Navigation

You are here: Home › Gender

Tag Archives | Gender

Commuting and Gender Differences in Job Opportunities

By on March 14, 2025 in Articles

Silvia Avram

Sociological Science March 14, 2025
10.15195/v12.a8

Abstract

PDF (852 views)
0 Citation

Article has an altmetric score of 6

Women tend to commute shorter distances and earn lower wages. The theory suggests that more mobile workers are likely to command higher wages, in part because they have access to more job opportunities. We show how information on employment concentration and commuting patterns can be linked to build an index of labor market opportunities, using linked administrative and household survey data from the UK. Although labor markets are porous, commonly used measures of employment concentration require well-defined geographical boundaries. We overcome this problem by combining employment concentration indices calculated using areas of different sizes and using the individual commuting costs as weights. We show that women have higher commuting costs and, as a result, their labor markets are smaller and their job opportunities are more limited.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

0

Getting a Foot in the Door: A Meta-Analysis of U.S. Audit Studies of Gender Bias in Hiring

By on January 9, 2025 in Articles

So Yun Park, Eunsil Oh

Sociological Science January 9, 2025
10.15195/v12.a2

Abstract

PDF (2093 views)
0 Citation

Article has an altmetric score of 17


For the past three decades, scholars have conducted field experiments to examine gender-based hiring discrimination in the United States. However, these studies have produced mixed results. To further interpret these findings, we performed a meta-analysis of 37 audit studies conducted between 1990 and 2022. Using an aggregated sample of 243,202 fictitious job applications, the study finds no evidence of statistically significant gender discrimination at the study level. However, a series of more focused meta-analyses reveal important variations in the extent of discrimination by occupation type and applicant race. First, the gender composition of an occupation predicts gender bias in hiring. Second, the intersection of gender and race is critical—in female-dominated jobs, White female applicants receive more callbacks than their male counterparts, but Black female applicants experience no such benefit. The study contributes to the literature on labor market and gender (in)equality by synthesizing the findings of field experiments.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


0

Opportunities for Faculty Tenure at Globally Ranked Universities: Cross-National Differences by Gender, Fields, and Tenure Status

By on November 26, 2024 in Articles

Mana Nakagawa, Christine Min Wotipka, Elizabeth Buckner

Sociological Science November 12, 2024
10.15195/v11.a39

Abstract

PDF (1331 views)
0 Citation

Article has an altmetric score of 9


Drawing on a unique data set of almost 12,000 faculty members from 52 globally ranked universities in four fields (sociology, biology, history, and engineering), this study describes and explains gender differences in tenure among faculty across 13 countries. In our sample, women comprise roughly one-third of all faculty and only 23 percent of tenured faculty, with significant variation across fields and countries. Findings from a series of multilevel regression analyses suggest support for a gender filter argument: women are less likely to be tenured overall and in every field. Opportunities for tenure also matter. In countries with very low- and high-tenure rates, women are much less likely to be tenured relative to men than in countries with pathways both into and upward in academia.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


0

Social Status and the Moral Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence

By on October 29, 2024 in Articles

Patrick Schenk, Vanessa A. Müller, Luca Keiser

Sociological Science October 29, 2024
10.15195/v11.a36

Abstract

PDF (1825 views)
0 Citation

Article has an altmetric score of 2


The morality of artificial intelligence (AI) has become a contentious topic in academic and public debates. We argue that AI’s moral acceptance depends not only on its ability to accomplish a task in line with moral norms but also on the social status attributed to AI. Agent type (AI vs. computer program vs. human), gender, and organizational membership impact moral permissibility. In a factorial survey experiment, 578 participants rated the moral acceptability of agents performing a task (e.g., cancer diagnostics). We find that using AI is judged less morally acceptable than employing human agents. AI used in high-status organizations is judged more morally acceptable than in low-status organizations. No differences were found between computer programs and AI. Neither anthropomorphic nor gender framing had an effect. Thus, human agents in high-status organizations receive a moral surplus purely based on their structural position in a cultural status hierarchy regardless of their actual performance.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


0

Unemployment Insurance and the Family: Heterogeneous Effects of Benefit Generosity on Reemployment and Economic Precarity

By on August 16, 2024 in Articles

Ursina Kuhn, Debra Hevenstone, Leen Vandecasteele, Samin Sepahniya, Dorian Kessler

Sociological Science August 16, 2024
10.15195/v11.a24

Abstract

PDF (697 views)
0 Citation


We investigate how unemployment insurance generosity impacts reemployment and economic precarity by family type. With Swiss longitudinal administrative data and a regression discontinuity design using potential benefit duration, we examine differences between single households and primary and secondary or equal earners, as well as differences by gender and presence of children. Less generous unemployment insurance (shorter potential benefit duration) speeds up reemployment for all family types during the period with benefit cuts whereas longer-term effects are stronger for single households, secondary and equal earners, and those without children. Economic precarity increases for singles, single-parents, and primary earners during the period with lower benefits though there are no long-term effects. We argue that those with higher financial responsibility (i.e., primary earners or those with children) face pressure to find jobs irrespective of benefit generosity whereas those with lower financial responsibility (i.e., secondary or equal earners and those without children) have more capacity to react.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


0

Disparate Impact? Career Disruptions and COVID-19 Impact Statements in Tenure Evaluations

