Carolyn C. Perrucci

Determinants of Male Family‐Role Performance

Three competing hypotheses are tested regarding determinants of husbands (vs. wifes) participation in 12 selected household/child-care activities. The research utilizes interview responses of husbands, although it compares responses of both husbands and wives in a proportionate stratified area-probability sample from adjacent midwestern cities. The socialization-ideology hypothesis receives the strongest, albeit modest, support of the three hypotheses. Only marginal support is found for the relative husband/wife resources hypothesis, emphasizing professional employment of wives. No support is found for the time-availability hypothesis. Implications for the further integration of work and family roles for men are considered.

Gender differences in the economic, psychological and social effects of plant closings in an expanding economy

Abstract The experiences of women and men workers displaced from jobs in 1989 by three plant closings in Indiana were examined. The focus was on three interrelated hypotheses concerning gender differences in the economic, psychological, and social effects of job loss. Questionnaires were sent to workers shortly after the closings and twelve months after the closings. Findings on economic effects indicated no gender difference in reemployment. When reemployed, both men and women suffered wage loss, but women lost less proportionately, due to their lower absolute wages prior to the closings. No gender differences were found in psychological effects and family relationships. Displaced women workers were somewhat more alienated from social institutions and more likely to support government actions to remedy unemployment.

Producing and reproducing class and status differences : Racial and gender gaps in U.S. employment and retirement income

Recent research indicates that between 1970 and 1990 the racial gap in employment income increased (Cancio, Evans and Maume 1996), while the gender gap decreased (Wellington 1994). We find a parallel pattern in retirement income for the cohort that retired in 1980–1981. The racial gap is greater in retirement than it was in employment, while the gender gap is smaller. Regression analyses specify the qualitatively different ways in which racial and gender inequality are produced in employment and reproduced in retirement. Focusing on how self-employment and marital status interact with race and gender in predicting income, we explain how the redistributive effects of Social Security, pensions, and assets contribute to the enduring racial gap (and, perhaps, to the declining gender gap).

Women in scientific and engineering professions

Presents the views of women scientists and engineers who have faced personal and professional challenges in pursuit of their careers

Gender and Achievement: The Early Careers of College Graduates

Abstract NORC longitudinal data on a national sample of 1961 college graduates are analyzed to determine gender main and interaction effects in a model of educational, occupational and income achievement among employed graduates. The results indicate that (1) there is a direct female disadvantage in educational and income achievement but gender comparability in occupational prestige; (2) in general, grades are no more important than gender of student as a determinant of achievement; and (3) for men more than women; high freshman prestige expectations result in high undergraduate grades; high grades translate into high senior prestige expectations; and graduate school enrollment results in degree attainment.

Enduring Inequality: Gender And Employment Income In Late Career

Abstract Marriage, union membership, and managerial and professional occupations yield no significant earnings advantages for white women, in Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models predicting logged employment income for whites still working in late career, surveyed in the first wave (1992) of the Health and Retirement Study. White men reap earnings benefits on all fronts, however, this is in addition to the benefits of self-employment combined with either marriage or professional occupation. Following Tilly (1998), we suggest that this enduring inequality is rooted in relations between men and women (especially marriage) and relations between men (closed status communities or old boy networks).

Mobility marriage and child-spacing among college graduates.

An examination was made of the relationship of social origins educational level and career mobility to the timing of marriage timing of initial childbirth within marriage and family size. Data were analyzed from samples of engineering and science graduates from a large midwestern university. For 11 of 16 analyses of covariance conducted there were overall significant Fs and interaction effects. With continued exposure to higher education there appeared to be rather pronounced deferral behavior regarding marriage and childbearing. While career mobility had some effect on fertility behavior the effects were not consistent across all levels of social origins or for both professional groups. The relevance of these findings for two views of the mobility/fertility process was discussed. Finally the adequacy of the focus on family size as a test of the mobility/fertility process was brought into question once again. (authors)

Dual-Earner Couples’ Expectations for Joint Retirement: A Study of Typical and Atypical Congruent and Non-Congruent Couples

To what extent do couples expect to retire together? What distinguishes “atypical congruent” couples who expect to retire separately? What distinguishes “non-congruent” couples who disagree on retirement plans? Using U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data, we find that “Atypical Congruent” (separate retirement) couples have shorter marriages, larger age differences, unequal decision-making, dependent children, and pension plans for both husband and wife. They are also more frequently interracial or minority couples. “Non-Congruent” couples (who disagree on retirement plans) are distinguished by wifes earnings and husbands occupational status and work schedule.

Gender, race, and perceived promotability among American employees

Purpose – This research examines the effects of gender, race, human capital, work conditions, and organizational characteristics on employees’ current supervisory status at work, and their perceptions of their future promotability. Methodology – Data are drawn from the salaried employees of The National Study of the Changing Workforce in 2002, a nationally representative sample of all U.S. workers. Employees are compared by race and gender using correlation coefficients, t-tests, and multiple regression. Findings – In contrast to earlier research, in 2002 non-white women are as likely as white women and non-white men to have attained supervisory status at work. There also is no gender or race effect on employees’ perception of their future promotional opportunity. Workers who are supervisors, both white and non-white, are more likely than non-supervisors to perceive that they have future promotional opportunity. Having a work context that is supportive, and having supportive coworkers and a supportive supervisor, leads to the perception of greater chances to continue to move up in ones company, as does having greater job demands and union membership. On the contrary, work/family spillover, having a supervisor of the same race, and perceiving racial discrimination at the workplace leads to perception of less chance to continue to move up. Research limitations – Employees’ actual job titles are not known except that supervising others is a major part of their job. Practical implications – Many of the variables shown to be related to supervisory status and promotability suggest directions for the restructuring of workplaces to provide more supportive and less biased environments.

Surviving widowhood: Gender and race effects on health-related coping strategies

This study examines variation in health-related coping strategies among the widowed by variation in bereavement, as modified by self-efficacy, religiosity, social support, and self-rated health. Coping strategies are documented by gender, race, age, and income level, and the interaction of gender and race. Data are from the Changing Lives of Older Couples Study (CLOC), a longitudinal dataset from a random sample of older adults from the Detroit Metropolitan area. Bereavement is related to overall negative coping behavior, specifically to daily cigarette consumption and physical inactivity. However, the effect varies based on the gender, race, and age of the widowed, as well as type of moderator.