Lorne Tepperman

Toward an index of gender equality

This paper develops a Gender Equality Index (GEI) that is modelled in its thinking and implementation on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The GEI was computed using annual Ontario data on seven socioeconomic indicators for the years 1975 to 1984. The analysis supports the following conclusions: (1) that it is possible to indentify a subset of indicators that have face validity as measures of relative gender equality; (2) that factor analysis is a useful means for evaluating the construct validity of gender equality; (3) that the resulting GEI reveals a strong upward trend toward gender equality in the latter half of the 1970s and the early 1980s and (4) that this trend has flattened in 1984.

Beyond description: Understanding gender differences in problem gambling

Background and aims Though women make up roughly one third of all problem gamblers, research has typically focused on male problem gamblers. Recent research has started to shift its attention toward the importance of gender. However, studies rarely attempt to understand gender differences in problem gambling or subject these differences to thorough multivariate analyses. To address some of the gaps in our knowledge of gender differences, we examine whether patterns of gambling behavior and psychological factors mediate the relationship between gender and problem gambling. Methods We use logistic multiple regression to analyze two large Canadian datasets - the 2005 Ontario Prevalence Survey and the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey. Results Variables found to mediate the relationship between gender and problem gambling are the type(s) of game(s) played (in the 2005 Ontario Prevalence Survey) and the number of games played (in the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey). Conclusions Men are more likely to be problem gamblers than women, and this gender difference is understandable in terms of differences in patterns of gambling behavior. We conclude that men experience problems because they play riskier games and women experience problems because they prefer chance-based games, which are associated with significantly higher odds of problem gambling. We specify the three main ways that womens reasons for gambling - to escape or for empowerment - translate into chance-based games.

The future of happiness

Abstract Following definitions of ‘happiness’ and ‘social development’, crossnational and temporal happiness trends are analysed to reveal whether reported happiness reflects changes in broader social conditions. The authors question whether an effective measurement of happiness can serve as an indicator of social development. In addition, the role of information in contributing to or maximizing happiness is analysed.

Suicide and happiness: Seven tests of the connection

Indirectly, this paper examines the empirical connections between suicide and happiness by looking at the connection of each with seven standard demographic characteristics. They are sex, age, race, parental status, marital status, religiosity and employed status. These seven are chosen because a lot of data are available. We then examine the relationship of these same seven variables to suicide. Our findings indicate that marital status, religiosity and employment status have a (predicted) similar effect on suicide and happiness. Parenthood has an unclear relationship with suicide and happiness. Finally, sex, age and race have dissimilar effects on suicide and happiness. On the basis of this admittedly preliminary analysis, it would be impossible to conclude that happiness and suicide are closely (if inversely) related. First, there is the chance that suicides or happiness levels have been systematically misreported. Second, there may be a problem with our lumping together happiness and satisfaction. Third, there may be a problem with the seven particular independent variables we examined. Had we examined a different seven (or seventy) we might have drawn a different conclusion. In particular, we might have done better with comparative (or cognitive) variables derived from multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), than with demographic ones. In the end, the connection between happiness and suicide is far from certain. More research is needed.

Popular images of the future: Cross-national survey results, 1981 and 1991

Abstract This article explores the general publics preference for certain economic, social and technological developments in the near future. Our data are provided by interviews with national sample surveys of the adult population in the USA, Canada and Mexico which were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. Employing factor analysis, we find that there are two basic sets of alternatives in the future preferences—preferences favouring or opposing materialism and post-materialism. Peoples alternative responses on these two dimensions yield a fourfold typology of future preferences. There are social divisions in support of the alternatives and in support of the four types of futures. The results show that social class, gender, age, educational status and nation of residence affect peoples preferences for the future. This social differentation is predictable from the theories of dominant ideology and post-materialism. However, the social differentiation is not marked in terms of variance explained. Implications of the results for theories about the future are briefly discussed.

Musical chairs: The occupational experience of migrants to Alberta, 1976–80

This research questions whether the economic benefits gained by Canadas interprovincial migrants justify the associated costs, even during an economic boom. A re-analysis of data collected by Statistics Canada as part of the December 1980 Labour Force Survey examines the experiences of recent migrants to Alberta and gives rise to a mixed assessment.On the one hand, migrants who came to Alberta and stayed did enjoy a solid reduction in their pre-migration unemployment, despite higher labour market participation.On the other hand, migrants who came and stayed changed their industry and occupation in large numbers, but most of this was just ‘musical chairs’: exchange mobility, rather than structural mobility. Women were more likely than men to experience structural mobility but they were primarily downgrading rather than upgrading their status. Neither for women nor for men do we find much evidence of upward mobility across the manual-non-manual line. Thus for the most part migrants are entering jobs that may require the learning of new skills but, since they exist within the same status level of pre-migration jobs, deliver no more apparent rewards than the jobs they left. The costs of migration and readjustment are not, according to these data fully justified by the available rewards.The paper ends by recognizing that additional information is needed on the characteristics of pre- and post-migration jobs, before we can judge conclusively that the migration costs outweighed the benefits.

The migrant wife: The worst of all worlds

This study reanalyses data on migrants to Alberta, collected by Statistics Canada in a 1980 Labour Force Survey. The findings indicate that migrant men are gainers and migrant women, particularly migrant wives are the losers from such movement, even during a period of relative economic prosperity in the Province. Womens occupational status tends to improve with time spent in the new labour force. However there is a failure to return to occupational statuses enjoyed before the move. This means, first, that male and female workers are more sex-differentiated after the move than before it; second, that migrant women, especially wives, enjoy fewer occupational returns on their educational investment than migrant men; third, that the balance of economic contribution, and possibly therefore influence, within a migrant household is shifted towards greater male dominance by the move.It is to be emphasized that each of these findings is to be regarded as tentative pending the completion of further analyses on this and three related data sets. In particular the analysis of household level data will be critical in assessing any hypotheses about family power before and after the move.

Informatics and society: Will there be an ‘information revolution’?

The claim that an information revolution is underway is scrutinized in this paper. Particular attention is given to the notions that new information technology will radically increase human choice and rationality in decision-making.The literature on informatics and technology is selectively reviewed in order to determine whether (1) the present use of technology seems to predict an increased choice and rationality in the future; (2) earlier technologies have had this effect; and (3) past social predictions of this type have proven generally correct. We reach a mixed or negative conclusion in every case. Although the possibility of an information revolution cannot be dismissed, neither can it be readily accepted at this point unless we significantly diminish what is normally meant by a ‘revolution’.