By on August 13, 2024 in Articles

Lauren A. Rivera, Katherine Weisshaar, András Tilcsik

Sociological Science August 13, 2024
10.15195/v11.a23

Abstract

PDF (780 views)
0 Citation


Extensive research reveals employer biases against workers with career disruptions, particularly those related to caregiving. However, the effectiveness of organizational practices intended to mitigate such biases is less well understood. This study examines the use of COVID-19 impact statements in tenure decisions at research universities, an organizational intervention that was designed to reduce biases but raised concerns that it might inadvertently amplify them. Contrary to concerns about unintended consequences, a pre-registered survey experiment with 602 full professors in STEM fields reveals that the inclusion of impact statements leads to more favorable tenure evaluations, regardless of faculty gender and disruption type. Qualitative evidence suggests that perceptions of pandemic-related disruptions as legitimate, externally imposed, time-limited events in the past help circumvent previously documented biases. This study enhances our understanding of organizational practices that effectively mitigate biases and points to the potential role of narrative framing in workplace evaluations and organizational inequalities.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


0

Emerging Pronoun Practices After the Procedural Turn: Disclosure, Discovery, and Repair

By on March 1, 2024 in Articles

Julieta Goldenberg, Rogers Brubaker

Sociological Science March 1, 2024
10.15195/v11.a4

Abstract

PDF (1369 views)
0 Citation


We examine emerging practices of pronoun disclosure, discovery, and repair after the procedural turn in pronoun politics, which shifted attention from the substantive question of which pronouns should be used to the procedural question of how preferred pronouns, whatever they might be, could be effectively communicated to others. Drawing on interviews with and observations of college students and recent graduates who are committed in principle to using preferred pronouns, we consider how they seek to do so in practice, focusing on practices of disclosure, discovery, and repair. We underscore the gap between the knowledge that is required in principle to use preferred pronouns consistently and the imperfect knowledge that pronoun-users have in practice, and we show how the use of preferred pronouns creates new forms of interactional accountability.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


0

Breaking Barriers or Persisting Traditions? Fertility Histories, Occupational Achievements, and Intergenerational Mobility of Italian Women

By on February 25, 2024 in Articles

Filippo Gioachin, Anna Zamberlan

Sociological Science February 25, 2024
10.15195/v11.a3

Abstract

PDF (624 views)
0 Citation


Women and men share comparable levels of intergenerational social mobility in all Western economies, except for Southern European countries, where women’s life chances appear less determined by their family background. This is puzzling given Southern European’s persistent familialism, lack of institutional support for mothers, and the strong influence of social origin. We examine the role of women’s social class of origin on occupational achievements across birth cohorts in Italy, focusing on the close link between fertility dynamics and social mobility opportunities. By leveraging nationally representative retrospective data, we observed that middle- and working-class women experienced upgraded occupational achievements across birth cohorts in conjunction with educational expansion. Conversely, upper-class women exhibited consistently lower occupational achievements, especially those becoming mothers at a comparatively younger age, facing a higher risk of intergenerational downward mobility. Notably, the poorer labor market achievements of recent generations of upper-class women compared to the previous generations already emerged at labor market entry, suggesting that adverse self-selection mechanisms in early motherhood might be largely responsible for Italian women’s greater overall relative mobility. In Italy, women’s higher social mobility than men’s more likely reflects persistent traditional work–family choices among the better-off than a signal of growing equality of opportunity.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


0

"Was It Me or Was It Gender Discrimination?" How Women Respond to Ambiguous Incidents at Work

By on September 11, 2023 in Articles

Laura Doering, Jan Doering, András Tilcsik

Sociological Science September 11, 2023
10.15195/v10.a18

Abstract

PDF (2990 views)
0 Citation

Article has an altmetric score of 76


Research shows that people often feel emotional distress when they experience a potentially discriminatory incident but cannot classify it conclusively. In this study, we propose that the ramifications of such ambiguous incidents extend beyond interior, emotional costs to include socially consequential action (or inaction) at work. Taking a mixed-methods approach, we examine how professional women experience and respond to incidents that they believe might have been gender discrimination, but about which they feel uncertain. Our interviews show that women struggle with how to interpret and respond to ambiguous incidents. Survey data show that women experience ambiguous incidents more often than incidents they believe were obviously discriminatory. Our vignette experiment reveals that women anticipate responding differently to the same incident depending on its level of ambiguity. Following incidents that are obviously discriminatory, women anticipate taking actions that make others aware of the problem; following ambiguous incidents, women anticipate changing their own work habits and self-presentation. This study establishes ambiguous gendered incidents as a familiar element of many women’s work lives that must be considered to address unequal gendered experiences at work.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


0

The Religious Work Ethic and the Spirit of Patriarchy: Religiosity and the Gender Gap in Working for Its Own Sake, 1977 to 2018

By on March 9, 2022 in Articles

Landon Schnabel, Cyrus Schleifer, Eman Abdelhadi, Samuel L. Perry

Sociological Science March 9, 2022
10.15195/v9.a4

Abstract

PDF (2448 views)
0 Citation

Article has an altmetric score of 24


Societal beliefs about women’s work have long been a metric for gender equality, with recent scholarship focusing on trends in these attitudes to assess the progress (or stalling) of the gender revolution. Moving beyond widely critiqued gender attitude questions thought to be the only available items for measuring change over time, this article considers women’s and men’s views toward their own work over the last half century. Traditional gender scripts frame women’s labor force participation as less than ideal, something to do if financially necessary but not because work is intrinsically rewarding. Historically, this gender frame was reinforced by religion. We examine the gender gap in working for its own sake over time and whether and how religious involvement moderates these trends. Overall, the gender gap has declined to the point where it is now virtually nonexistent. However, religious involvement acts as a countervailing influence, bolstering the gap such that frequently attending men and women have not yet converged in their desire to work. Although the most religious Americans have not yet converged, men’s dropping desire to work and women’s rising desire to work are society-wide trends, and even the most religious Americans could be expected to converge at some point in the future. Traditionalist institutions contribute to unevenness in the gender revolution, but preferences cannot explain the persistent society-wide precarity of women’s work: Women now prefer to work for work’s sake at the same rate men do.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


0
SiteLock