Additively Decomposable Segregation Indexes. The Case of Gender Segregation by Occupations and Human Capital Levels in Spain

Building upon the ideas first exposed by Theil and Finizza (1971) and Fuchs (1975), this paper presents an additively decomposable segregation index based on the entropy concept used in information theory. For any pair of classification variables in a given year, the index is decomposed into a between-group and a within-group term. To analyze intertemporal changes in gender segregation for a given partition, the index is decomposed into two terms that capture, respectively, gender composition effects, and changes in the groups' demographic importance. These decompositions are illustrated with Spanish data on occupations and human capital levels for 1977 and 1992. It is found that, in both years, the higher the educational level, the smaller is gender segregation for most age groups. Moreover, gender segregation decreases with age in all educational categories. However, most gender segregation takes place within, rather than between, age/education categories. Lastly, changes in gender composition across occupations, nearly offset by occupational mix changes, account for a decline of 2% in total gender segregation over this period.     

职业隔离的经济效应——对我国城市就业人口职业性别歧视的分析

劳动力市场中的性别歧视是较普遍的现象,其中职业隔离是性别歧视的主要形式之一.为了分析我国城市就业人口中的职业性别隔离问题,我们使用差异指数法对当前职业隔离的程度进行了测量,并且通过CES生产函数和C-D生产函数对假定消除职业隔离后,各种职业的劳动力性别构成比例、工资水平及经济总产出变化情况做出估计,以期对打破职业隔离提供一些理论依据和政策建议.     

Racial Differences in Neighborhood Disadvantage Among Childbearing Women in New York City

Abstract

An ecological framework is utilized in this study to explore the differential neighborhood environments that existed for Black and White childbearing women in New York City during the early 1990s. We examined ecological risk factors for different racial groups in a highly segregated metropolitan city and provide a framework from which we can address issues of oppression and social inequality. This study examines neighborhood conditions and determines the extent to which Black and White women, who gave birth during 1991 and 1992, occupy differing neighborhoods in New York City and in each of the boroughs that comprise New York City-Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens (excluding Staten Island).

High and persistent residential segregation of Blacks and Whites in NYC has put Black women at a clear and significant ecological disadvantage compared to White women regardless of the borough where they lived when they gave birth to their infant. This study found that, when compared to White women, Black women in New York City are at a vast disadvantage regardless of income. In Manhattan and Queens that disparity is the greatest with low income Black women much more likely than low income White women to live in a high poverty neighborhood. Overall, in NYC and across the four boroughs studied, low income Blacks were more likely than Whites to live in neighborhoods characterized by high poverty rates, substance abuse and inadequate health care.     

Rethinking empirical approaches to racial segregation

Within empirical approaches to racial residential segregation, there has been a tendency to draw on the work of or influenced by Robert E. Park and his ecological hypothesis to explore social and spatial relations between members of different ethnic and racial groups, thus framing research within a race relations paradigm. This has promoted an analysis which naturalizes racial differences but which also sidelines structural considerations. In turn this approach has also fed into political discourses on segregation, at times supporting more reactionary positions. This paper seeks to address this debate by considering whether emphasis on minority ethnic concentration sidelines the more pertinent issue of concentration in deprived areas, suggesting that neighbourhood deprivation as a measure can be more easily aligned with structural conditions which have influenced the settlement and historical experience of many ethnic minority communities. Specifically, I consider the extent to which a measure of neighbourhood deprivation is more important than the ethnic composition of an area for thinking about the distribution of inequalities in unemployment (as one example of socio‐economic inequality). Using multilevel logistic regression I find neighbourhood income deprivation to be more important than levels of co‐ethnic concentration for explaining ethnic differences in unemployment. The findings imply that neighbourhood deprivation is significantly more important for considering inequalities in unemployment for ethnic minorities than the ethnic composition of an area.     

Still in the Ghetto? Experiences of Secretarial Work in the 21st Century

Secretarial work has been described as one of the most persistently gendered of all occupations. Historically, it has been characterized as a ghetto occupation with three key features: low status and poor pay, narrow and feminized job content and poor promotion prospects. Twenty years ago, when a major study last took place in the UK, it was thought that new office technologies might transform the role, leading to a newly defined occupation equally appealing to both men and women. In this article, we report on the findings of a questionnaire survey involving 1011 secretaries. We found evidence of continuity and change. Secretaries are now better qualified and generally well‐paid. A minority is undertaking complex managerial tasks. However, most secretaries continue to perform traditional tasks and career prospects for all remain bleak. We conclude that processes of role gender‐typing are deeply entrenched and that secretarial work remains largely a ghetto occupation.     

