suggestions are made toward this clarification.     

SIBLINGS REVISITED: OLD CONFLICTS AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN LATER LIFE

This article discusses and gives clinical examples of crises that occur among and affect adult siblings in later life. They may be related to normative changes or they may be conflicts that have an impact on the well-being of the current family. Both are viewed as unique opportunities for resolution and reconciliation that can lead to a more realistic view of the past, and they may break an unfortunate cycle affecting future generations. Therapists are urged to be aware of and utilize these forces so that healing can take place.     

DIRTY DATA IN BRITAIN AND THE USA: THE RELIABILITY OF "INVARIANT" CHARACTERISTICS REPORTED IN SURVEYS

This section of the Quarterly is reserved for brief reportsof research in progress, discussions of unsolved problems, methodologicalstudies, and public opinion data not extensively analyzed orinterpreted. Succinct case histories are welcomed, as well ashypotheses and insights that may be useful to other studentsof public opinion. Usually, material in this section will beshorter, more informal, and more tentative than in precedingpages of the Quarterly     

WOMEN ATHLETES AS FALSELY ACCUSED DEVIANTS: Managing the Lesbian Stigma

As the behavior of women athletes is often interpreted to violate gender norms, women athletes are frequently devalued and stigmatized. The present study examines the manner in which such devaluation and stigmatization impact on women athletes and how these athletes manage the lesbian label attached to their sport participation. In-depth telephone interviews were conducted with 24 intercollegiate athletes from three Division I universities. Processes underlying athletes' responses parallel Becker's construction of the "falsely accused deviant" and Goffman's conceptualization of "stigma management." Factors leading to false accusation of lesbianism are discussed, as well as the various mechanisms utilized by athletes to manage the lesbian label.