Diversity
Neil Gross & Ethan Fosse
Theory and Society, March 2012, Pages 127-168
Abstract:
The political liberalism of professors - an important occupational group and anomaly according to traditional theories of class politics - has long puzzled sociologists. This article sheds new light on the subject by employing a two-step analytic procedure. In the first step, we assess the explanatory power of the main hypotheses proposed over the last half century to account for professors' liberal views. To do so, we examine hypothesized predictors of the political gap between professors and other Americans using General Social Survey data pooled from 1974-2008. Results indicate that professors are more liberal than other Americans because a higher proportion possess advanced educational credentials, exhibit a disparity between their levels of education and income, identify as Jewish, non-religious, or non-theologically conservative Protestant, and express greater tolerance for controversial ideas. In the second step of our article, we develop a new theory of professors' politics on the basis of these findings (though not directly testable with our data) that we think holds more explanatory promise than existing approaches and that sets an agenda for future research.
----------------------
Ryan Muldoon, Tony Smith & Michael Weisberg
Philosophy of Science, January 2012, Pages 38-62
Abstract:
This article examines a series of Schelling-like models of residential segregation, in which agents prefer to be in the minority. We demonstrate that as long as agents care about the characteristics of their wider community, they tend to end up in a segregated state. We then investigate the process that causes this and conclude that the result hinges on the similarity of informational states among agents of the same type. This is quite different from Schelling-like behavior and suggests (in his terms) that segregation is an instance of macrobehavior that can arise from a wide variety of micromotives.
----------------------
Affirmative Action Policies Promote Women and Do Not Harm Efficiency in the Laboratory
Loukas Balafoutas & Matthias Sutter
Science, 3 February 2012, Pages 579-582
Abstract:
Gender differences in choosing to enter competitions are one source of unequal labor market outcomes concerning wages and promotions. Given that studying the effects of policy interventions to support women is difficult with field data because of measurement problems and potential lack of control, we evaluated, in a set of controlled laboratory experiments, four interventions: quotas, where one of two winners of a competition must be female; two variants of preferential treatment, where a fixed increment is added to women's performance; and repetition of the competition, where a second competition takes place if no woman is among the winners. Compared with no intervention, all interventions encourage women to enter competitions more often, and performance is at least equally good, both during and after the competition.
----------------------
Brian Spisak et al.
PLoS ONE, January 2012, e30399
Abstract:
This paper examines the impact of facial cues on leadership emergence. Using evolutionary social psychology, we expand upon implicit and contingent theories of leadership and propose that different types of intergroup relations elicit different implicit cognitive leadership prototypes. It is argued that a biologically based hormonal connection between behavior and corresponding facial characteristics interacts with evolutionarily consistent social dynamics to influence leadership emergence. We predict that masculine-looking leaders are selected during intergroup conflict (war) and feminine-looking leaders during intergroup cooperation (peace). Across two experiments we show that a general categorization of leader versus nonleader is an initial implicit requirement for emergence, and at a context-specific level facial cues of masculinity and femininity contingently affect war versus peace leadership emergence in the predicted direction. In addition, we replicate our findings in Experiment 1 across culture using Western and East Asian samples. In Experiment 2, we also show that masculine-feminine facial cues are better predictors of leadership than male-female cues. Collectively, our results indicate a multi-level classification of context-specific leadership based on visual cues imbedded in the human face and challenge traditional distinctions of male and female leadership.
----------------------
Being mixed: Who claims a biracial identity?
Sarah Townsend et al.
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, January 2012, Pages 91-96
Abstract:
What factors determine whether mixed-race individuals claim a biracial identity or a monoracial identity? Two studies examine how two status-related factors - race and social class - influence identity choice. While a majority of mixed-race participants identified as biracial in both studies, those who were members of groups with higher status in American society were more likely than those who were members of groups with lower status to claim a biracial identity. Specifically, (a) Asian/White individuals were more likely than Black/White or Latino/White individuals to identify as biracial and (b) mixed-race people from middle-class backgrounds were more likely than those from working-class backgrounds to identify as biracial. These results suggest that claiming a biracial identity is a choice that is more available to those with higher status.
