Alexandra Hendley

Who Likes Math Where? Gender Differences in Eighth-Graders' Attitudes around the World.

Some of the most male-dominated science, technology, engineering and mathematics occupations and degree programmes are found in the world’s most affluent societies. This article assesses whether gender gaps in attitudes follow similarly surprising patterns. Multivariate analysis of eighth-graders’ affinity for mathematics and aspirations for mathematically related jobs in 53 countries shows that the attitudinal gender gap is indeed larger in affluent ‘postmaterialist’ societies. Moreover, both girls and boys view mathematics more negatively in these societies. The authors suggest that cultural ideals of individual self-expression, highly prevalent under conditions of broad-based existential security, operate to reduce girls’ and boys’ interest in pursuits thought to be economically practical but personally non-expressive. Girls may be particularly susceptible to this negative effect, because taken-for-granted cultural beliefs about core female personality traits (and girls’ gendered understandings of their own authentic inner selves) are often at odds with dominant representations of mathematical and technical work.

Sociology in Two-Year Institutions.

In the second half of the twentieth cen tury, both the number of two-year institu tions and the proportion of all college stu dents enrolled in community colleges ex panded rapidly (Kerr 1991). From 1950 through 1975, student enrollment in com munity colleges rose from just over a mil lion students to nearly four million. By the mid-1990s, community colleges employed over a third of this countrys faculty (Lucas 1996). The number of four-year institutions has increased in a relatively linear fashion since 1920. In contrast, the number of two year institutions grew from 1920 through 1940, stayed relatively constant through 1960, and then increased rapidly thereafter, particularly in the decade of the 1960s. In 1920, less than five percent of institutions were two-year colleges. By 1960, this pro portion was up to 26 percent, jumping to nearly 35 percent by 1970, and surpassing 40 percent by the 1990s. Student enrollment increased accordingly. In 1950, the enroll ment in four-year institutions was nearly ten times that in two-year institutions. By 1990, nearly 40 percent of all college and univer Lauren R. Contreras

Freedom between the Lines: Clothing Behavior and Identity Work among Young Female Soccer Players.

Our research examines the relationship among identity, age, gender and athleticism through a study of the association between sports clothing and the identity work of pre-adolescent female soccer players. Based on participant-observation and interviews conducted at three co-ed youth soccer camps, we find that age is an important element of identity, particularly as it intersects with the girls’ evolving understanding of femininity and engagement in athletics. While age can be credited with providing freedom in which clothing is deployed as a device for identity construction, its intersection with gender and athleticism also constrains girls’ clothing behavior.

The Culinary “Food Chain”: Private and Personal Chefs Negotiate Identity and Status in the Culinary Profession

Abstract Purpose Gender, race, and class-based meanings inform longstanding divisions and status hierarchies within the culinary profession, such as those between public and private and amateur and professional cooking. Private and personal chefs’ work in homes disrupts these divisions and hierarchies. Given their precarious position, how do these chefs negotiate their standing within the profession? Methodology/approach This chapter draws on interviews with 41 private/personal chefs. Eight were primarily private household employees, while all others were primarily self-employed. Findings The chefs negotiated their status by making distinctions between themselves and commercial chefs, along with other private/personal chefs. The chefs both challenge and reinforce the dichotomies and criteria shaping status evaluations within the culinary profession. Similarly, they both contest and reinforce gender, race, and class hierarchies. Social implications The chefs’ conceptual distinctions can potentially (re)produce or challenge material inequalities. Moreover, while the fields of private/personal cheffing create opportunities for more adults to cook for a living, the traditional status hierarchies remain largely the same. It is likely that as long as those hierarchies persist, the chefs’ conceptual distinctions will continue to challenge and reinforce them. Originality/value Research on private/personal chefs has been minimal, so this chapter fills this gap. It also adds to scholarship connecting workers’ status struggles and gender, race, and class inequalities. The case of private and personal chefs sheds new light on how gender, race, and class intersect to inform status evaluations within the culinary profession.

The gendered effects of substance use on employment stability in transitional China

ABSTRACT Substance use is often thought to harm employment prospects, an assumption challenged by the anomaly that people who use licit substances such as alcohol and tobacco are sometimes at a lower risk of unemployment. We argue that employment stability may benefit from the socialisation afforded through using licit substances, particularly in a context where licit substance use is encouraged. Furthermore, because the norms associated with substance use often reflect the gender hierarchy in a society, the impact of substance use on employment stability may be contingent on an individuals gender. Applying Cox proportional hazard modelling to a panel dataset during the critical two decades of Chinas market-based transition (1991–2011), we found that the impact of substance use on unemployment hazards varies depending on the dosage of the use and the gender of the users. Compared to abstinence, moderate alcohol-drinking reduces the risk of unemployment, and the reduction benefits especially men. The standalone effect of tobacco-smoking is to elevate unemployment hazards; however, this effect is heavily moderated by gender so that female smokers were penalised while male smokers were rewarded in the labour market. Such patterns cannot be explained by community-level modernisation progress and individual-level covariates.

Seeking Self-Verification: Motives for Private and Personal Chefs’ Boundary Work:

Drawing on interviews with private and personal chefs, this study highlights the interplay between internal and external forces shaping boundary work. Private and personal chefs’ social and professional position is ambiguous, and their employment is precarious. In order to navigate their uncertain standing and assert self-worth, some drew boundaries between themselves and clients. They disliked clients who were wasteful, lacked the ‘right’ motivations for hiring a chef, or lacked the ‘right’ taste or approach to food. But rather than simply seeking to establish superiority, the chefs distanced themselves from and disregarded clients who seemed not to see them as they saw themselves – as skilled and valuable workers. This article argues that a desire for self-verification – to have one’s self-views verified by others – can activate boundaries. It suggests that an uncertain standing might foster this desire, and that workers’ views of themselves vis-à-vis other workers can drive their evaluations of clients.