Jennifer L. Glass

CAN EARLY FAMILY FORMATION EXPLAIN THE LOWER EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF U.S. CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANTS

Using nationally representative data, this article assesses whether the timing of life course transitions (i.e., marriage and childbirth) can explain the lower educational attainment of individuals raised in conservative Protestant (CP) households. A key finding is that early family formation affects educational attainment for both white and black women raised in CP households. For white women, the timing of family formation, net of controls, reduces the negative effect of childhood CP to insignificance. For black women, the timing of family formation reduces but does not eliminate the negative effect. For black men and white men, the negative effect of childhood CP on adult educational attainment is explained away by control variables.

Leaving the Faith: How Religious Switching Changes Pathways to Adulthood among Conservative Protestant Youth

Research revealing associations between Conservative Protestantism and lower socioeconomic status is bedeviled by questions of causal inference. Religious switching offers another way to understand the causal ordering of religious participation and demographic markers of class position. In this article, we look at adolescents who change their religious affiliation across four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and then observe their transition to adulthood using four crucial markers—completed educational attainment, age at first marriage, age at first birth, and income at the final wave. Results show that switching out of a Conservative Protestant denomination in adolescence can alter some, but not all, of the negative consequences associated with growing up in a Conservative Protestant household. Specifically, family formation is delayed among switchers, but early cessation of education is not.

The missing women in STEM? Assessing gender differentials in the factors associated with transition to first jobs

Women remain underrepresented in the STEM workforce. We assess explanations for womens underrepresentation in STEM jobs, focusing on a cohort that came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, when women dramatically increased their representation in the scientific labor force. Data are from the NLSY79, and our analysis focuses on members of this cohort who received a college degree, with an emphasis on those who completed a degree in a STEM field. Our analyses test the extent to which college major, expectations to work in STEM, and family expectations shaped transitions into STEM occupations within two years of degree completion. Among those majoring in STEM fields there were no gender differences in transitioning into STEM jobs, though there were sizable differences in transitions to STEM employment by field of study. Of note are gender differences in associations between family expectations and transitions into STEM employment. The most career oriented women, who expected to marry late and limit fertility, were no more likely to enter STEM jobs than were women who anticipated marrying young and having two or more children. The men most likely to enter STEM occupations, in contrast, adhered to significantly more conventional gender ideologies than their female counterparts, expecting to marry at younger ages but also to remain childless. Results of our regression decomposition indicated that marriage and family expectations and gender ideology worked in opposite directions for men and women. Nonetheless, the majority of the gender disparity in transitions into STEM jobs was related to womens underrepresentation in engineering and computer science fields of study.

Conservative Protestants, Early Transitions to Adulthood, and The Intergenerational Transmission of Class

Purpose – Conservative Protestantism is conceptualized as a cultural framework influencing class formation and transmission in the United States. n nDesign/Methodology/Approach – The framework is tested using Public-Use Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), Waves I, III, and IV. Four key outcomes – educational attainment, earnings, marriage, and parenting – are modeled as functions of class background and religious affiliation, controlling for other factors. n nFindings – Religious affiliation and their effects on the normative pathways to adulthood help explain differential social mobility and the imperfect transmission of social class across generations. Religious culture plays an independent role in producing lower adult attainment via the life choices of conservative Protestant youth during the transition to adulthood. n nResearch limitations/Implications – This study is limited by the final age range (24–32 years) of the sample in Wave IV. n nOriginality/Value – Contributes to literature on conservative Protestants educational attainment and labor force participation by charting the educational and income achievement of youth from varying class origins and identifying how childhood class location and childhood religious affiliation interact to affect adult socioeconomic status.

Conservative Protestants, Normative Pathways, and Adult Attainment

Do religious cultures hold enough sway over individuals life choices that they can be considered causal mechanisms generating inequality in contemporary American society? Can religious identification and participation create normative standards of behavior that either aid or hinder the development of human capital and either encourage or discourage its use to achieve financial success? These have been pressing questions since Max Weber first wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Yet the contemporary transformation of class structure in postindustrial societies and the declining strength of traditional denominational differences (particularly Protestant~Catholic) raise these issues anew. The new occupational structure of service economies, the increasing importance of dual earners in households to achieve middle class housing and status, the crucial role of postsecondary education (both the type of institution and major) for occupational success, and the critical role of marriage and family postponement in achieving stable lucrative employment all point to new avenues through which religion might influence class location. Establishing a theory of causality, however, requires evidence that religious participation directly influences behavioral choices, rather than simply attracting people who have made similar life choices for disparate (nonreligious) reasons together in congregations. In this chapter, we review the existence of class-based differences in religious preferences and participation, and we theorize that these differences arc not just the epiphenomenon of class-based religious tastes but are mechanisms through which class is constructed and reconstructed across generations.

Contemporary Approaches to Gender and Religion

Religious messages, mores, and laws profoundly shape the gendered lives of men and women. Religious engagement has been found to influence sexual practices, family formation, workforce engagement, and a host of other life domains. The influence of institutional religion on these elements of lived experiences is often treated as detrimental to women and religious institutions regarded as inherently patriarchal. However, women are often substantially more engaged in religious institutions and invested in religious identities than men. In this chapter we begin by reviewing theories explaining women’s high rates of religious engagement and belief. We then evaluate common religious ideologies about gendered behaviors and examine the effects of such ideologies on the political, societal, economic, and familial experiences of men and women. We conclude by summarizing the state of current research into the intersection of religion and gender and providing recommendations for future approaches.

The Parenthood “Happiness Penalty”: The Effects of Social Policies in 22 Countries

A large body of research has established that parents are less happy than nonparents. But is it always true that parents are less happy than nonparents? This research brief, by PRC faculty research associate Jennifer Glass and colleagues, shows that the “happiness penalty” is entirely explained by the presence or absence of social policies that allow parents to better combine paid work with family obligations.