----------------------
The Changing of the Boards: The Impact on Firm Valuation of Mandated Female Board Representation
Kenneth Ahern & Amy Dittmar
Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2012, Pages 137-197
Abstract:
In 2003, a new law required that 40% of Norwegian firms' directors be women - at the time only 9% of directors were women. We use the prequota cross-sectional variation in female board representation to instrument for exogenous changes to corporate boards following the quota. We find that the constraint imposed by the quota caused a significant drop in the stock price at the announcement of the law and a large decline in Tobin's Q over the following years, consistent with the idea that firms choose boards to maximize value. The quota led to younger and less experienced boards, increases in leverage and acquisitions, and deterioration in operating performance.
----------------------
Preserving the Concept of Race: A Medical Expedient, a Sociological Necessity
Stephen Morris
Philosophy of Science, December 2011, Pages 1260-1271
Abstract:
In this essay I argue that there are strong reasons for preserving the concept of race in both medical and sociological contexts. While I argue that there are important reasons to conceive of race as picking out distinctions among populations that are both legitimate and important, the notion of race that I advocate in this essay differs in fundamental ways from traditional folk notions of race. As a result, I believe that the folk understanding of race needs to be either revised or eliminated altogether.
----------------------
Is She "Man Enough"? Women Candidates, Executive Political Offices, and News Coverage
Lindsey Meeks
Journal of Communication, February 2012, Pages 175-193
Abstract:
This study analyzes news coverage of 4 female political candidates - Elizabeth Dole, Claire McCaskill, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin - and their male competitors, as each competed in 2 elections between 1999 and 2008. Analysis focused on novelty labeling, and "feminine" and "masculine" political issues and character traits to determine whether the coverage of women and men differed in general, and across the offices of Senator, Governor, Vice President, or President. Overall, women received more news coverage, and the gendered gap in coverage was especially large for novelty, issue, and trait coverage when women sought the "executive" offices of Governor and in the White House. These findings provide insight into the evolving gender dynamics of women running within the masculinized domain of politics.
----------------------
Opening the Door: Women Candidates and California's Primary Elections
Pamela Fiber-Ostrow
Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Winter 2012, Pages 1-24
Abstract:
This article examines how gender interacts with primary electoral institutions to affect electoral outcomes in California's Assembly primaries from 1992 to 2006. The hypothesized relationship between candidate success and election type utilizes theories of candidate gender stereotyping and voter behavior. Therefore, women are expected to become advantaged as the primary changes from closed to more open rules due to cross-over voting and independent voters. The results show that both Republican and Democratic women enjoy greater success under the more open rules. These findings have important implications for theories about gender and politics. Institutions, namely primary election structures, matter.
----------------------
Miguel Unzueta & Kevin Binning
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, January 2012, Pages 26-38
Abstract:
The reported studies suggest that concern for the in-group motivates Asian Americans and African Americans to define diversity specifically, that is, as entailing both minorities' numerical and hierarchical representation, while motivating White Americans to define diversity broadly, that is, as entailing either minorities' high numerical and/or hierarchical representation in an organization. Studies 2-4 directly assess if a concern for the in-group affects conceptions of diversity by measuring Black and White participants' racial identity centrality, an individual difference measure of the extent to which individuals define themselves according to race. These studies suggest that the tendency to conceive diversity in ways protective of the in-group is especially pronounced among individuals who identify strongly with their racial in-group.
----------------------
Neighborhood disorder and the sense of personal control: Which factors moderate the association?
Joongbaeck Kim & Meghan Conley
Journal of Community Psychology, November 2011, Pages 894-907
Abstract:
This study examines whether and how select individual characteristics moderate the relationship between neighborhood disorder and a sense of personal control. Our findings show that neighborhood disorder is associated with a decreased sense of control. However, regression analyses including interaction terms of neighborhood disorder and some individual characteristics show that the negative effect of neighborhood disorder on sense of control is greater among Whites and people with low economic hardship, compared with racial minorities and those with high economic hardship, when neighborhood disorder is high. These results imply that, for Whites and those with low economic hardship, sense of control is more vulnerable to high levels of neighborhood disorder, even though Whites and people with low economic hardship show higher levels of sense of control than their counterparts when neighborhood disorder is low. Our research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of neighborhood disorder and psychological well-being.
