Occupational pursuits of free American women: An analysis of newspaper ads, 1800–1849

Recent studies have challenged a long-prevailing notion that free women held unusually high economic status in colonial America. The present study tests a corresponding idea that the 19th century afforded American women fewer occupational opportunities, with a resulting loss in freedom and status. Drawing from a large and broad sample of newspapers, we examine the distribution of occupational pursuits and changes in this distribution over time, and then compare these findings with observations from an earlier study for the 18th century. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the ideology of separate spheres, increasing divorce patterns, and the growth of the midwestern frontier.An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in August 1991.     

A critical review of graphics for subgroup analyses in clinical trials

Subgroup analyses are a routine part of clinical trials to investigate whether treatment effects are homogeneous across the study population. Graphical approaches play a key role in subgroup analyses to visualise effect sizes of subgroups, to aid the identification of groups that respond differentially, and to communicate the results to a wider audience. Many existing approaches do not capture the core information and are prone to lead to a misinterpretation of the subgroup effects. In this work, we critically appraise existing visualisation techniques, propose useful extensions to increase their utility and attempt to develop an effective visualisation approach. We focus on forest plots, UpSet plots, Galbraith plots, subpopulation treatment effect pattern plot, and contour plots, and comment on other approaches whose utility is more limited. We illustrate the methods using data from a prostate cancer study.     

Negotiating needletime: the Musicians’ Union,the BBC and the record companies,c. 1920–1990

This article examines an important, but hitherto largely overlooked, licensing system which operated in the UK between the late 1920s and late 1980s and limited the amount of recorded music that broadcasters could use in radio progammes. Known as ‘needletime’ the system was formalized in the 1930s when the BBC reached a collective agreement with the UK’s record companies – here acting via the copyright licensing society Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) – about the amount of records that it could play. Drawing on previously unused materials, the article provides a revisionist account of the development of needletime, focusing on the actions of a third party, the Musicians’ Union (MU). As is shown, the MU was able to exercise influence on both camps and thus to have a profound impact on the development of music radio and the wider music industries in the UK. Previous accounts of needletime are critiqued and it is suggested that, while it was accused of operating ‘restrictive practices’, the MU’s role can be seen more as an attempt to ensure that the suitably remunerated employment of musicians was as widespread as possible. Needletime emerges as perhaps the key agreement thus far within the UK’s music industries’ industrial relations.     

Ordentliche Arbeiterkinder,konzentrierte Mittelschichtkinder?

Conscientiousness has proved to be one of the most important non-cognitive skills for success in the life course, especially in terms of education and employment. The development of this trait becomes therefore a subject of inequality research. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) a Structural Equation Model is estimated. The main question is whether the development of the child’s conscientiousness is determined by the mother’s personality or by their social origin and, furthermore, in how far these correlations are mediated by the mother’s parenting practices. In order to answer this question the differentiation between ability to focus and orderliness as two different facets of conscientiousness is of central interest. The facet ability to focus is the important one for stratification. Not only is it highly influenced by the mother’s personality, but to a similar extend the influence of social backround could be found. It could be shown, that the mother’s skill-oriented parenting practices similar to those described in the work of Lareau, partially mediate the effect of social backround on the childs’ ability to focus.     

The effect of child maltreatment on illegal and problematic behaviour: new evidence on the ‘cycle of violence’ using twins data

This paper investigates the effect of physical and sexual child maltreatment on several types of illegal and problematic behaviour. By using variation within pairs of twins, we are able to mitigate concerns about confounding factors from previous studies. Using ordinary least squares and twin fixed effects estimation approaches, we find that child maltreatment has a large effect on illegal and problematic behaviours such as drug abuse, conduct disorders, and crime. The estimated effects suggest an increase of illegal and problematic behaviour between 50 and 100%. Our findings are consistent with the so-called cycle of violence hypothesis.