“We Can Have It All”

Focusing primarily on films made in 2008 and 2009, this article examines the phenomenon of the girlfriend flick. Films such as Sex and the City, Baby Mama, The Women, and Bride Wars depict female friendship's priority in intimate culture, celebrating supportive and loving relationships over heterosexual romance. Exploring these films through the intersection between feminism and postfeminism, this article asks whether the girlfriend flick transcends limited understandings of sisterhood to include difference and to constructively explore conflict between women. This article argues that these films advocate a retreat into a segregated female sphere; not as radicalisation, but as a space where women monitor each other's drive for physical perfection and/or marriage and motherhood. Ultimately, they depict female friendship as maintaining “representable” femininities and producing sameness.     

专业选择与初职获得的性别差异:基于“首都大学生成长追踪调查”的发现

高等教育的扩张大大缩小了两性受教育程度的差距,年轻一代的女性接受大学教育的比例甚至超过了男性。研究高等教育横向分层维度对理解劳动力市场的性别不平等尤为必要。基于“首都大学生成长追踪调查”数据,本研究从大学专业隔离的角度入手,分析大学毕业生初职获得的性别差异。分析发现,首都高校存在明显的专业性别隔离：女生更多地集中在文学、历史、艺术等专业,而男生更多地集中在理工科类专业。大学专业对毕业后个体能否进入男性主导职业具有显著影响。相较于男性,女性进入男性主导职业的概率更低,在控制了专业后,这一差异显著降低。非线性Blinder-Oaxaca分解结果进一步显示,若男女在专业分布上没有差异,不同性别群体进入男性主导职业的概率差异会减少40%～50%。该发现对理解城市高等教育水平劳动力市场中职业性别隔离现象的形成机制具有重要意义。     

梦中的田园——论废名、沈从文小说的人性美母题

废名和沈从文的小说中都渗透进了“梦”的成分,以对人性美的充分展示,营造起“梦中的田园”。废名的田园中藏匿着禅趣,沈从文的田园呈现出“神性”。相比之下,狭窄者个人体验开出了绚丽的花,宽广者承载起理想的“人生形式”。二人的“恋梦情结”表现为出离红尘的沉迷和梦境难圆的悲凉。写梦手法:一偏重蕴蓄禅趣,一偏重呼唤真情;一刻意制造“间隔”,一执著追求“融通”。“梦中的田园”价值在净化心灵、陶冶情操。     

From neighbors to school friends? How adolescents’ place of residence relates to same-ethnic school friendships

This study examines to what extent adolescents’ place of residence is related to the opportunities and the preferences to befriend same-ethnic classmates. Analyzing 3345 students within 158 German and Dutch school classes, we find that sharing a neighborhood provides additional meeting opportunities to become friends in class as adolescents are likely to befriend classmates who live nearby them or who live nearby a friend of them (propinquity mechanism). However, this hardly explains why adolescent friendship networks in school classes tend to be ethnically homogeneous. Also, we find no convincing evidence that an adolescent's preference for same-ethnic friends in class varies with the share of outgroup members in his/her neighborhood (exposure mechanism).     

Denying systemic inequality in segregated Chilean schools: race-neutral discourses among administrative and teaching staff

This article addresses the educational context in which ethnically segregated high poverty schools operate in Chile, and the ways that inequalities within these establishments are understood by members of their administrative and teaching staff. In particular we draw attention to the unwillingness of the majority of these employees to name or recognize specific forms of institutional inequality. Following critical pedagogy literature we argue that the Chilean education system reproduces a fear of talk among teachers working in areas with high density indigenous populations, which obscures unequal social structures and opportunities for specific (class, gender, ethnic) groups in school contexts. Based on data from 12 interviews with school staff and observations from four schools in southern Chile, we analyze how intersecting inequality is discursively reduced by predominantly white teachers to individual deficit, de-politicized geographical problems of access to schooling, and the normalizing of low achievement across schools with students from similar backgrounds.