----------------------
Aurelia Mok & Michael Morris
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Do situational cues to individuals' social identities shift the way they look at objects? Do such shifts hinge on the structure of individuals' self-concept? We hypothesized individuals with integrated identities would exhibit attentional biases congruent with identity cues (assimilative response), whereas those with nonintegrated identities would exhibit attentional biases incongruent with identity cues (contrastive response). Dual identity participants (Asian Americans, Study 1; female lawyers, Study 2) were exposed to identity primes and then asked to focus on central, focal objects in a stimulus display. Among participants with high identity integration, American (Study 1) or lawyer priming (Study 2) shifted attention toward focal objects (assimilative response). Among participants with low identity integration, Asian (Study 1) or female priming (Study 2) shifted attention toward focal objects (contrastive response). Dual identity integration moderates responses to identity cues in attentional focus. Implications for identity structure, object perception, and task performance are discussed.
----------------------
Do Women Legislators Have a Positive Effect on the Supportiveness of States Toward Older Citizens?
Jean Giles-Sims, Joanne Connor Green & Charles Lockhart
Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Winter 2012, Pages 38-64
Abstract:
Increasing women in state legislatures is associated with greater legislative support for social policies serving families with children. We examine whether the family friendly impact of women legislators extends to supporting family elders. We draw on a cross-sectional data set of the American states in conjunction with regression. We find that, controlling for prominent alternative factors shaping state policies, women's legislative presence exerts a strong positive influence on state elderly friendliness. Our results are more exploratory than definitive, but they suggest that states with more extensive legislative representation of women better meet the growing challenges of an aging population.
----------------------
The Influence of Education on Attitudes toward Affirmative Action: The Role of the Policy's Strength
Klea Faniko et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, February 2012, Pages 387-413
Abstract:
The present research examined the influence of education on attitudes toward affirmative action. Studies 1 and 2 showed no impact of education on attitudes toward "soft" policies of affirmative action. In contrast, they showed less support of the more educated to "hard" policies of affirmative action. Neither prejudice (Study 2), nor understanding of the affirmative-action policies (Study 3) accounted for this effect. Study 4 demonstrated that the education effect is mediated by the threat posed by strong plans to meritocratic beliefs. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
----------------------
A Facial Attractiveness Account of Gender Asymmetries in Interracial Marriage
Michael Lewis
PLoS ONE, February 2012, e31703
Background: In the US and UK, more Black men are married to White women than vice versa and there are more White men married to Asian women than vice versa. Models of interracial marriage, based on the exchange of racial status for other capital, cannot explain these asymmetries. A new explanation is offered based on the relative perceived facial attractiveness of the different race-by-gender groups.
Method and Findings: This explanation was tested using a survey of perceived facial attractiveness. This found that Black males are perceived as more attractive than White or East Asian males whereas among females, it is the East Asians that are perceived as most attractive on average.
Conclusions: Incorporating these attractiveness patterns into the model of marriage decisions produces asymmetries in interracial marriage similar to those in the observed data in terms of direction and relative size. This model does not require differences in status between races nor different strategies based on gender. Predictions are also generated regarding the relative attractiveness of those engaging in interracial marriage.
----------------------
Secondary transfer effects of interracial contact: The moderating role of social status
Nicholas Bowman & Tiffany Griffin
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, January 2012, Pages 35-44
Abstract:
The contact hypothesis asserts that intergroup attitudes can be improved when groups have opportunities to interact with each other. Recent research extending the contact hypothesis suggests that contact with a primary outgroup can decrease bias toward outgroups not directly involved in the interaction, which is known as the secondary transfer effect (STE). The present study contributes to growing research on STEs by investigating effects among Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White undergraduate students (N = 3,098) attending 28 selective colleges and universities. Using hierarchical linear modeling, our results reveal numerous positive STEs among Asian, Black, and Hispanic college students. No significant STEs were observed among White students. Mediated moderation analyses support an attitude generalization mechanism, because STEs were explained by changes in attitudes toward the primary outgroup. This research speaks to equivocal findings in the extant STE literature and highlights directions for future research on social cohesion and bias reduction.
