Jocelyn Elise Crowley

When Tokens Matter

Tokens, or low levels of minority or female representatives in state legislatures, have been studied with respect to their perceptions of self-efficacy and political attitudes but not with respect to their actual influence on the passage of public policy. This paper uses state-level data from the child support program between the years 1976�84 to measure the influence of women tokens on the policy process. Using ordered probit models, I explore policy adoption under three configurations: (1) a test of the independent impact of tokens, (2) a dynamic test of the differential impact of tokens and nontokens to analyze potential backlash effects and the potential diffusion of policy preferences, and (3) an interactive test on the potential for tokens to form coalitions. My analysis strongly suggests that tokens make a policy difference independently and to a greater extent than when they are on the cusp of becoming nontokens, but I found less support for the idea that tokens successfully form coalitions to achieve specific policy goals.

What Mothers Want: Workplace Flexibility in the Twenty-First Century

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Staying at Home or Working for Pay? Attachment to Modern Mothering Identities

In a context where the pressures of intensive mothering are all-consuming, mothers who work for pay, or mother-workers, face difficult challenges as they attempt to execute the tasks of both parenthood and employment in effective ways. In contrast, stay-at-home mothers, or mother-caregivers, receive reinforcing messages from intensive mothering ideology that they should remain solely focused on meeting their childrens everyday needs. Using random sample survey data collected from 3,327 women in mothers’ organizations, I find that while only 18.5% of all mothers have such beliefs regarding whether working for pay is best for children or not, no single mothering identity (mother-worker or mother-caregiver) had a statistically significant relationship with holding such beliefs. However, among the small set of women expressing such beliefs on the value of maternal employment, full-time mother-workers were less likely than mother-caregivers to be able to align their current employment statuses with their preferred paid work preferences.

The Gentrification of Child Support Enforcement Services, 1950–1984

The American child support enforcement program exemplifies the gentrification of a traditional public welfare initiative that was initially designed for the poor. This analysis tracks the divergent approaches to enforcing support for women who received welfare and women who did not, through the mid‐1980s. It then describes the movement for clientele unification. This unification movement was driven from the bottom up, with middle‐class, grassroots organizations demanding change. They found a particularly receptive audience of women politicians and a Reagan administration seeking a second term in office. The clientele merger altered the fundamental character of the child support enforcement program.

Encouraging Survey Participation Among Individuals Seeking HIV Prevention Services: Does a Community Identity Match Help or Hurt?

Understanding the behaviors and attitudes of at-risk populations is fundamental to controlling the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The problem of nonresponse among these populations, however, plagues survey research designed to address these issues. Previous work undertaken to map out the dynamics of nonresponse—bothnoncontacts and refusals—have primarily focused on exploringthe effectiveness of a single method of outreach. This analysis improves on this prior research by comparing the effectiveness of two types of outreach strategies in a follow-up face-to-face survey of individuals seeking HIV prevention services in New Jersey during the period 1999-2001. Case workers from community-based organizations (CBOs) attempted to contact one set of respondents, whereas “outsider” researchers attempted to contact the second set. In brief, the authors find that in contrast to a CBO research affiliation, an outsider researcher status is associated with higher survey response rates.

Who Institutionalizes Institutions? The Case of Paternity Establishment in the United States

Objective. Many researchers have cited the importance of institutional legacies to explain why legislators resist transferring tasks from one agency to another but leave undefined exactly what constitutes these legacies. This analysis concretely defines institutional legacies as organized interests who shape the range of options available for programmatic implementation. Methods. Using a pooled, time-series ordered probit model for the U.S. states from 1988 to 1995, this article focuses on the transition from court-based systems to administrative agencies in making paternity determinations. Results. Lawmakers are less likely to move to administrative systems in states where there are family courts, elected judges, and a large number of lawyers organized into the American Bar Association. The presence of women legislators, however, can mitigate these legacy effects and move the process of innovation onward. Conclusions. Institutional legacies are best conceptualized as strong, organized interests who resist relinquishing any part of their authority, even when confronted with more effective ways of achieving policy goals.

Should It Be Easy? Divorce Process Attitudes Among Those Who Have Split Up in Midlife

ABSTRACT This grounded theory analysis examines the gray divorced population’s attitudes about the divorce process, that is, whether those who have experienced a divorce at age 50 or older believe divorce should be easier or harder to obtain in U.S. society. Among the 40 men and 40 women interviewed in this analysis, there were divorce delayers, who wanted to make divorce laws stricter; divorce facilitators, who championed more flexible divorce laws; divorce ambivalents, who held mixed views; and marriage gatekeepers, who advocated on behalf of status quo divorce laws but tougher relationship-strengthening requirements before marriage. The diversity of these participants’ views reflects those voices in the general population who continue to see divorce as a complex decision for most couples.

Ambiguous Financial Responsibilities Second Wives and Alimony Reform Activism in the United States

Alimony, which involves financial transfers from mostly men to women after a divorce, has recently received more scrutiny in the United States by members of an emerging social movement. These activists are attempting to change alimony policy in ways that economically benefit them. One important part of this movement are second wives, who ally themselves with their new husbands and against first wives in the pursuit of alimony reform. This analysis examines how these second wives articulate their objections to alimony by introducing the concept of economic boundary ambiguity, meaning in this case, a state of human relationships where financial obligations between first and second wives are contested. In addition to creating several tangible stressors, economic boundary ambiguity can also have important consequences for women’s own social identities as well as the collective identity and the success of the social movement overall.

Qualitative Descriptions of Middle-Class, African American Mothers’ Child-Rearing Practices and Values

During qualitative phone interviews, middle-class, mostly married African American mothers (N = 25) describe their child-rearing responsibilities, practices, and values. They explain (a) why they decided to stay home or take work leave to attend to child rearing, (b) how they divided child-rearing responsibilities with their husbands/romantic partners, (c) whether they faced unique parenting challenges raising African American children, and (d) whether they identified as feminists. Responses revealed the decision to stay home or take work leave comprised values about gender roles, concerns about the cost and/or quality of child care, and the availability of family-friendly workplace policies. Most couples shared child-rearing responsibilities, although mothers admit to doing more. Their unique parenting challenge was protecting their children from racism, stereotyping, and discrimination. Only one third of the mothers identified as being feminists. These results have implications for furthering our knowledge about African American coparenting from a positive, strength-based perspective.