Search

Educational expectations have increased over time, with greater increases among young women than men, yet research focused on expectations for post-baccalaureate degrees is limited. We investigate young men's and women's plans to attend graduate or professional school using Monitoring the Future data from 12th graders for 1976 to 2019, focusing on how academic performance and work and family values may be associated with post-baccalaureate expectations. We find that young women's expectations for graduate or professional school began to exceed young men's in the early 1990s and continued to do so afterward, although expectations for post-baccalaureate schooling declined some in recent years, especially among young men. Results also indicate that the gender gap over time is driven partially by more young women than men with B or lower average grades holding post-baccalaureate expectations. Work values may foster these high expectations, especially for lower-achieving young women. Finally, we examine whether post-baccalaureate expectations translate into higher attainments, and results suggest that higher-achieving students are better positioned to meet their post-baccalaureate expectations. Collectively, our findings suggest that sociocultural factors promoting women's participation in the public sphere may encourage some young women to form high-level expectations that they are not academically equipped to meet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon work effort and gendered organizations perspectives and using data from the Current Population Survey, we examine how family structure types (i.e., combinations of marital and parental statuses) shape within- and between-gender variation in the earnings of highly educated men and women working in STEM and non-STEM occupations. We find that STEM and non-STEM women earn premia for marriage and for motherhood if they are married, with higher family-related premia for STEM women. Analysis of married men and women by specific STEM category reveals the largest parenthood premium is for women in engineering. Yet, STEM men and non-STEM men generally earn more than their counterpart women, with the largest between-gender wage difference for married parents in non-STEM occupations. Taken together, these findings provide a mixed picture of movement towards gender equality in work organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most feminist scholars now recognize the importance of intersectionality; that is, examining how gender intersects with race-ethnicity, class, and other aspects of social location. We investigate how often and in what ways intersectionality has actually been addressed in research through a content analysis of empirical articles published during the late 1990's and the late 2000's in the leading journal for gender studies in sociology, Gender & Society. We find the percentage of empirical articles addressing intersectionality increased over time. But our findings also indicate more discussion is needed of ways to address intersectionality in research designs and analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper provides a recent profile of the gender and race-ethnicity of faculty in top research departments of economics, political science, and sociology. Most faculty are male, although there appear to be critical masses of women in political science and sociology. Blacks and Hispanics are underrepresented among faculty relative to their shares of the population. Within each racial-ethnic group examined, there are more male than female faculty members, with a smaller gender gap for Blacks than for other racial-ethnic groups. In general, the higher the rank, the greater the proportion of males than females, especially for Whites and Asians. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Using data from a 31-year panel study, we investigate reciprocal relationships between individuals’ attitudes about gender and their experience with a range of social settings commonly associated with the transition to adulthood. These settings include school, the labor market, independent living arrangements, cohabitation, marriage, and parenthood. We consider the extent to which gender and age moderate the relationships between attitudes about gender and exposure to these social contexts. Ordinary least squares regression and hazard models demonstrate that support for egalitarian roles for women and men in families is positively linked to subsequent school enrollment, women’s full-time employment, and independent living, but negatively associated with the subsequent timing of entry into marriage and marital parenthood. Accumulated schooling, independent living, and full-time employment are associated with changes in individuals’ attitudes about gender. Despite careful attention to gender differences, we find surprisingly little evidence that the causes and consequences of attitudes about gender differ for women and men, with the primary exception being the positive association of employment and egalitarian gender attitudes for women but not for men. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We examine gender differences in the fundamental value orientations of U.S. adolescents. We focus on concern with finding purpose and meaning in life and the basis on which meaning is derived, including connection to others and contribution to their well-being, and economic success that involves embracing the market values of materialism and competition. We develop three measures of value orientation: (1) compassion, which reflects concern and responsibility for the well-being of others; (2) materialism, which reflects emphasis on material benefit and competition; and (3) meaning, which reflects philosophical concern with finding purpose and meaning in life. We find substantial gender differences on all three measures. Females in our sample are more likely than males to express concern and responsibility for the well-being of others, less likely than males to accept materialism and competition, and more likely than males to indicate that finding purpose and meaning in life is extremely important. These differences are observed throughout the period from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s and show little sign of decreasing; they are evident across social class subgroups and cannot be explained by gender differences in religiosity or the perceived availability of social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]