----------------------
Money, Benefits, and Power: A Test of the Glass Ceiling and Glass Escalator Hypotheses
Ryan Smith
ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January 2012, Pages 149-172
Abstract:
This article explores the manner in which race, ethnicity, and gender intersect to produce inequality in wages and employer benefits among "workers" (employees with no job authority), "supervisors" (employees with broad supervisory responsibilities), and "managers" (employees who can hire/fire and set the pay of others). Using data uniquely suited to examine these relationships, the author finds that, contrary to the glass ceiling hypothesis, the white male advantage over women and minorities in wages and retirement benefits generally does not increase with movement up the authority hierarchy net of controls. Instead, relative inequality remains constant at higher and lower levels of authority. However, in nontraditional work settings where white men report to minority and female supervisors, there is evidence that a glass ceiling stifles women and minorities while a glass escalator helps white men. Instead of representing mutually exclusive processes and outcomes, glass ceilings and glass escalators may actually overlap in certain employment contexts. The implications of these results for future analyses of workplace inequality are discussed.
----------------------
Alexander Aguado & George Frederickson
Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Winter 2012, Pages 25-37
Abstract:
This article adds to the body of knowledge about city managers and council-manager form cities by determining why so few women are found in the ranks of city managers. Using graduates of the University of Kansas master of public administration (MPA) program as our sample, we find that women interested in city management careers face a paradox: Married women have a greater probability of becoming city managers. But if they marry and have children they face issues of relocation, child rearing, and parental care - all of which make it more difficult to get a city management job, not to mention doing that job with its typically higher time demands.
----------------------
Cohort Change and Racial Differences in Educational and Income Mobility
Deirdre Bloome & Bruce Western
Social Forces, December 2011, Pages 375-395
Abstract:
Policy reforms and rising income inequality transformed educational and economic opportunities for Americans approaching midlife in the 1990s. Rising income inequality may have reduced mobility, as income gaps increased between rich and poor children. Against the effects of rising inequality, Civil Rights reforms may have increased mobility, as opportunities expanded across cohorts of black students and workers. We compare educational and income mobility for two cohorts of black and white men, the older born in the late 1940s and the younger born in the early 1960s. We find that educational mobility increased for black men, but income mobility declined for both races. Economic mobility declined despite unchanged or improved educational mobility because of increased returns to schooling and increased intergenerational income correlations, independent of schooling.
----------------------
Kathryn Pearson & Logan Dancey
Politics & Gender, December 2011, Pages 493-519
Abstract:
We ask whether women's descriptive representation in Congress enhances women's substantive representation through speechmaking on the House floor. Much of the research on women's substantive representation has focused on members' votes for and sponsorship of "women's issues" legislation. We depart from this research by systematically analyzing how members' gender and partisan identities affect gendered rhetoric in their floor speeches. In an era marked by significant increases in the number of congresswomen and partisan polarization, understanding the interactive effect of gender and partisanship on women's representation is particularly important. In an analysis of more than 30,000 speeches from 1993 to 2008, we find that when members speak about issues of their choosing during one-minute speeches, and during specific legislative debates over the most important policies considered on the House floor, congresswomen in both parties are significantly more likely than men to discuss women, enhancing women's representation.
