Kathryn B. Ward

Is There An Association between Gender and Methods in Sociological Research

Feminist scholars have proposed that two types of links exist between research methods and gender. Female scholars have been thought to be more likely than males to choose qualitative methods because such methods are compatible with relational and emotional skills stereotypically associated with women. Qualitative approaches also have been thought to be especially appropriate for study of gender issues and womens experiences and to be an effective strategy for correcting androcentric biases in construction of social theory. We examine articles in 10 sociology journals in 1974-83. Most articles have been quantitative, but female authors have used qualitative methods more often than males. Writing about gender increased rather than decreased the likelihood of having used quantitative methods for both women and men. We suggest that papers focusing on gender and also using qualitative methods represented double nonconformity and hence were unlikely candidates for publication in mainstream journals.

GENDER AND PUBLISHING IN SOCIOLOGY

As in other fields, scholarly publication in sociology is not only the key to career success but also the route by which feminist analyses and perspectives become known to others in the discipline. A growing literature has analyzed womens and mens rates of publication, but the gender politics of the prepublication production of research and gender differences in reputation building after publication remain underexplored. This report reviews the current state of knowledge about sociological publishing at three phases: prepublication, the publication-seeking phase, and postpublication. It concludes with critical questions to be addressed in developing a comprehensive model of gender effects on sociological publishing.

Sex Differences in Earnings: The Influence of Industrial Sector, Authority Hierarchy, and Human Capital Variables.

Industrial sectors and authority hierarchies are examined as an explanation for womens lower earnings compared with mens. Sectoral location and authority position are found to have independent additive effects on earnings; these effects, however, differ by sex. Women are more likely to achieve higher authority positions within the peripheral sector, and men occupy similar authority positions across sectors. Men receive slightly higher benefits from being in the core sector, and although industrial sector and authority position do not interact for either women or men, men receive greater benefits from high authority positions than do women. The additional control for human capital variables did not reduce substantially the female-male earnings gap, but we did find that the human capital variables operate differently for women and men over industrial sectors. Whereas core and periphery men seem to be similarly advantaged and disadvantaged by various human capital variables, these variables are substantially more predictive of earnings for women in the periphery sector than in the core sector. Finally, we found that having a college degree varies in importance across authority levels for men in the core sector.

The Effects of Global Economic Restructuring on Urban Women's Work and Income-Generating Strategies in Dhaka, Bangladesh *

This research examines womens work and shifts among factory, domestic service, sex work, and urban micro credit sectors in Bangladesh using a continuum of formal-informal-household labor. We explore womens income generating strategies and possible alternatives during global restructuring and changes in trade agreements. The end of Multi-Fibre Agreement in 2004 threatens womens garment employment and Bangladeshs dependence on garments to produce 76 percent of its export earnings.

The contemporary U.S. women's movement: An empirical example of competition theory

We use competition and resource mobilization perspectives to explain the rise of the contemporary U.S. womens movement. Our competition framework proposes that economic and sociodemographic changes since World War II increased competition between women and men in the marketplace. This increased competition provided motivation for the womens movement. We find support for this framework with national quantitative time-series data.

Productivity of Women Scholars and Gender Researchers: Is Funding a Factor?.

Articles by women scholars and proportions of articles focused on gender have increased steadily in major sociology journals since 1974. Women are more heavily represented as journal authors than as members of graduate-program departments, the institutional bases where most published work originates. We consider whether funding might account for these patterns by examining acknowledgement of support in published articles. We find no significant relationships among author gender, article topic, and notation of internal funding. Male-authored articles focused on nongender topics acknowledge external funding significantly more often than women-authored works and articles focused on gender written by women or men. Funding patterns therefore do not appear to account for increased productivity by women and gender researchers.

Globalization and gender equality: A critical analysis of women's empowerment in the global economy

Purpose – The main objective of this research is to explore the impacts of globalization on gender empowerment. Methodology – This research uses a design that combines lagged cross-sectional and cross-sectional analyses. We have used ordinary least square regression. The sample size for this research is 48–70 nation-states. We have used gender empowerment measurement as an indicator of decision-making power that women in a society gain in decision making as a group. Findings – Our findings illustrate variable effects of global economy on gender empowerment. Higher commodity concentration significantly lowers womens access to the formal and informal labor force and womens decision-making power after controlling for economic development, culture, and states location in the global economy. Foreign direct investment lowers womens share in both the formal and informal labor force and womens decision-making power, while increasing womens share of secondary education. Thus, this research examines wider dimensions of womens experiences. We also find that some policies have positive effects, whereas others have negative effects on gender empowerment. Originality/value of the chapter – Previous research on globalization and development has discussed the impacts of globalization on womens empowerment. However, researchers have either used womens access to formal work or education or gender development scores as an indicator of womens empowerment. Researchers have not captured womens empowerment completely. We have overcome this limitation by defining empowerment as a complex of access to resources (access to education, formal and informal labor force) and decision-making power (gender empowerment scores).