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Recent attention to the "stalled revolution" in gender inequality calls attention to the question whether individual identification with gender egalitarianism may have eroded. This paper addresses that issue by examining differences in feminist self-identification between 1996 and 2010 across gender and generational groups. Utilizing data from the General Social Survey, we show that overall levels of feminist identification remained relatively constant over this period. Only "baby bust" men showed any statistically significant evidence of increased feminism, and that change was only to the levels of earlier male cohorts. While there has been no substantial rise in feminist identification over this period, neither has there been a wholesale collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost all of the decline in occupational sex segregation since 1960 has occurred in middle-class occupations; the working-class has been largely left out of this occupational transformation. This paper first illustrates these trends using data on a constant set of 179 occupations from the US Census PUMS from 1950-2000, and then examines the degree to which expanding opportunities in the middle-class occupations account for the integration of middle-class rather than working-class occupations. Results confirm that the more new positions that had to be filled, the more women entered those occupations. Regression analyses across these 179 occupations show that once growth rates are controlled, the previously significant class relationship with increasing female representation declines to statistical non-significance. These findings suggest that integration may be more likely in an environment of expanding opportunity structures, but less so when those opportunities are more limited, and greater occupational closure is in effect. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After becoming consistently more egalitarian for more than two decades, gender role attitudes turned more conservative in the last decade. This shift is consistent with a broader set of changes that may indicate a fundamental alteration in the momentum toward gender equality. Using data from the General Social Survey, this paper describes the trends in gender role attitudes from 1974 to 2004 and then tests competing explanations for the trends. Results show that while cohort replacement can do much to explain the increasing egalitarianism between 1974 and 1994, the reversal of attitudes in the mid-1990s and beyond is not accounted for by cohort differences. Importantly, within-cohorts, individuals have become considerably more conservative since the mid-1990s. These effects are not explained by either structural or broad ideological changes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous media stories, be they on 60 Minutes, the NY Times editorial page, or the cover of Time Magazine, have discussed the recent retreat of married mothers from the labor force, a retreat referred to by some as the "opt-out" revolution. This paper moves the discussion of "why the retreat" from simple anecdotes to systematic analysis. After rising for decades, married mothers' labor force participation rates stopped increasing in the 1990s. In this paper we explore possible explanations for this significant change, including human capital, labor demand, and cultural explanations. Using both PSID and CPS data, and analyses of both levels of participation and transitions into/out of the labor force, we find that much of the leveling off of married mothers' participation can be traced back to a change in the underlying structure of labor market transitions that emerged in the late 1970s / early 1980s. We posit this change reflects the impact of feminism and the subsequent counter-feminist movement that gave rise to the "new momism" ideology that began its ascent in the 1980s. We conclude that change in gender relations may reflect a punctuated equilibrium... periods of stability followed by significant "shocks" to the existing gender order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines changes in work-related gender inequality in the 1990s, placing these changes in the context of trends over the last half of the twentieth century. We address contemporary patterns with data from the 2000 Census as well as change over time with data from the 1950 to 2000 Censuses. Our central finding is that the extent of gender inequality in the labor market as measured by labor force participation, occupational gender segregation, and the gender earnings gap remained stable or worsened in the 1990s. This retrenchment in the 1990s is notable in that it follows nearly four decades of sustained improvements in labor market gender inequalities. We also examine nonmarket measures of gender inequality to determine if the labor market trends for the 1990s mirror those of other areas of social life. Women?s share of political offices, the gender segregation of educational fields, and support for liberal gender role attitudes also stabilized or worsened in the 1990s suggesting that broad cultural shifts may be underway that have widespread impacts on the gender regime in the late 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we demonstrate how spatial variation in social capital (e.g., civic associations) affects the support networks families rely on which, in turn, affects their ability to avoid economic hardships (e.g. the inability to pay rent, hunger). We find widespread economic hardship, with nearly 1 in 3 families having experienced at least one of eight hardships. Families experience more hardship when support networks (kin, friends, charities) are weaker. Multilevel models show that metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas with higher levels of social capital provide stronger support networks to families who, therefore, suffer less economic hardship. The type of social capital also makes a difference: civic social capital (e.g., civic associations, labor unions, religious organizations) is associated with more social support and less hardship, but elite social capital (e.g., business associations) is associated with more hardships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]