----------------------
"Not Out to Start a Revolution": Race, Gender, and Emotional Restraint among Black University Men
Amy Wilkins
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, February 2012, Pages 34-65
Abstract:
In this article, I use in-depth interviews with black university men to investigate race, gender, and emotions. Participation in dominant institutions requires African American men to exhibit extraordinary emotional restraint. Because anger is culturally associated with men, however, black men's suppression of anger violates masculine expectations. Thus, racial subordination not only creates difficult emotional expectations but may also create emotional dilemmas in which expected emotional displays undermine other identity expectations. In this article, I examine both how a group of black university men achieve emotional restraint and how they use their emotions to craft and manage their identities as black middle-class men. I argue that black men distance themselves from the controlling image of the angry black man by developing a shared identity I call moderate blackness. Moderate blackness entails emotional restraint, a moderate approach to campus racial politics, and the ability to get along with white people. These strategies work together to produce positive, restrained emotions and to manage anger and agitation, but they require black university men to "not see" racism. Black men use defensive othering to push the stereotype of the angry black onto black women. In doing so, they shore up their masculinity but leave women responsible for combating racial inequality.
----------------------
Survival Analysis of Faculty Retention in Science and Engineering by Gender
Deborah Kaminski & Cheryl Geisler
Science, 17 February 2012, Pages 864-866
Abstract:
Individual assistant professors (a total of 2966 faculty) hired in science and engineering since 1990 at 14 United States universities were tracked from time of hire to time of departure by using publicly available catalogs and bulletins. Results of survival analysis showed that the chance that any given faculty member will be retained over time is less than 50%; the median time to departure is 10.9 years. Of all those who enter as assistant professors, 64.2% were promoted to associate professor at the same institution. Overall, men and women are retained and promoted at the same rate. In mathematics, however, faculty leave significantly earlier than other disciplines, and women leave significantly sooner than men, 4.45 years compared with 7.33 years.
----------------------
The Partisan Gap Among Women State Legislators
Laurel Elder
Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Winter 2012, Pages 65-85
Abstract:
Even a decade into the twenty-first century, women remain severely underrepresented in state legislatures. Much research has focused on the factors that help or hinder women's representation as a group, a focus that has masked the striking difference in women's progress within the two parties. The representation of Democratic women in state legislatures has continued to increase, while the number of Republican women has actually decreased. This article employs state-level data to explore why women legislators have such different levels of representation within the two parties. The central argument is that, as of the twenty-first century, the parties have distinctive cultures that hold consequences for their respective abilities to produce, recruit, and support women elected officials. Processes at both the elite and mass level work together to foster the representation of Democratic women and inhibit the representation of Republican women.
----------------------
Climbing the Job Ladder: New Evidence of Gender Inequity
David Johnston & Wang-Sheng Lee
Industrial Relations, January 2012, Pages 129-151
Abstract:
An explanation for the gender wage gap is that women are less able or less willing to "climb the job ladder." However, the empirical evidence on gender differences in job mobility has been mixed. Focusing on a subsample of younger, university-educated workers from an Australian longitudinal survey, we find strong evidence that the dynamics of promotions and employer changes worsen women's labor market position.
----------------------
Katrina Walsemann, Bethany Bell & Bridget Goosby
Race and Social Problems, October 2011, Pages 131-145
Abstract:
We investigate the effect of high school racial composition, measured as percent of non-Hispanic white students, on trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to early adulthood. We also explore whether the effect of school racial composition varies by respondent race/ethnicity and whether adult socioeconomic status mediates this relationship. We analyzed four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health using 3-level linear growth models. We restricted our sample to respondents enrolled in grades 9-12 in 1994/5 who were interviewed at a minimum in Waves I and IV. This resulted in 10,350 respondents enrolled in 80 high schools in 1994/5 (5,561 whites, 2,030 blacks, 1,834 Hispanics, 738 Asians, and 187 of other race). As the percentage of white students increased at the high school respondents attended in 1994/5, blacks reported more depressive symptoms. This effect did not vary by age. In comparison, Asian and Hispanic respondents who attended predominantly white high schools had lower levels of depressive symptoms than their counterparts who attended predominantly minority schools, but they also experienced a slower decline in depressive symptoms through early adulthood. Adult SES mediated the relationship between high school racial composition and depressive symptoms for black, but not for Asian or Hispanic respondents. Our results suggest that high school racial composition is associated with trajectories of depressive symptoms through early adulthood, but the effect differs by respondents' race/ethnicity. Racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms during early adulthood may have their origins in adolescence.